Hey GLE! in response to my Heimdal-Iring question you mentioned worship of staves and stave enclosures and pole worship and linked it to Heimdall as an embodiment of the world tree. But in my German texts this is usually seen to refer to carved wooden idols of deities that are like pillars, which were found in bogs. They are called “Pfahlidol”, and in general people here assume that this is what Ibn Fadlan meant. Idk that’s just my information :)
Yes, these usually get shorthanded as “godpoles” when discussed in the community, and some Deities’ faces were carved into poles for offering and worship, aside from the idea that some “plain” poles might have represented the World Tree. :) There’s also some speculation that the carved high seat pillars (Öndvegissúlur) might be related to this concept.
If you can find some notes about what the German texts have to say about Pfahlidol, I would be very interested in seeing them! I wasn’t aware that we had some bog finds relating to this.
