Mythology in the Low Countries

The mythology of the modern-day Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg has its roots in the mythologies of pre-Christian (e.g. Gaulish (Gallo-Roman) and Germanic) cultures, predating the region's Christianization under the influence of the Franks in the Early Middle Ages.^[1] At the time of the Roman Empire and in the Early Middle Ages, some of the resident peoples of the Low Countries' included:

• Germanic tribes north of the Rhine River (with a lot of exceptions like the Eburones or the Celtic Nervii,...)^[2]
• Low Franconians
• Frisii (and later, in the same area, the Frisians)
• Tubanti
• Canninefates
• Batavians
• the decidedly more Celtic and Gallo-Roman Belgae tribes of Gallia Belgica south of the Rhine (also mainly but with many exceptions).^[3]

Old Dutch mythology can mean the myths specifically told in Old Dutch language. However, many of the myths in this language are ancient and part of larger movements across Europe, such as Roman mythology that spread through the Roman Empire, and Continental Germanic mythology. Pre-Christian traditions of the veneration of trees (particularly the oak, see Donar's oak), springs and woods native to the Low Countries survived in Christianized guise into the Middle Ages. Sources for the reconstruction of pre-Christian traditions include the accounts of the Anglo-Saxon missionaries to the region, medieval and modern folklore and legend, and local toponymy.