Of religious ceremonies the most important was sacrifice. The victims were of various kinds. Those offered to Odin (Woden) were generally, if not always, men, from the time of Tacitus onwards. Human sacrifices to Thor and the other gods are not often mentioned. The animals consumed at the sacrificial banquets were chiefly horses, but included oxen and boars. At human sacrifices, however, dogs and hawks were often offered with the men. At all sacrifices it seems to have been customary to practise divination; in connection with human sacrifice we have record of this rite from the time of the Cimbri. One custom which was regarded as a sacrifice was the dedication of an enemy's army to the gods, especially Odin. This custom, which prevailed from the earliest times, involved the total destruction of the de feated army, together with everything belonging to them. In general the chief sacrificial festivals seem to have taken place at fixed times in the year, one in early or mid-autumn, another at mid-winter and a third during the spring. Sacrifices on an ex ceptionally large scale were held at Uppsala and Leire every nine years, at the former place about the time of the spring equinox, at the latter in the early part of January.
Beside the belief that the dead retained a conscious existence in or near the place where they were buried, and that they were able to confer blessings upon their friends, we find that the souls of the dead passed to the realm of Hel, who in Northern my thology is represented as the daughter of Loki. Again, those who had fallen in battle were supposed to go to Valhalla, where they became warriors in Odin's service. This last belief seems to have been connected at one time with the practice of cremation. In conclusion it must be mentioned that even the life of the gods was not to be for ever. A day was to come when Odin and Thor would fall in conflict with the wolf and the world-serpent, when the abode of the gods would be destroyed by fire and the earth sink into the sea. But the destruction was not to be final; in the future the gods of a younger generation would govern a better world. How far these beliefs were common to the Teutonic peoples as a whole cannot be determined with certainty. Some think them peculiar to the mythology of Norway and Iceland, and largely due to Christian influence. But very similar ideas in some respects were current among the ancient Gauls.