Sun worship is a prehistoric nature religion. An organized cult and mythology appear in Egypt c. 1400 BCE. Worship of the Sun as a deified elemental goes back to the dawn of humanity. The Sun Goddess is both a divine entity and the Sun herself.
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At dawn the Sun goddess rises in golden splendor to ride across the sky. She brings hope in the darkness, and awakens seeds of spring with her nurturing light. Sometimes the Sun forms a divine triad with the Dawn and the Morning Star.
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Accounts of a south German Sun goddess and other deities are sparse. Written records appear after Christianity and Romanization, most famously Germania by Roman Tacitus in the first century CE.
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Tacitus never sets foot in German lands but gets his information from travelers, Germanic allies and captives. Germanic lore is an oral tradition. No written language appears until the Norse runic alphabet c. 150 CE.
Like other regions Germania develops a strong Sun culture even before the prehistoric development of settlements, agriculture and animal husbandry. Hunters and nomadic tribes depend on the cycles of the Sun. She's a deity of fertility, nurturing and growth.
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From early times the solar calendar is based on solstice and equinox occurrences. Crop sowing, animal migrations, seasonal changes all revolve around the agenda of the Sun. Offerings are given and prayers spoken to invoke her benevolence.
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Solar reverence in Germania happens hundreds of years before the Germanic Norse coalesce in Scandinavia. The Nordic people rise to power in the 5 - 8th century CE to build a complex mythology within their own set of beliefs, including sun goddess Sol.
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Like many cultures the name of the deity is the same as the element represented. The Germanic Earth Mother, Erde, has the same name as the physical substance, though her name can appear in different forms (Erda, Erthe, Nerthe).
The solar Goddess is an embodiment of the Sun, or the Sun itself. Die Sonne means simply "the sun" in German. Her pronoun die (pr. dee) is feminine. In the German word Sonne the 'e' is softly pronounced. Toward the north she may be called Sunna.
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In German, solar spirits are Sonnengeister (sun spirits). A solar flare is a Sonneneruption.
Sol as in solar comes into the German language in more modern times with terms like Solarenergie (solar energy).
First reference to Sol in history appears in the early years of Rome c. 8th century BCE. People of Germania adopt Roman Vulcan as Vulkan, god of fire, smiths and volcanic activity.
Other Roman influence includes the River God Rhenus or Father Rhine, whose name comes from the Latinized Celtic Renos. The Celts inhabit parts of Germania in the Iron Age (c. 1200 - 550 BCE).
Roman solar deities have little significance to the people of ancient Germania. The German "hell" meaning bright may be associated with Greek Helios.
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Sonne continues her daily journey across the sky today as she has for thousands of years. She embodies the nurturing qualities attributed to the female and the fierce light of the warrior.
The Sun is the Goddess; she is Sonne, whose name means Sun, a creator spirit, the benevolent patron of growth, healing and life. Her day is Sonntag, or Sunday.
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