Among the Old Gods of German mythology is Ziu (pr. Ts-ee-ew) the Sky God. He's equated with the Norse Týr, the one-handed god. The Sky God Ziu goes back to primordial times.
Ziu is a powerful Sky Father figure in the ancient myth and history of Germania. His elemental equal is goddess Nerthe (Erde), the Earth.
First written mention of Ziu comes from Old High German c. 8th century AD. Like Frau Holle (Holda, Hulda), Ziu the sky god is considered to originate from a pantheon of Old Gods.
He goes back to the foggy myths of Creation. The Earth takes form as elementals Nerthe (Nerthus, Erde) the Earth Mother and her cosmic peers work the land into shape.
Ziu creates sky and air spirits and later gives fairies, elemental air sprites and other primordial nature spirits the power of flight. Up until the 19th century, fairies fly by magic and don't have wings.
Early nature spirits are born with the elements and evolve with the environment. They have powers of creation, cultivating their world as the earth slowly cools in its bubbling cauldron of lava.
As a sky and weather god Ziu is on a par with Greek Zeus. He's a God of storms, thunder, lightning and natural phenomena. His name comes from the Proto-Germanic Tīwaz meaning simply "God".
Pre-Christian mythology of Germany is unfortunately sparse. The culture, history and lore of the Germans is an oral tradition.
Through stories and epic poems it flows and grows, but solid written sources are few. The people learn thousands of years of history through the telling of stories.
The earliest written sources of Germanic culture and mythology come from works by Roman writers. Germania of 98 CE by Tacitus is used extensively as a reference even though Tacitus himself has never been to Germania.
As part of the nature-centric belief system, the continental Germans do not build temples. Tribes of Germania are nomadic, a discouragement to building places of worship; but a cult center can grow around a sacred site.
People commune with nature in places of nature. Groves are sacred to all cultures and become the closest to a place of worship among the tribes of Germania.
Despite nomadic lifestyles, tribal differences and lack of written records there is no doubt the people have a vital spiritual connection to the environment, as well as to the stories of other times and places.
Until Christianity there's little concept of an afterlife, especially in south continental Germania. However, the people hold strong beliefs in a spirit world and the realm of the Undead.
In some meanings, the sky god is the sky itself. The German word Himmel is the same for both sky and heaven.
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