First published in Germany in 1835, the work is an exhaustive treatment of the subject, tracing the mythology and beliefs of the ancient Germanic peoples from their earliest attestations to their survivals in modern traditions, folktales and popular expressions.
The articles and chapters are discursive of philological, historical, folkloristic, and poetic aspects of the pre-Christian Germanic religions.
In many instances, Grimm cites the North and West Germanic variants of a religious entity; thus the entry on Thor is titled 'Donar, Thunar (Thôrr)'.
[2] Grimm was not given to explicit discussions of method, but his study implies a set of 'buried theses' which were important to the development of scholarship on mythology: that the study of words as well as stories can reveal past belief-systems, and that 'just as Primitive Germanic word-forms could be "reconstructed" on a comparative basis, so could Primitive Germanic concepts, and the mythology in which they were embedded'.
It would accordingly have an organized pantheon of gods not dissimilar to the classical pantheon, with a clear sense of hierarchy [...] It would contain an element of philosophical profundity, centering on the concept of 'Fate' [...] There would be a healthy element of diversity in it, as shown by the eventually resolved rivalry of Æsir and Vanir pantheons [...] and not too much sign of an organised priestly class — for Grimm was a Protestant [...] [G]ods and goddesses would also be respectably paired off and the latter would have strong connections with the household virtues [...] A strong element of nature-worship, especially of trees and groves, was also a desideratum.