Proto-Indo-European mythology realm of Midgard. Other dragon-slaying myths are also found in the Germanic tradition. In the "Völsunga saga", Sigurd slays the dragon Fafnir and, in "Beowulf", the eponymous hero slays a different dragon. Reflexes of the Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth are found throughout other branches of the language family as well. In Zoroastrianism and Persian mythology, Fereydun, and later Garshasp, slays Zahhak. In Slavic mythology, Perun, the god of storms, slays Veles and Dobrynya Nikitich slays the three-headed dragon Zmey. In Armenian mythology, the god Vahagn slays the dragon Vishap. In Romanian folklore, Făt-Frumos slays the fire-spitting monster Zmeu. In Celtic mythology,
Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology groves are widely attested among the records of the ancient Germanic peoples. Some scholars hypothesize that they even predated the development of temples (according to Rudolf Simek, "there were sacred woods long before there were temples and altars"). In his "Germania", Tacitus says that the Germanic peoples "consecrate woods and groves and they apply the name of gods to that mysterious presence which they see only with the eye of devotion", Tacitus describes the grove of the Semnones and refers to a "castum nemus" (chaste grove) in which the image of the goddess Nerthus was hallowed, and other reports from