of gods or giants should be understood. Groups of three gods are mentioned in a number of sources, including Adam of Bremen, the Nordendorf Fibula, the Old Saxon Baptismal Formula, Gylfaginning, and Þorsteins þáttr uxafóts. The number nine can be understand as three threes. Its importance is attested in both mythology and worship. Supernatural and divine beings Gods The Germanic gods were a category of supernatural beings who interacted with humans, as well as with other supernatural beings such as giants (jötnar), elves, and dwarfs. The distinction between gods and other supernaturally powerful beings might not always be clear. Unlike the Christian god, the Germanic gods were born, can die, and are unable to change the fate of the world. The gods had mostly human features, with human forms, male or female gender, and familial relationships, and lived in a society organized like human society; however, their sight, hearing, and strength were superhuman, and they possessed a superhuman ability to influence the world. Within the religion, they functioned as helpers of humans, granting ("good luck, good fortune") for correct religious observance. The adjectival form (English holy) is attested in all Germanic languages, including Gothic on the Ring of Pietroassa. Based on Old Norse evidence, Germanic paganism probably had a variety of words to refer to gods. Words descended from Proto-Germanic *ansuz, the origin of the Old Norse family of gods known as the Aesir (singular Áss), are attested as a name for divine beings from around the Germanic world. The earliest attestations are the name of a war goddess ("battle goddess") that appears on a Roman inscription from Tongeren and a Runic belt-buckle found at Vimose, Denmark from around 200 CE. The historian Jordanes mentions the Latinized form in the Getica, while the Old English rune poem attests the Old English form , and personal names also exist using the word from the area where Old High German was spoken. The Indo-European word for god, *deiuos, is only found in Old Norse, where it occurs as ; it mostly appears in the plural () or in compound bynames. In Norse mythology, the Aesir is one of two families of gods, the other being the Vanir: the most important gods of Norse mythology belong to the Aesir and the term can also be used for the gods in general. The Vanir appear to have been mostly fertility gods. There is no