An intense belief in Christianity is almost synonymous, for many people, with Europe in the Middle Ages. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the people launched crusades and built cathedrals. But in the Middle Ages, Christianity had only been present in Europe for a few centuries. Before that, paganism dominated the continent. Because of the way Christianity spread, particularly in Northern Europe, Europe's intense belief in Christianity was propped up and informed by the local legends of paganism. At the time, Christians in Europe saw any religion that was not Christianity, Islam, or Judaism as a pagan religion.
Although paganism, by definition, encompasses many different religions, most of the religions that existed in pre-Christian Europe had a few common attributes. These religions were incredibly local, often polytheistic, did not focus on individual choice or power, and were heavily tied to nature. The most well-known of the old pagan religions in Europe were the Greek and Roman religions, which had all of these attributes. The Greeks and Romans worshipped many gods with human characteristics. They believed there were godly wills and stories tied to natural phenomena, like seasons, as well as to natural elements like the springs, rocks, and hills.

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