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Which regions were home to Germanic-speaking peoples before their conversion to Christianity?

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Germanic religion and mythology Battle scenes and ships depicted on a memorial stone from Gotland, Sweden, late 8th century. In the third panel from the top, a warrior is being hanged in a tree as a sacrifice to Odin, whose cult is represented by an eagle and a twisted knot.

Before their conversion to Christianity, Germanic-speaking peoples inhabited a vast region of Europe, with their origins traced to southern Sweden, the Danish peninsula, and northern Germany.1

During the Bronze and early Iron Ages, these peoples occupied territories between the Ems River in the west, the Oder River in the east, and the Harz Mountains in the south. By the time of the Roman historian Tacitus in the 1st century CE, Germanic tribes were distributed across a wide area:1

Central and Northern Europe: Germanic cultures extended from Scandinavia as far south as the Carpathian Mountains. They occupied lands stretching from the Rhine River to the Vistula River.23
Regional Tribal Settlements: Specific groups were located throughout modern-day Germany and surrounding areas, including the Chatti in Hesse, the Frisii along the coast between the Rhine and Ems, and the Suebi in regions such as Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.1
Expansion: Over time, Germanic groups expanded southward into southern Germany—a region previously dominated by Celtic peoples—and eastward toward the Black Sea and the Danube frontier.2431

By the early Middle Ages, migrations pushed many of these peoples into Roman territories, eventually leading to the establishment of Germanic kingdoms across Western Europe.54