This overview aims to provide insight into the methodology, possibilities and difficulties associated with the linguistic reconstruction of lost words for cultic leaders within the Germanic, pre-Christian religion of the Nordic countries. In addition, it serves the double purpose of illuminating some of the pitfalls in trying to reconstruct these words, and providing some additional background into reasons behind differing views on the subject of cultic leaders in the pre-Christian North between the disciplines of historical linguistics and history of religion. Examples are mainly gathered from personal names for which an origin as common nouns designating cultic leaders has been suggested. One of the difficulties discussed is separating semantically meaningless dithematical names of the type Víghjalmr, where parts of the compound are chosen through variation without regard for semantics, and names originating in meaningful compounds. The focus concerning reconstructed words formed through derivation is placed on the sometimes difficult task of ascertaining onto which word root the formation has been made. Overall, the importance of finding different kinds of parallels in support of a reconstruction is stressed. Lastly, other types of contextual criteria for evaluating reconstructions are discussed and the overview ends with an argument for continuing the interdisciplinary efforts within the research field.