Chapter 8

From the time they became aquainted with the Roman theogony, the writers identify the German thundergod with Jupiter. Not only is dies Jovis called in AS. Thunresdæg, but Latona Jovis mater is Thunres môdur, and capitolium is translated Thôrshof by the Icelanders. Conversely, Saxo Gram. p. 236 means by his 'Jupiter' the Teutonic Thor, the Jupiter ardens above (p. 110); did that mean Donar? As for that Thôrr devouring his children, it seems [a mere importation, aggravated by]a downright confusion of Jupiter with his father Saturn, just as the Norse genealogy made Thôrr an ancestor of Oðinn. The 'presbyter Jovi mactans,' and the 'sacra' and 'feriae Jovis' (in Indicul. pagan.) have been dealt with above, p. 121.

Letzner (hist. Caroli magni, Hildesh. 1603, cap. 18 end) relates: The Saturday after Laetare, year by year cometh to the little cathedral-close of Hildesheim a farmer therunto specially appointed, and bringeth two logs of a fathom long, and therewith two lesser logs pointed in the manner of skittles. The two greater he planteth in the ground one against the other, and a-top of them the skittles. Soon there come hastily together all manner of lads and youth of the meaner sort, and with stones or staves do pelt the skittles down from the logs; other do set the same up again, and the pelting beginneth a-new. By these skittles are to be understood the devilish gods of the heathen, that were thrown-down by the Saxon-folk when they became christian.

Here the names of the gods are suppressed, (46) but one of them must have been Jupiter then, as we find it was afterwards. (47) Among the farmer's dues at Hildesheim there occurs down to our own times a Jupitergeld. Under this name the village of Grossen-Algermissen had to pay 12 g. grosch. 4 pfen. yearly to the sexton of the cathedral; an Algermissen farmer had every year to bring to the cathedral close an eight-cornered log, a foot thick and four feet long, hidden in a sack. The schoolboys dressed it in a cloak and crown, and attacked the Jupiter as they then called it, by throwing stones first from one side, then from the other, and at last they burned it. This popular festivity was often attended with disorder, and was more than once interdicted, prickets were set to carry the prohibition into effect; at length the royal treasury remitted the Jupiter's geld. Possibly the village of Algermissen had incurred the penalty of the due at the introduction of Christianity, by its attachment to the old religion. (48) Was the pelting of the logs to express contempt? In Switzerland the well-known throwing of stones on the water is called Heiden werfen, heathen-pelting; otherwise: 'den Herrgott lösen, vater und mutter lösen,' releasing, ransoming? Tobler 174 (see Suppl.).

I do not pretend to think it at all established, that this Jupiter can be traced back to the Thunar of the Old Saxons. The custom is only vouched for by protocols of the last century, and clear evidence of it before that time is not forthcoming; but even Letzner's account, differing as it does, suggests a very primitive practice of the people, which is worth noting, even if Jupiter has nothing to do with it. The definite date 'laetare' reminds one of the custom universal in Germany of 'driving out Death,' of which I shall treat hereafter, and in which Death is likewise set up to be pelted. Did the skittle represent the sacred hammer?

An unmistakeable relic of the worship paid to the thunder-god is the special observance of Thursday, which was not extinct among the people till quite recent times. It is spoken of in quite early documents of the Mid. Ages: 'nullus diem Jovis in otio observet,' Aberglaube p. xxx. 'de feriis quae faciunt Jovi vel Mercurio,' p. xxxii. quintam feriam in honorem Jovis honorasti, p. xxxvii. On Thursday evening one must neither spin nor hew; Superst., Swed. 55. 110. and Germ. 517. 703. The Esthonians think Thursday holier than Sunday. (49) What punishment overtook the transgressor, may be gathered from another superstition, which, it is true, substituted the hallowed day of Christ for that of Donar: He that shall work on Trinity Sunday (the next after Pentecost), or shall wear anything sewed or knitted (on that day), shall be stricken by thunder; Scheffer's Haltaus, p. 225 (see Suppl.).

If Jupiter had these honours paid him in the 8th century, if the Capitulare of 743 thought it needful expressly to enjoin an 'ec forsacho Thunare,' and much that related to his service remained uneradicated a long time after; it cannot well be doubted, that at a still earlier time he was held by our forefathers to be a real god and one of their greatest.

If we compare him with Wuotan, though the latter is more intellectual and elevated, Donar has the advantage of a sturdy material strength, which was the very thing to recommend him to the peculiar veneration of certain races; prayers, oaths, curses retained his memory oftener and longer than that of any other god. But only a part of the Greek Zeus is included in him.  
 



ENDNOTES:

46. In the Corbei chron., Hamb. 1590, cap. 18, Letzner thinks it was the god of the Irmensûl. He refers to MS. accounts by Con. Fontanus, a Helmershaus Benedictine of the 13th century.  (back)

47. A Hildesheim register drawn up at the end of the 14th century or beginn. of the 15th cent. says: 'De abgotter (idols), so sunnabends vor laetare (Letzn. 'sonnab. nach laet.') von einem hausmann von Algermissen gesetzet, davor (for which) ihm eine hofe (hufe, hide) landes gehört zur sankmeisterie (chantry?), und wie solches von dem hausmann nicht gesetzt worden, gehort Cantori de hove landes.' Hannoversche landesblätter 1833, p. 30.  (back)

48. Lüntzel on farmer's burdens in Hildesheim 1830, p. 205. Hannov. mag. 1833, p. 693. Protocols of 1742-3 in an article 'On the Stoning of Jupiter,' Hannov. landesbl., ubi supra.  (back)

49. Etwas über die Ehsten, pp. 13-4.  (back)