Chapter 9

      The names of plants also confess the god: ON. Týsfiola, I daresay after the Lat. viola Martis, march-violet; Týrhialm (aconitum), otherwise Thorhialm, Thorhat (helmet, hat), conf. Germ. sturmhut, eisenhut, Dan. troldhat, a herb endowed with magic power, whose helmet-like shape might suggest either of those warlike gods Týr and Thôrr; Týviðr, Tý's wood, Dan. Tyved, Tysved (daphne mezereum), in the Helsing. dial. tis, tistbast, the mezereon, a beautiful poison- flower (see Suppl.). 
      While these names of places and plants sufficiently vouch for the wide-spread worship of the god, we must lay particular stress on one thing, that the name for the third day of the week, which is what we started with, bears living witness to him at this moment, not only in Scandinavia and England (ON. Tysdagr [[Tys-Day, i.e. Tuesday]], Swed. Tisdag, Dan. Tirsdag, AS. Tiwesdæg), but among the common people in Swabia and Switzerland (Ziestag, Tiestag, diestik, beside our universal Dienstag); Schm. 4, 214 brings all the forms together. And there is yet one more testimony to the high antiquity of Zio-worship in Swabia, which we may gather from an old Wessobrunn gloss 'Cyuvari = Suâpa,' MB. 7, 375 and Diut. 2, 370; which I take to be not Teutonoari, as Zeuss does, pp. 146-9, but Ziowari Martem colentes, warian expressing, like Lat. colere, both habitare and qerapeÚein, so that the Suevi are qer£pontej "Arhoj.
      But that is not all: further and weighty disclosures on the name and nature of the war-god await us at the hands of the Runic alphabet. 
      It is known that each separate rune has a name to itself, and these names vary more or less according to the nations that use them, but they are mostly very ancient words. The OHG. runes having to bestow the name dorn on D, and tac on T, require for their aspirate Z which closes the alphabet the name of Zio. In the ON. and AS. alphabets, dag stood for D, Týr and Tiw for T, þorn for þ, being the same three words, only in different places; occasionally the Anglo-Saxons wrote Tir or Tis. Whenever a list of runes keeps thorn for Th, and dag for D, it is sure to have Ti for T (as the Cod. Isidori paris. and bruxell.); so it is in the St Gall cod. 260 and the Brussels 9565, except that dorn is improperly put for thorn, and tag for dag, but Ti stands correctly opposite T. The Paris cod. 5239 has dhron (dhorn), tac, Ziu, that of Salzburg dhorn, Ti, daeg: everywhere the form Ziu shows the High Germ. acceptation, and the form Ti (once, in Cod. Vatic. Christinae 338, spelt Tu, perh. Tii) the Low Germ., the Saxon. The u in Ziu seems to be more archaic than the o of Zio, which has kept pace with the regular progress of the OHG. dialect, and follows the analogy of dio, servus; this relation between u and o may perhaps be seen still more in its true light, as we go on. But what is very remarkable, is that in the Vienna cod. 140 the name Tyz is given to T in an alphabet which uses the Gothic letters, for Tyz comes very near to our conjectural Goth. Tius. As well the retention as the unavoidable alterations of this divine name in the runes of the various races, may be taken as proofs of the antiquity and extent of Zio-worship. 
      How comes it that no rune has taken its name from Wuotan or Oðinn, the inventor of writing itself? 'R = reið, râd,' i.e., waggon, may indirectly at least be referred to the god of the Thunder- car; and F according to one interpretation signifies Freyr. Anyhow, 'T = Tyr' appears to have been a supremely honoured symbol, and the name of this god to have been specially sacred: in scratching the runes of victory on the sword, the name of Týr had to be twice inserted, Sæm. 194. The shape of the runet has an obvious resemblence to the old-established symbol of the planet Mars when set upright , and an AS. poem on the runes expressly says: tîr bið tâcna sum (tîr is one of the tokens, is a certain sign); where again the derivative form tîr is employed to explain the simple Tiw or Tî. Occasionally the poets speak of 'tîre tâcnian,' to mark with tîr (El. 753. Jud. 137, 18), and 'tîres to tâcne,' as mark of tîr (Beow. 3306); we may expound it as 'gloria, decore insignire, in gloriae signum,' and still think of the heathen symbol of the god, pretty much as we saw it done at the solemn blessing of the ale-cups (see Suppl.). (13)
      Thus far we have dealt with the runic name Týr, Tiw, Zio, and no other. But here the same alphabets come out with a sharp connection between two names of the selfsame god. First, in the AS. lists, in adition to t Tir, we come upon a similar arrow with two barbs added q and the name Ear attached to it.(14) Then the OHG. alphabets, after using t for tac, find a use for that very symbol q the two names Tir and Ear, though Tir had already been given to t. It is evident then, that Tir and Ear---Zio and Eo, Eor---were two names for one god, and both must have been current among the several races, both Low German and High. 
      Evidence as regards Low Germany is found both in the rune Ear occuring in Anglo-Saxon, and in the remarkable name of Eresburg, Aeresburg being given to a notable seat of pagan worship in a district of Westphalia, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Irmansûl (v. supra, p. 116). That it was strictly Eresberg (as Siegburg was originally Sigberg, p. 198), follows both from the Latin rendering mons Martis, and from its later name Mersberg, (15)whose initial M could be explained by the contraction of the words 'in dem Eresberge, Aresberge,' (16) or it may be an imitation of the Latin name. There was a downright Marsberg in another district of Westphalia. (17) This Eresberc then is a Ziesberc, a Sig-tiwes-berg, and yet more closely an Areopagus, Mars' hill, AreiÒpagoj, pštra p£goj t' "Areioj(Aeschyl. Eum. 690). 
 
 
 

ENDNOTES:

13. Conf. note to Elene 155-6.  (back)

14. In one poem, Cod. exon. 481, 18, the rune contains simply the vowel sound ea.  (back)

15. This Eresburg or Mersberg stands in the pagus Hessi saxonicus (registr. Sarachonis p. 42, 735); conf. Wigands archiv I. 1, 36-7. II. 143. 268. (back)

16. So: Motgers = in dem Otgêrs hove [and, the nonce = then once, &c.]. (back)

17. In the pagus Marstem, Marshem, Marsem (close to the Weser, near Marklô), reg Sarachonis 42, 727.  (back)