Chapter 9

A derivative from the same root with another suffix seems to present itself in the ON. tîvor [[tívar - gods; tívorr - god (poetic)]] (deus?),(7) Sæm. 6

AS. tîr, gen. tîres (tiir, Cod. exon. 331, 18 gloria, splendor), and OS. tîr, gen. tîras, tîreas; with which I connect the OHG. ziori, ziari, zieri (splendidus), and the Lat. decus, decor, decorus. The AS. poets use the word tîr only to intensify other words: tîrmetod (deus gloriae, summus deus), Cædm. 143, 7; æsctîr wera (hasta gloriosa virorum), 124, 27; æsca tîr, 127, 10; tîrwine, Boëth. metr. 25, 41; tîrfruma, Cod. exon. 13, 21; tîrmeahtig (potentissimus), 72, 1; tîreádig (felicissimus), Cædm. 189, 13. 192, 16; tîrfæst (firmissimus), 64, 2. 189, 19; much in the same way as the AS. cormen, OHG. irman is prefixed. Now when a similar prefix tý meets us in the ON. writings, e.g. týhraustr [[Týr-valour]] (fortissimus), týspâkr [[Týr-wise]] (sapientissimus), Sn. 29, it confirms the affinity between tîr and Tý-r.

These intricate etymologies were not to be avoided: they entitle us to claim a sphere for the Teutonic god Zio, Tiw, Týr, which places him on a level with the loftiest deities of antiquity. Represented in the Edda as Oðin's son, he may seem inferior to him in power and moment; but the two really fall into one, inasmuch as both are directors of war and battle, and the fame of victory proceeds from each of them alike. For the olden time resolved all glory into military glory, and not content with Wuotan and Zio, it felt the need of a third war-god Hadu; the finer distinctions in their cultus are hidden from us now.---It is not to be overlooked, that Oðinn is often named Sigtýr, Hrôptatýr, Gautatýr, Hâgatýr, farmatýr (Sæm. 30. 47. 248ª. Sn. 94-6), bödvartýr, quasi pugnae deus, geirtýr (Fornm. sög. 9, 515-8); and that even Thôrr, to whom Jupiter's lightning has been handed over, appears as Reiðartýr, Reiditýr (Sn. 94), i.e. god of the waggon. (8) In all these poetical terms, we see that týr bears that more general sense which makes it suitable for all divinities, especially the higher ones. Týr has a perfect right to a name identical with Zeus. Add moreover, that the epithet of father was in a special degree accorded, not only to Jupiter, Diespiter, but to victory's patron Marspiter. (9)

Further, this lofty position is claimed for Zio by the oldest accounts that have reached us. Mars is singled out as a chief god of all the Germanic nations, and mentioned side by side with Mercury. The evidence is collected on p. 44. (10) Tacitus, in Hist. 4, 64, makes the Tencteri say right out: Communibus deis, et praecipuo deorum Marti grates agimus; we have no occasion to apply the passage to Wuotan, to whom the highest place usually belongs, as particular races may have assigned that to Zio. The still clearer testimony of Procopius 12, 15 to the worship of Ares among the dwellers of the North, (11) which says expressly: ™peˆ qeÕn aÙtÕn nom…zousi mšgiston e nai, ought to be compared with the statements of Jornandes on the Gothic Mars; in both places human sacrifices are the subject, and therefore Zeuss, p. 22, is for understanding it of Wuotan again, because to him Tacitus says that men were sacrificed; but he does not say to him alone, ---on the contrary, anent the Hermundurian offering, Ann. 13, 57, where 'viri' were also slain, Mars stands mentioned before Mercury. And Jornandes, who identifies the 'Gradivus pater' of the Getae in Virg. Aen. 3, 35 with the Mars of the Goths, must have been thinking of the special god of war, not of a higher and more general one, intimately as they interpenetrate one another in name and nature. All in favour of this view are the Scythian and Alanic legends of the war-sword, which will be examined by and by: if the Getic, Scythian and Gothic traditions meet anywhere, it is on this of Mars-worship. Neither can we disregard Widukind's representation at a later time (Pertz 5, 423) of the Saxon Mars set up on high. Donar and Wuotan, with whom at other times he is combined in a signficant trilogy, appear, like Jupiter and Mercury, to retire before him. But it is quite conceivable how the glossist quoted on p. 133 could render Wuotan by Mars, and Widukind glide easily from Mars to Hermes, i.e., Wodan, particularly if he had in his mind the analogy of those prefixes irman- (of which he is speaking) and tîr-. The ON. writers, while they recognise Oðin's influence on war and victory, speak no less distinctly of Týr, who is emphatically their Vîgaguð (deus proeliorum), Sn. 105, and again: hann er diarfastr ok best hugaðr, ok hann ræðr miöc sigri î orostom, Sn. 29 (see Suppl.).

No doubt there were there were mountains hallowed to Zio, as well as to Wuotan and Donar; the only difficulty is, to know which god, Wuotan or Zio, was meant by a particular name. May we place to his credit the name of the abbey of Siegburg in the Lower Rhine, which was founded in 1064 on a mountain where the ancient assize of the people was held? From that time the mountain was to have been called Mons sancti Michaelis after the christian conqueror, but the heathen Sigeberg could not be dislodged, it was only distorted into Siegburg; (12) or are we to explain the name by the river Sieg, which flows through the district? The ON. Sigtýsberg [[Victory-Tyrs Mountain/Stronghold]] (OS. Sigu-tiwis-berag?), Sæm. 348ª might belong to Oðinn or to Týr. The Weimar map has in section 38 a Tisdorf, and in section 48 a Ziesberg, both in Lower Saxon districts on the Elbe. A place in Zealand, about which there are folk-tales, is Tybierg (Thiele 2, 20); also in Zealand are Tisvelde (Ti's well), Tysting; in Jutland, Tystathe, Tiislunde. In Sweden: Tistad, Tisby, Tisjö, Tyved. Zierberg in Bavaria (Cirberg, Zirberc, MB. 11, 71-3-5-6) and Zierenberg in Lower Hesse may be derived from the collateral form (see Suppl.). The mons Martis at Paris (Montmartre), of which even Abbo de bell. Par. 2, 196 makes mention, has to do with the Gallic Mars, whom some take to be Belus, others Hesus. With far better right than the Parisian mons Martis (yet conf. Waitz's Salic law, p. 52), we may assign to Zio the fanum Martis, now Famars in Hainault (p. 84), according to Herm. Müller the Old Frankish 'Disbargum (or Disbargus) in termino Toringorum' of Greg. tur. 2, 9, Chlodio's castellum. Dis- would be a Latinized form of Tis = Tives, perhaps recalling Dispiter, Diespiter; there is no Gallic word like it looking towards Mars, and the district is thoroughly Frankish, with Liphtinae close by, where we have Saxnôt named by the side of Thunar and Wôdan. As for Eresberg and Mersberg (3 or 4 pp. on), I have compared the oldest documents in Seibertz: no. 11 (anno 962) gives us Eresburg; no. 51 (1150) mons Eresberg; no. 70 (1176) mons Eresberch; no. 85 (1184) Heresburg; no. 115 (1201) mons Martis; no. 153 (1219) Mersberch; no. 167 (1222) Eresberch; no. 179 (1228) mons Martis; no. 186 (1229) mons Heresberg; no. 189 (1230) mons Martis and Mersberg. Mons Martis was the learned name, Mersberg the popular, and Eresberg the oldest. As mons and castellum are used by turns, berg and burg are equally right. Widukind 2, 11 and Dietmar 2, 1 spell Heresburg and Eresburch, when they describe the taking of the place in 938. According to the Ann. Corb. (Pertz 5, 8), they are sacred to both Ares and Hermes (Mars and Mercury).  
 



ENDNOTES:

7. Or must we read it tivor, and connect it with the AS. tifer, tiber, OHG. zepar?  (back)

8. I do not reckon Angatýr among this set of words. It occurs frequently, both in the Hervararsaga and in Sæm. 114ª 119 9ª; this last passage calls Oðinn 'Friggjar ângantýr'. The true form is doubtless Anganþýr, as appears from the OHG. Angandeo (Trad. fuld. 1, 57), and the AS. Ongenþeow, Ongenþio (Beow. 4770. 4945-67. 5843-97. 5917-67); - týr would have been in AS. -teow, in OHG. -zio. Graff gives an Angandeo 1, 132. 5,87, which seems to be a misspelling, though the Trad. wizenb. no. 20 have a woman's name Agathiu (for Anganthiu), to which add the acc. Agathien, Agacien (Walthar. 629). The meaning of angan, ongen, is doubtful; 'ângan illrar brûdhar' is said to be 'deliciae malae mulieris,' but Biörn interprets it pedisequa, and Oðinn might fitly be called Friggae pedisequus. That some proper names in the Edda are corrupt, is plain from Hamdir, which ought everywhere to be Hamþýr, OHG. Hamadio, Hamideo (Schannat no. 576.Cod. lauresh. 2529), MHG. Hamdie (MsH 3, 213). This much I am sure of, that neither Anganþýr nor Hamþýr can contain a týr, which is almost always compounded with genitives in a figurative sense.  (back)

9. Gellius 5, 12.  (back)

10. A passage in Florus 2, 4: 'mox Ariovisto duce vovere de nostrorum militum praeda Marti suo torquem: intercepit Jupiter votum, nam de torquibus eorum aureum tropaem Jovi Flaminius erexit, speaks of the Insubrian Gauls, who were beaten in the consulship of Flaminius B.C. 225. But these Galli are both in other respects very like Germani, and the name of their leader is that of the Suevic (Swabian) king in Caesar.  (back)

11. Qoul‹tai (men of Thule) is their generic name, but he expressly includes among them the GÒtqoi, whom he rightly regards as a different people from the GÒtqoi, conf. Gött. anz. 1828, p. 553.  (back)

12. Docum. in Lacomblet, no. 203-4.  (back)