Chapter 9

Herodotus 4, 62 informs us, that the Scythians worshipped Ares under the semblance or symbol of an ancient iron sword (akin£khj), which was elevated on an enormous stack of brushwood ['three furlongs in length and breadth, but less in height']: ™pˆ toÚtonnn d¾ toà Ôgkou ¢kin£khj sidhpeoj †drutai ¢rca‹oj ˜k£stoisi: kaˆ toàt' œsti toà "Arhoj tÕ ¥galma. Ammianus Marcellinus 31, 2 says of the Alani: Nec templum apud eos visitur aut delubrum, ne tugurium quidem culmo tectum cerni usquam potest, sed gladius barbarico ritu humi figitur nudus, eumque ut Martem, regionum quas circumcircant praesulem, verecundius colunt. And he had previously asserted of the Quadi also, a decidedly German people, 17, 12 (AD 358): Eductis mucronibus, quos pro numinibus colunt, juravere se permansuros in fide. Perhaps all the Teutonic nations swore by thier weapons, with a touching of the weapon, (24) just as the Scythians and Romans did per Martis frameam, Juvenal 13, 79. So Arnobius 6, 11: Ridetis temporibus priscis coluisse acinacem Scythiae nationes, .......pro Marte Romanos hastam, ut Varronis indicant Musae; this framea and hasta of the Romans is altogether like the Scythian sword. (25) Jornandes, following Priscus 201, 17, tells of the Scythian sword, how it came into the hands of Attila, cap. 35: Qui (Attila), quamvis hujus esset naturae ut semper confideret, addebat ei tamen confidentiam gladius Martis inventus, apud Scytharum reges semper habitus. Quem Priscus historicus tali refert occasione detectum, quum pastor, inquiens, quidam gregis unam buculam conspiceret claudicantem (noticed one heifer walking lame), nec causam tanti vulneris inveniret, sollicitus vestigia cruoris insequitur, tandemque venit ad gladium, quem depascens herbas bucula incaute calcaverat, effossumque protinus ad Attilam defert. Quo ille munere gratulatus, ut erat magnanimus, arbitratur se totius mundi principem constitutum, et per Martis gladium potestatem sibi concessam esse bellorum.----But the sword degenerated into an unlucky one, like some far-famed northern swords. Lambert relates, that a queen, Solomon of Hungary's mother, made a present of it to Otto, duke of Bavaria, that from this Otto's hands it came by way of loan to the younger Dedi, margrave Dedi's son, then to Henry IV., and lastly to Lupold of Mersburg, who, being thrown by his horse, and by the same sword transpierced, was buried at Mertenefeld. It is a question whether these local names Mersburg and Mertenefeld can have any reference to the sword of Mars. A great while after, the duke of Alba is said to have dug it out of the earth again after the battle of Mühlberg (Deutsche heldensage p. 311). We see through what lengthened periods popular tradition could go on nourishing itself on this world-old worship (see Suppl.).

With the word "Arhj the Lat. Mars appears to have nothing to do, being a contraction of Mavors, and the indispensable initial being even reduplicated in Mamers; so the fancied connexion between Eresburg and Marsberg will not hold.

In the Old Roman worship of Mars a prominent place is given to the legend of Picus, a son of Saturn, a wood-spirit who helped to nurse the babes Remus and Romulus; certain features in our antiquities seem to recall him, as will be shown later. Romulus consecrated the third month of the year to Mars, his progenitor; our ancestors also named it after a deity who may perhaps be identified with Mars. That is to say, the Anglo-Saxons called March Hrêðemônað, which Beda without hesitation traces to a goddess Hrêðe; possibly other races might explain it by a god Hrêða? These names would come from hrôð gloria, fama, ON. hrôðr [[praise]], OHG. hruod, OFrank. chrôd, which helped to form many ancient words, e.g. OHG. Hruodgang, Hruodhilt, OFrank. Chrôdogang, Chrôdhild; did Hruodo, Chrôdo express to certain races the shining god of fame? (26) The Edda knows of no such epithet for Týr as Hrôðr or Hrœði (see Suppl.).

To these discoveries or conjectures we have been guided simply by the several surviving names of one of the greatest gods of our olden time, to whose attributes and surroundings we may have scarcely any other clue left. But now we may fairly apply to him in the main, what the poetry of other nations supplies. Zio is sure to have been valiant and fond of war, like Aries, lavish of glory, but stern and bloodthirsty (a†matoj asai "Arha, Il. 5, 289. 20, 78. 22, 267); he raves and rages like Zeus and Wuotan, he is that 'old blood-shedder' of the Servian song, he gladdens the hearts of ravens and wolves, who follow him to fields of battle, although these creatures again must be assigned more to Wuotan (p. 147); the Greek phrase makes them o„wno… and kÚnes (birds and dogs), and the fields of the slain, where the hounds hold revel, are called kunîn mšlphqra, Il. 13, 233. 17, 255. 18, 179. Battle-songs were also sure to be tuned to the praises of Zio, and perhaps war-dances executed (mšlpesqai "Arh , Il. 7, 241), from which I derive the persistent and widely prevalent custom of the solemn sword-dance, exactly the thing for the god of the sword. The Edda nowhere lays particular stress on the sword of war, it knows nothing of Sahsnôt, indeed its sverðâs is another god, Heimðallr; (27) but it sets Týr before us as one-handed, because the wolf, within whose jaws he laid his right hand as a pledge, bit it off at the joint, whence the wrist was called ûlfliðr, wolf-lith, Sæm. 65ª. Sn. 35-6. This incident must have been well-known and characteristic of him, for the ON. exposition of the runes likewise says, under letter T: Týr er einhendr Asa; conf. Sn. 105. The rest of Teutonic legend has no trace of it, (28) unless we are to look for it in Walther's onehandedness, and find in his name the mighty 'wielder of hosts'. I prefer to adopt the happy explanation, (29) that the reason why Týr appears one-handed is, because hecan only give victory to one part of the combatants, as Hadu, another god who dispenses the fortune of war, and Plutos and Fortuna among the Greeks and Romans, are painted blind, because they deal out thier gifts at random (see Suppl.). Now, as victory was esteemed the highest of all fortune, the god of victory shares to the full the prominent characteristics of luck in general, partiality and fickleness. And a remoter period of our nation may have used names which bore upon this. (30)  



ENDNOTES:

24. Conf. RA. 896; and so late as Wigal. 6517: 'Swert, ûf dînem knopfe ich des swer,' Sword, on thy pommel I swear it.  (back)

25. Juro per Dianam et Martem, Plaut. Mil. glor. 5, 21.  (back)

26. In this connexion one might try to rescue the supicious and discredited legend of a Saxon divinity Krodo; there is authority for it in the 15th century, none whatever in the earlier Mid. Ages. Bothe's Sassenchronik (Leibn. 3, 286) relates under the year 780, that King Charles, during his conquest of the East Saxons, overthrew on the Hartesburg an idol similar to Saturn, which the people called Krodo. If such an event had really happened, it would most likely have been mentioned by the annalists, like the overthrow of the Irmansûl. For all that, the tradition need not be groundless, if other things would only correspond. Unfortunately the form Crôdo for Chrôdo, Hrôdo, Rôdo [like Catti, afterw. Chatti, Hatti, Hessen] is rather too ancient, and I can find no support for it in the Saxon speech. A doc. of 1284 (Langs reg. 4, 247) has a Waltherus dictus Krode, and a song in Nithart's MsH. 3, 20 a Krotolf, which however has no business to remind us of Hruodolf, Ruodolf, being not a proper name, but a nickname, and so to be derived from krote, a toad, to which must be referred many names of places, Krotenpful, &c., which have been mistakenly ascribed to the idol. The true form for Upper Germany would not tolerate a Kr, but only Hr or R (see Suppl.).  (back)

27. Conf. Apollo crus£oroj above, p. 203, note.  (back)

28. Cod. Pal. 361, 65ª tells of Julian, that he was forced to put his hand into the mouth of Mercury's statue: Die hant stiez er im in den munt dar, darinne uobte sich der vâlant (devil), er clemmete im die hant, und gehabete sie im sô vaste, daz er sich niht irlôsen mohte (could not get loose). Besides, the wolf's limb has a likeness to the Wuotan's limb, Woens-let, p. 160.  (back)

29. Wackernagel's in the Schweiz. mus. 1, 107.  (back)

30. The Greek epos expresses the changefulness of victory (n…kh ˜teralkhj, Il. 8, 171. 16, 362; n…kh ™pame…betai ¥ndraj, 6, 339) by an epithet of Ares, 'AlloprÒsalloj 5, 831. 889. A certain many-shaped and all-transforming being, with a name almost exactly the same, Vilanders (Ls. 1, 369-92), Baldanderst, Baldander (H. Sachs 1, 537. Simpliciss. bk 6, c. 9), has indeed no visible connexion with the god of war, but it may have been the name of a god. The similiarity of this Vilanders to the name of a place in the Tyrol, Villanders near Brixen (Velunutris, Vulunuturusa, acc. to Steub. p. 79. 178) is merely accidental.  (back)