Chapter 4

I will here insert the detailed narrative given by Wilibald (786) in the Vita Bonifacii (Canisius II. 1, 242. Pertz 2, 343) of the holy oak of Geismar (on the Edder, near Fritzlar in Hesse). (12) The event falls between the years 725 and 731. Is autem (Bonifacius).......ad obsessas ante ea Hessorum metas cum consensu Carli ducis (i.e. of Charles Martel) rediit. tum vero Hessorum jam multi catholica fide subditi ac septiformis spiritus gratia confirmati manus impositionem acceperunt, et alii quidem, nondum animo confortati, intemeratae fidei documenta integre percipere renuerunt, alii etiam linguis et faucibus clanculo, alii vero aperte sacrificabant, alii vero auspicia et divinationes, praestigia atque incantationes occulte, alii quidem manifeste exercebant, alii quippe auspicia et auguria intendebant, diversosque sacrificandi ritus incoluerunt, alii etiam, quibus mens sanior inerat, omni abjecta gentilitatis prophanatione nihil horum commiserunt. quorum consultu atque consilio arborem quandam mirae magnitudinis, quae prisco Paganorum vocabulo appellatur robur Jovis, in loco, qui dicitur Gaesmere, servis Dei secum astantibus, succidere tentavit. cumque mentis constantia confortatus arborem succidisset, magna quippe aderat copia Paganorum, qui et inimicum deorum suorum intra se diligentissime devotabant, sed ad modicum quidem arbore praecisa confestim immensa roboris moles, divino desuper flatu exagitata, palmitum confracto culmine, corruit, et quasi superi nutus solatio in quatuor etiam partes disrupta est, et quatuor ingentis magnitudinis aequali longitudine trunci, absque fratrum labore astantium apparuerunt. quo viso prius devotantes Pagani etiam versa vice benedictionem Domino, pristina abjecta maledictione, credentes reddiderunt. Tunc autem summae sanctitatis antistes consilio inito cum fratribus ex supradictae arboris materia (13) oratorium construxit, illudque in honore S. Petri apostoli dedicavit. From that time christianity had in this place a seat in Hesse; hard by was the ancient capital of the nation, 'Mattium (Marburg), id genti caput,' Tac. Ann. 1, 56; which continued in the Mid. Ages to be the chief seat of government. According to Landan, the oak and the church built out of it stood on the site of St. Peter's church at Fritzlar. The whole region is well wooded (see Suppl.).

Not unsimilar are some passages contained in the Vita S. Amandi (674), on the wood and tree worship of the northern Franks: Acta Bened. sec. 2. p. 714, 715, 718: Amandus audivit pagum esse, cui vocabulum Gandavum, cujus loci habitatores inquitas diaboli eo circumquaque laqueis vehementer irretivit, ut incolae terrae illius, relicto deo, arbores et ligna pro deo colerent, atque fana vel idola adorarent.---Ubi fana destruebantur, statim monasteria aut ecclesias construebat.---Amandus in pago belvacense verbum domini dum praedicaret, pervenit ad quendam locum, cui vocabulum est Rossonto juxta Aronnam fluvium........respondit illa, quod non ob aliam causam ei ipsa coecitas evenisset, nisi quod auguria vel idola semper coluerat. insuper ostendit ei locum, in quo praedictum idolum adorare consueverat, scilicet arborem, quae erat daemoni dedicata........'nunc igitur accipe securim et hanc nefandam arboreim quantocius succidere festina.'

Among the Saxons and Frisians the veneration of groves lasted much longer. At the beginning of the 11th century, bishop Unwan of Bremen (conf. Adam. Brem. 2, 33) had all such woods cut down among the remoter inhabitants of his diocese: lucos in episcopatu suo, in quibus paludicolae regionis illius errore veteri cum professione falso christianitatis immolabant, succidit; Vita Meinwerci, cap. 22. Of the holy tree in the Old Saxon Irminsûl I will treat in ch. VI. Several districts of Lower Saxony and Westphalia have until quite recent times preserved vestiges of holy oaks, to which the people paid a half heathen half christian homage. Thus, in the principality of Minden, on Easter Sunday, the young people of both sexes used with loud cries of joy to dance a reigen (rig, circular dance) round an old oak. (14) In a thicket near the village of Wormeln, Paderborn, stands a holy oak, to which the inhabitants of Wormeln and Calenberg still make a solemn procession every year. (15)

I am inclined to trace back to heathenism the proper name of Holy Wood so common in nearly all parts of Germany. It is not likely that from a christian church situated in a wood, the wood itself would be named holy; and in such forests, as a rule, there is not a church to be found. Still less can the name be explained by the royal ban-forests of the Mid. Ages; on the contrary, these forests themselves appear to have sprung out of heathen groves, and the king's right seems to have taken the place of the cultus which first withdrew the holy wood from the common use of the people. In such forests too there used to be sanctuaries for criminals, RA. 886-9.

An old account of a battle between Franks and Saxons at Notteln in the year 779 (Pertz 2, 377) informs us, that a badly wounded Saxon had himself secretly conveyed from his castle into a holy wood: Hic vero (Luibertus) magno cum merore se in castrum recepit. Ex quo post aliquot dies mulier egrotum humeris clam in sylvam Sytheri, quae fuit thegathon sacra, nocte portavit. Vulnera ibidem lavans, exterrita clamore effugit. Ubi multa lamentatione animam expiravit. The strange expression thegathon is explained by t' agaqou (the good), a name for the highest divinity (summus et princeps omnium deorum), which the chronicler borrowed from Macrobius's somn. Scip. 1, 2, and may have chosen purposely, to avoid naming a well-known heathen god (see Suppl.). Sytheri, the name of the wood, seems to be the same as Sunderi (southern), a name given to forests in more than one district, e.g. a Sunderhart in Franconia (Höfers urk. p. 308). Did this heathen hope for healing on the sacred soil? or did he wish to die there?

The forest called Dat hillige holt [[the holy forest]] is mentioned by a document in Kindlinger's Münst. beitr. 3, 638. In the country of Hoya there stood a Heiligen-loh [[holy-grove]] (Pertz. 2, 362). A long list of Alsatian documents in Schöpflin allude to the holy forest near Hagenau; no. 218 (A.D. 1065): cum foresto heiligenforst [[holy-forest]] nominato in comitatu Gerhardi comitis in pago Nortcowe. no. 238 (1106): in sylva heiligeforst. [[holy-forest]] no. 273 (1143): praedium Loubach [[grove-brook]] in sacro nemore situm. no. 297 (1158): utantur pascuis in sacra silva. no. 317 (1175): in silva sacra. no. 402 (1215): in sacra silva. no. 800 (1292): conventum in königesbrüken [[king's-bridge]] in heiligenforst [[holy-forest]]. no. 829 (1304): nemus nostrum et imperii dictum heiligvorst [[holy-forest]]. no. 851 (1310): pecora in foresta nostra, quae dicitur der heilige forst [[the holy forest]], pascere et tenere. no. 1076 (1356): porcos tempore glandium nutriendos in silva sacra. The alternating words 'forst, silva, nemus,' are enough to show the significance of the term. The name of the well-known Dreieich (Drieichahi) [[Three-oak]] is probably to be explained by the heathen worship of three oaks; a royal ban-forest existed there a long time and its charter (I, 498) is one of the most primitive.  



ENDNOTES:

12. A shorter account of the same in the annalist Saxo, p. 133.  (back)

13. Other MS. have 'mole' or 'metallo'. A brazen image on the oak is not to be thought of, as such a thing would have been alluded to in what precedes or follows. (back)

14. Weddigen's westphal. mag. 3, 712.  (back)

15. Spilckers beiträge 2, 121.  (back)