Chapter 6

Now whatever may be the probable meaning of the word irman, iörmun, eormen, to which I shall return in due time, one thing is evident, that the Irman-pillar had some connexion, which continued to be felt down to a late period (p. 116), with Mercury or hermes, to whom Greek antiquity raised similar posts and pillars, which where themselves called Hermae, a name which suggests our Teutonic one.

The Saxons may have known more about this; the Franks, in Upper Germany, from the 8th to the 13th century, connected with irmansûl, irminsûl the general notion of a heathen image set up on a pillar. Probably Ruodolf associated with his truncus ligni the thought of a choice and hallowed tree-stem (with, or without, a god's image?), rather than a pillar hewn into shape by the hand of man; this fits in too with the worshipping sub divo, with the word lucus used by some of the chroniclers, and with the simplicity of the earliest forest-worship. As the image melts into the notion of tree, so does the tree pass into that of image; and our Westphalian Irmen-pillar most naturally suggests the idea of that Thor's-oak in Hesse; the evangelists converted both of them into churches of St. Peter. I suspect an intimate connexion between the Irman-pillars and the Roland-pillars erected in the later Mid. Ages, especially in North Germany; there were in Sweden Thor's-pillars, and among the Anglo-Saxons Æthelstân-pillars (Lappenberg 1, 376). There yet remains to be given an account of a sacred post in Neustria, as contained in the Vita Walarici abbatis Leuconensis (d. 622), said to have been composed in the 8th century: Et juxta ripan ipsius fluminis stips erat magnus, diversis imaginibus figuratus, atque ibi in terram magna virtute immissus, qui nimio cultu morem gentilium a rusticis colebatur. Walaricus causes the log to be thrown down: et his quidem rusticis habitantibus in locis non parvum tam moerorem quam et stuporem omnibus praebuit. Sed undique illis certatim concurrentibus cum armis et fustibus, indigne hoc ferentes invicem, ut injuriam dei sui vindicarent (Acta Bened. sec. 2, pp. 84-5). The place was called Augusta (bourg d' Augst, near the town of Eu), and a church was built on the spot.

I think I have now shown, that in ancient Germany there were gods and statues. It will further be needful to consider, how antiquity went to work in identifying foreign names of gods with German, and conversely German with foreign.

The Romans in their descriptions cared a great deal more to make themselves partially understood by a free translation, than, by preserving barbarous vocables, to do a service to posterity. At the same time they did not go arbitrarily to work, but evidently with care.

Caesar's Sol, Luna and Vulcan are perhaps what satisfies us least; but Tacitus seems never to use the names of Roman deities, except advisedly and with reflection. Of the gods, he names only Mercury and Mars (Germ. 9. Ann. 13, 57. Hist. 4, 64); of deified heroes. Hercules, Castor and Pollux (Germ. 9, 43); of goddesses, Isis (Germ. 9), the terra mater by her German name (Germ. 40), and the mater deum (Germ. 45). Incompatible deities, such as Apollo or Bacchus, are never compared. What strikes us most, is the absence of Jupiter, and the distinction given to Mercury, who was but a deity of the second rank with the Romans, a mere god of merchants, but here stands out the foremost of all: Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt: to him alone do human sacrifices fall, while Mars and Hercules content themselves with beasts. This prominence of Mercury is probably to be explained by the fact, that this god was worshipped by the Gauls likewise as their chief divinity, and was the most frequently portrayed (deum maxime Mercurium colunt, hujus sunt plurima simulacra, Caes. B. Gall. 6, 17); (17) and that the looks of the Romans, when directed towards Germany, still saw Gaul in the foreground; besides, it may have been Galic informants that set the German divinity before them in this light. Observe too the Gaulish juxtaposition of ars and Mercurius in statues (p. 111), precisely as Tacitus names the German ones together (Ann. 13, 57). The omission of Jupiter is obviously accounted for, by his worship yielding the precedence to that of Mercury in those nations which Tacitus knew best: we shall see, as we go on, that the northern and remoter branches on the contrary reserved their highest veneration for the thunder god. On Isis and Hercules I shall express my views further on. Whom we are to understand by the Dioscuri, is hard to guess; most likely two sons of Woden, and if we go by the statements of the Edda, the brothers Baldr and Hermôðr would be the most fitting.

This adaptation of classical names to German gods became universally spread, and is preserved with strict unanimity by the Latin writers of the succeeding centuries; once set in circulation, it remained current and intelligible for long ages.

The Gothic historian names but one god after the Roman fashion, and that is Mars: Quem Gothi semper asperrima placavere cultura (Jornandes cap. 5), with which the Scythian Ares, so early as in Herodotus 4, 62-3, may be compared.

Paulus Diaconus winds up his account of Wodan with the express announcement (1, 9): Wodan sane, quem adjecta litera Gwodan dixerunt, ipse est qui apud Romanos Mercurius dicitur, et ab universis Germanise gentibus ut deus adoratur. Just so his older countryman Jonas of Bobbio, in that account of the sacrificing Alamanns, declares: Illi aiunt, deo suo Vodano, quem Mercurium vocant alii, se velle litare; upon which, a gloss inserted by another hand says less correctly: Qui apud eos Vuotant vocatur, Latini autem Martem illum appellant; though otherwise Woden greatly resembles Mars (v. infra).

Gregory of Tours (supra. p. 107) makes Saturn and Jupiter, and again Mars Mercuriusque the gods whom the heathen Chlodovich adored. In 1, 34 he expresses himself in more general terms: Privatus, Gabalitanae urbis episcopus...........daemoniis immolare compellitur a Chroco Alamannorum rege (in the third cent.) Widekind of Corvei names Mars and Hercules as gods of the Saxons (see p. 111); and that little addition to the Corvei Annals (see p. 111) couples together the Greek and Latin denominations Aris and Mars, Ermis and Mercurius.



ENDNOTES:

17. Schöpflin, Als. ill. 1, 435-60; esp. on a fanum of Mercury at Ebermünster 1, 58. Conf. Hummel, bibl. deutsch. alterth. p. 229. Creuzer, altröm. cultur am Oberrhein, pp. 48, 98.  (back)