Chapter 11

This Forseti is well entitled to be compared with the Frisian god Fosite, concerning whom some biographies composed in the ninth century gives us valuable information. The vita sancti Wilibrordi (d. 739), written by the famous Alcuin (d. 804), relates as follows, cap. 10: Cum ergo pius verbi Dei praedicator iter agebat, pervenit in confinio Fresonum et Danorum ad quamdam insulam, quae a quodam deo suo Fosite ab accolis terrae Fositesland appellatur, quia in ea ejusdem dei fana fuere constructa. qui locus a paganis in tanta veneratione habebatur, ut nil in ea, vel animalium ibi pascentium, vel aliarum quarumlibet rerum, gentilium quisquam tangere audebat, nec etiam a fonte qui ibi ebulliebat aquam haurire nisi tacens praesumebat. Quo cum vir Dei tempestate jactatus est, mansit ibidem aliquot dies, quousque sepositis tempestatibus opportunum navigandi tempus adveniret. sed parvipendens stultam loci illius religionem, vel ferocissimum regis animum, qui violatores sacrorum illius atrocissima morte damnare solebat; tres homines in eo fonte cum invocatione sanctae Trinitatis baptizavit. sed et animalia in ea terra pascentia in cibaria suis mactare praecepit. Quod pagani intuentes, arbitrabantur eos vel in furorem verti, vel etiam veloci morte perire; quos cum nil mali cernebant pati, stupore perterriti, regi tamen Radbodo quod viderant factum retulerunt. Qui nimio furore succensus in sacerdotem Dei vivi suorum injurias deorum ulcisci cogitabat, et per tres dies semper tribus vicibus sortes suo more mittebat, et nunquam damnatorum sors, Deo vero defendente suos, super servum Dei aut aliquem ex suis cadere potuit; nec nisi unus tantum ex sociis sorte monstratus martyrio coronatus est.--- Radbod feared king Pippin the Frank, and let the evangelist go unhurt. (18) What Wilibrord had left unfinished, was accomplished some time after by another priest, as the vita sancti Liudgeri, composed by Altfrid (d. 849), tells of the year 785: Ipse vero (Liudgerus)......studuit fana destruere, et omnes erroris pristini abluere sordes. curavit quoque ulterius doctrinae derivare flumina, et consilio ab imperatore accepto, transfretavit in confinio Fresonum atque Danorum ad quandam insulam, quae a nomine dei sui falsi Fosete Foseteslant est appellata........Pervenientes autem ad eandem insulam, destruxerunt omnia ejusdem Fosetis fana, quae illic fuere constructa, et pro eis Christi fabicaverunt ecclesias, cumque habitatores terrae illius fide Christi imbueret, baptizavit eos cum invocatione sanctae Trinitatis in fonte, qui ibi ebulliebat, in quo sanctus Willibrordus prius homines tres baptizaverat, a quo etiam fonte nemo prius haurire aquam nisi tacens praesumebat (Pertz 2, 410).----Altfrid evidently had the work of Alcuin by him. From that time the island took the name of hélegland, Helgoland, which it bears to this day; here also the evangelists were careful to conserve, in the interest of christianity, the sense of sacredness already attaching to the site. Adam of Bremen, in his treatise De situ Daniae (Pertz 9, 369), describes the island thus: Ordinavit (archiepiscopus episcopum) in Finne (Fühnen) Eilbertum, quem tradunt conversum (l. captum) a piratis Farriam insulam, quae in ostio fluminis Albiae longo secessu latet in oceano, primum reperisse constructoque monasterio in ea fecisse habitabilem. haec insula contra Hadeloam sita est. cujus longitudo vix VIII milliaria panditur, latitudo quatuor; homines stramine fragmentisque navium pro igne utuntur. Sermo est piratas, si quando praedam inde vel minimam tulerint, aut max perisse naufragio, aut occisos ab aliquo, nullum redisse indempnem; quapropter solent heremitis ibi viventibus decimas praedarum offerre cum magna devotione. est enim feracissima frugum, ditissima volucrum et pecudum nutrix, collem habet unicum, arborem nullam, scopulis includitur asperrimis, nullo aditu nisi uno, ubi et aqua dulcis (the spring whence they drew water in silence), locus venerabilis omnibus nautis, praecipue vero piratis, unde nomen accepit ut Heiligeland dicatur. hanc in vita sancti Willebrordi Fosetisland appellari dicimus, quae sita est in confinio Danorum et Fresonum. sunt et aliae insulae contra Fresiam et Daniam, sed nulla earum tam memorabilis.----The name Farria, appearing here for the first time, either arose from confounding the isle of Föhr with Helgoland, or we must emend the passage, and read 'a piratis Farrianis.' By the customs of these mariners and vikings even of christian times, we may assure ourselves how holy the place was accounted in the heathen time (see Suppl.).

In an island lying between Denmark, Friesland and Saxony, we might expect to find a heathen god who was common to all three. It would be strange if the Frisian Fosite were unknown to the Norsemen; and stranger still if the Eddic Forseti were a totally different god. It is true, one would have expected a mention of this deity in particular from Saxo Gram., who is quite silent about it; but then he omits many others, and in his day Fosite's name may have died out amongst the Frisians.

There is some discrepancy between the two names, as was natural in the case of two nations: ON. Forseti gen. forseta, Fris. Fosite gen. Fosites. The simplest suppostion is, that from Forsite arose by assimilation Fossite, Fosite, or that the R dropt out, as in OHG. mosar for morsar, Low Germ. mösar; so in the Frisian Angeln, according to Hagerup p. 20, föst, föste = förste, primus. Besides, there is hardly any other way of explaining Fosite. In ON. forseti is praeses, princeps, apparently translatable into OHG. forasizo, a fitting name for the god who presides over judgment, and arranges all disputes. The Gothic faúragaggja bears almost the same sense, which I also find, even in much later writings, attached to our word vorgänger (now = predecessor). More complete AS. genealogies would perhaps name a Forseta or Forsete as Bældæg's son. (19)

Forseti, Fosite are a proof of the extent of Balder's worship. If we may infer from Pholesouwa and Baldrshagi that the god loved isles and 'eas,' Helgoland is a case in point, where the flocks of his son grazed; and so is perhaps the worship of the Hercules-pillars, which, following Tacitus, we might fix on some other island near it. (20)  
 



ENDNOTES:

18. Acta sanctor. Bened., sec. 3. pars 1, p. 609.  (back)

19. Later writers have turned Fosete into a goddess Foseta, Phoseta, Fosta, to approximate her to the Roman Vesta; maps of Helgoland, in which are found marked a 'templum Fostae vel Phosetae' of the year 768, and a 'templum Vestae' of 692, were made up in Major's Cimbrien (Plön, 1692), conf. Wiebel's programm über Helgoland, Hamb. 1842. The god Foste and Fosteland could easily find their way into the spurious Vita Suiberti cap. 7.  (back)

20. Another thought has struck my mind about Fosete. In the appendix to the Heldenbuch, Ecke, Vasat, Abentrot are styled brothers. The form Fasat instead of the usual Fasolt need not be a mistake; there are several OHG. men's names in -at, and OS. in -ad, -id, so that Fasat and Fasolt can hold their ground side by side. Now Fasolt (conf. ch. XX. Storm) and Ecke were known as god-giants of wind and water, Abentrot as a dæmon of light. As Ecke-Oegir was worshipped on the Eider and in Lässöe, so might Fosite be in Helgoland. The connexion with Forseti must not be let go, but its meaning as For-seti, Fora-sizo becomes dubious, and I feel inclined to explain it as Fors-eti from for [a whirling stream, 'force' in Cumbld], Dan. fos, and to assume a dæmon of the whirlpool, a Fossegrimm (conf. ch. XVII. Nichus), with which Fosite's sacred spring would tally. Again, the Heldenbuch gives those three brothers a father Nentigêr (for so we must read for Mentiger) = OHG. Nandgêr; and does not he suggest Forseti's mother Nanna = Nandâ?  (back)