CHAPTER XII.HEATHENDOM.
An account of the Saxons which should entirely exclude the peculiarities of their heathendom, would be deficient in an important degree. Religion and law are too nearly allied, particularly in early periods, for us to neglect either, in the consideration of national institutions. The immediate dependence of one upon the other we may not be able to show in satisfactory detail; but we may be assured that the judicial forms are always in near connexion with the cult, and that this is especially the case at times when the judicial and priestly functions are in the hands of the same class.
The Saxons were not without a system of religion, long before they heard of Christianity, nor should we be justified in asserting that religion to have been without moral influence upon the individual man in his family and social relations. Who shall dare to say that the high-thoughted barbarian did not derive comfort in affliction, or support in difficulty, from the belief that the gods watched over him,—that he did not bend in gratitude for the blessings they conferred,—that he was not guided and directed in the daily business of life by the convictionof his responsibility to higher powers than any which he recognized in the world around him? There has been, and yet is, religion without the pale of Christianity, however dim and meagre and unsatisfactory that religion may appear to us whom the mercy of God has blessed with the true light of the Gospel. Long before their conversion, all the Germanic nations had established polities and states upon an enduring basis,—upon principles which still form the groundwork and stablest foundation of the greatest empires of the world,—upon principles which, far from being abrogated by Christianity, harmonize with its purest precepts. They who think states accidental, and would eliminate Providence from the world, may attempt to reconcile this truth with their doctrine ofbarbarism; to us be it permitted to believe that, in the scheme of an all-wise and all-pervading mercy, one condition here below may be the fitting preparation for a higher; and that even Paganism itself may sometimes be only as the twilight, through which the first rays of the morning sun are dimly descried in their progress to the horizon. Without religion never was yet state founded, which could endure for ages; the permanence of our own is the most convincing proof of the strong foundations on which the massive fabric, from the first, was reared.
The business of this chapter is with the heathendom of the Saxons; not that portion of it which yet subsists among us in many of our most cherished superstitions, some of which long lurked in the ritual of the unreformed church, and may yetlurk in the habits and belief of many Protestants; but that which was the acknowledged creed of the Saxon, as it was of other Germanic populations; which once had priests and altars, a ritual and ceremonies, temples and sacrifices, and all the pomp and power of a church-establishment.
The proper subjects of mythological inquiry are the gods and godlike heroes: it is through the latter—for the most part, forms of the gods themselves—that a race connects itself with the former. Among the nations of our race royalty is indeediure divino, for the ruling families are in direct genealogical descent from divinity, and the possession of Wóden’s blood was the indispensable condition of kingship. In our peculiar system, the vague records of Tuisco, the earth-born god[608], and Man, the origin and founders of the race, have vanished; the mystical cosmogony of Scandinavia has left no traces among us[609]; but we have nevertheless a mythological scheme which probably yielded neither in completeness nor imaginative power to those of the German or the Norwegian.
In the following pages I propose to take into consideration, first the Gods and Goddesses, properly so called: secondly, the Monsters or Titanic powers of our old creed: thirdly, the intermediateand as it were ministerial beings: and lastly the god-born and heroic personages of the epopoea.
The prudence or the contempt of the earliest Saxon Christians has left but sparing record of what Augustine and his brother missionaries overthrew. Incidental notices indeed are all that remain in any part of Teutonic Europe; and on the continent, as well as in England, it is only by the collation of minute and isolated facts,—often preserved to us in popular superstitions, legends and even nursery tales,—that we can render probable the prevalence of a religious belief identical in its most characteristic features with that which we know to have been entertained in Scandinavia. Yet whatsoever we can thus recover, proves that, in all main points, the faith of the island Saxons was that of their continental brethren.
It will readily be supposed that the task of demonstrating this is not easy. The early period at which Christianity triumphed in England, adds to the difficulties which naturally beset the subject. Norway, Sweden and Denmark had entered into public relations with the rest of Europe, long before the downfall of their ancient creed: here, the fall of heathendom and the commencement of history were contemporaneous: we too had no Iceland[610]to offer a refuge to those who fled from the violent course of a conversion, preached swordin hand, and coupled with the loss of political independence; still the progress of the new faith seems to have been on the whole easy and continuous amongst us; and though apostasy was frequent, history either had no serious struggle to record, or has wisely and prudently concealed it.
In dealing with this subject, we can expect but little aid from the usual sources of information. The early chroniclers who lived in times when heathendom was even less extinct than it now is, and before it had learnt to hide itself under borrowed names, would have shrunk with horror from the mention of what to them, was an execrable impiety: many of them could have possessed no knowledge of details which to us would be invaluable, and no desire to become acquainted with them: the whole business of their life, on the contrary, was to destroy the very remembrance that such things had been, to avoid everything that could recall the past, or remind their half-converted neophytes of the creed which they and their forefathers had held. It is obvious that, under such circumstances, the greater and more powerful the God, the more dangerous would he continue to be, the more sedulously would all mention of him be avoided by those who had relinquished his service or overthrown his altars. But though this may be the case with the principal deities, there are others whose power, though unacknowledged, is likely to be more permanent. Long after the formal renunciation of a public and national paganism, the family and household gods retain a certain habitual influence,and continue—often under other names, nay perhaps engrafted on another creed—to inform the daily life of a people who are still unconsciously acted upon by ancient national feelings. A spell or a popular superstition may yet recall some traces of the old belief, even as the heathen temple, when purified with holy water and dedicated in another name, retained the holiness which had at first been attached to the site of its foundation.
What Paulus Diaconus, Jonas of Bobbio, Jornandes, Adam of Bremen, Alcuin, Widukind, and the monks of St. Gall, assert of other German races, Beda asserts of the Anglosaxons also, viz. that they worshiped idols[611],idola,simulacra deorum; and this he affirms not only upon the authority of his general informants and of unbroken tradition, but of Gregory himself. Upon the same authority also he tells us that the heathen were wont to sacrifice many oxen to their gods[612]. ToBeda himself we owe the information that Hréðe and Eostre, two Saxon goddesses, gave their names to two of the months; that at a certain season cattle were vowed, and at another season cakes were offered to the gods[613]. From him also we learn that upon the death of Sǽbeorht in Essex, his sons restored the worship of idols in that kingdom[614]; that Eádwini of Northumberland offered thanks to his deities for the safe delivery of his queen[615]; that Rǽdwald of Eastanglia sacrificed victims to his gods[616]; that, on occasion of a severe pestilence, the people of Essex apostatized and returned to their ancient worship[617], till reconverted by Gearoman, under whose teachings they destroyed or deserted the fanes and altars they had made; that incantations and spells were used against sickness[618]; that certain runic charms were believed capable of breaking the bonds of the captive[619]; that Eorcenberht of Kent was the first who completely put down heathendom in his kingdom, and destroyedthe idols[620]; lastly that at the court of Eádwini of Northumberland there was a chief priest[621], and, as we may naturally infer from this, an organized heathen hierarchy.
The poenitentials of the church and the acts of thewitena-gemótsare full of prohibitions directed against the open or secret practice of heathendom[622]; from them we learn that even till the time of Cnut, well-worship and tree-worship, the sanctification of places, spells, philtres and witchcraft, were still common enough to call for legislative interference; and the heavy doom of banishment, proclaimed against their upholders, proves how deeply rooted such pagan customs were in the minds of the people. Still in the Ecclesiastical History of Beda, in the various works which in later times were founded upon it and continued it, in the poenitentials and confessionals of the church, in the acts of the secular assemblies, we look in vain for the sacred names in which the fanes were consecrated, or for even the slightest hint of the attributes of the gods whose idols or images had been set up. Excepting the cursory mention of the two female divinities already noticed, and one or two almost equally rapid allusions in later chronicles, we are left almost entirely without direct information respecting the tenants of the Saxon Pantheon. There are however other authorities, founded on traditions more ancientthan Beda himself, from which we derive more copious, if not more definite accounts. First among these are the genealogies of the Anglosaxon kings: these contain a multitude of the ancient gods, reduced indeed into family relations, and entered in the grades of a pedigree, but still capable of identification with the deities of the North and of Germany. In this relation we find Wóden, Bældæg, Geát, Wig, and Frea. The days of the week, also dedicated to gods, supply us further with the names of Tiw, Ðunor, Fricge and Sætere; and the names of places in all parts of England attest the wide dispersion of their worship. These, as well as the names of plants, are the admitted signs by which we recognize the appellations of the Teutonic gods.
1. WÓDEN, in Old-norse OÞINN, in Old-german WUOTAN.—The royal family of every Anglosaxon kingdom, without exception, traces its descent from Wóden through some one or other of those heroes or demigods who are familiar to us in the German and Scandinavian traditions[623]. Butthe divinity of Wóden is abundantly clear: he is both in form and in fact identical with the Norse Oþinn and the German Wuotan, the supreme god of all the northern races, whose divinity none will attempt to dispute[624]. Nor was this his character unknown to our early chroniclers; Malmesbury, speaking of Hengest and Hors, says: “They were the great-great-grandsons of that most ancient Wóden, from whom the royal families of almost all the barbarous nations derive their lineage; whom the nations of the Angles madly believing to be a god, have consecrated unto him the fourth day of the week, and the sixth unto his wife Frea, by a sacrilege which lasts even unto this day[625].” Matthew of Westminster[626]and Geoffry of Monmouth[627]repeat this with characteristic variations, both adding, apparently in the words of Tacitus[628], “Colimus maxime Mercurium, quem Wóden lingua nostra appellamus.” Æðthelweard, an Anglosaxon nobleman of royal blood, and thus himself a descendant of Wóden, had previously stated the same thing after the fashion of his own age,—the tenth century;he says of Hengest and Hors: “Hi nepotes fuere Uuoddan regis barbarorum, quem post, infanda dignitate, ut deum honorantes, sacrificium obtulerunt pagani, victoriae causa sive virtutis[629].” Again, he says: “Wothen, qui et rex multarum gentium, quem pagani nunc ut deum colunt aliqui.” Thus, according to him, Wóden was worshiped as the giver of victory, and as the god of warlike valour. And such is the description given by Adam of Bremen of the same god, at Upsala in Sweden: “In hoc templo, quod totum ex auro paratum est, statuas trium deorum veneratur populus, ita ut potentissimus eorum Thór in medio solum habeat triclinium, hinc et inde locum possident Wódan et Fricco. Quorum significationes eiusmodi sunt: Thór, inquiunt, praesidet in aere, qui tonitrus et fulmina, ventos imbresque, serena et fruges gubernat. Alter Wódan, id estFortior, bella regit, hominumque ministrat virtutem contra inimicos. Tertius est Fricco, pacem voluptatemque largiens mortalibus. Cuius etiam simulachrum fingunt ingenti Priapo. Wódanem vero sculpunt armatum, sicuti nostri Martem sculpere solent. Thór autem cum sceptro Jovem exprimere videtur.” The Exeter book names Wóden in a similar spirit:
Hǽðnum synneWóden worhte weohs,wuldor alwealdarúme roderas[630],
Hǽðnum synneWóden worhte weohs,wuldor alwealdarúme roderas[630],
Hǽðnum synneWóden worhte weohs,wuldor alwealdarúme roderas[630],
Hǽðnum synne
Wóden worhte weohs,
wuldor alwealda
rúme roderas[630],
that is, “For the heathen Wóden wrought the sinof idolatry, but the glorious almighty God the spacious skies:” and an early missionary is described to have thus taught his hearers: “Wóden vero quem principalem deum crediderunt et praecipuum Angli, de quo originem duxerant, cui et quartam feriam consecraverant, hominem fuisse mortalem asseruit, et regem Saxonum, a quo plures nationes genus duxerant. Huius, inquit, corpore in pulverem resoluto, anima in inferno sepulta aeternum sustinet ignem[631].”
To Wóden was dedicated the fourth or mid-day of the week, and it still retains his name: this among other circumstances tends to the identification of him with Mercurius[632]. The Old-norse Rúnatale þáttr which introduces Oþinn declaring himself to be the inventor of runes[633], is confirmed by the assertion in the dialogue of Salomon and Saturn, which to the question “Who invented letters?” answers, “I tell thee, Mercury the giant”—that is, “Wóden the god:” and this is further evidenceof resemblance. A metrical homily in various collections, bearing the attractive titleDe falsis diis, supplies us with further proof of this identification, not only with Wóden, but with the Norse Oþinn: it says,
Thus we have Mercurius, Wóden and Oþinn sufficiently identified. A careful investigation of the inner spirit of Greek mythology has led some very competent judges to see a form of Hermes in Odysseus. This view derives some corroboration from the Teutonic side of the question, and the relation in which Wóden stands to Mercurius. Even Tacitus had learnt that Ulixes had visited Germany, and there founded a town which he called Asciburgium[635]; and without insisting on the probability that Asciburgium grew out of a German Anseopurc or a Scandinavian Asgard, it seems not unreasonable to suppose that some tales of Wóden had reached the ears of the Roman, which seemed to him to resemble the history of Odysseus and his wanderings. Such a tale we yet possess in the adventures of Thorkill on his journey to Utgardaloki, narrated by Saxo Grammaticus, which bears a remarkable likeness to some parts of the Odyssey[636]; and when we consider Saxo’s very extraordinary mode of rationalizing ancient mythological traditions, we shall admit at least the probability of an earlier version of the tale which would be much more consonant with the suggestion of Tacitus, although this earlier form has unfortunately notsurvived. Wóden is, like Odysseus, preeminently thewanderer; he is Gangradr, Gangleri, the restless, moving deity. Even the cloak, hood or hat in which Oþinn is always clad[637]reminds us both of thepetasusof Hermes and the broad hat which Odysseus generally wears on ancient gems and pottery. That Wóden was worshipedæt wega gelǽtum, and that he was the peculiar patron of boundaries, again recalls to us this function of Hermes, and the Ἔρμαια. When we hear that offerings were brought to him upon the lofty hills, we are reminded that there was an ἄκριος, or Mountain Hermes too, though little known; and the Ἑρμῆς προμάχος, perhaps as little known as his mountain brother, answers to the warlike, victory-giving deity of our forefathers in his favourite form.
From the godlike or heroic sons of Wóden descend all the races qualified to reign, and some of those whose names are found in the Anglosaxon genealogies may be easily recognised in the mythological legends of the continent. In some one or other of his forms he is theeponymusof tribes and races: thus, as Geát or through Geát, he was the founder of the Geátas; through Gewis, of the Gewissas; through Scyld, of the Scyldingas, the NorseSkjoldungar; through Brand, of the Brondingas; perhaps through Bætwa, of the Batavians[638]. It seems indeed not wholly improbable that every name in the merely mythical portion of the genealogies represents some particular tribe, under the distinctive appellation of its tutelar god or hero; and that we may thus be led in some degree to a knowledge of the several populations which coalesced to form the various kingdoms.
Legends describing the adventures of Wóden either in a godlike or heroic form were probably not wanting here, or in Germany; it is only in Scandinavia that a portion of these have been preserved, unless the tales of Geát and Sceaf, to be hereafter noticed, are in reality to be referred to him. Equally probable is it that he had in this country temples, images and religious rites, traces of which we find upon the continent[639]; and thattrees, animals and places were consecrated to him[640]. So numerous indeed are the latter, so common in every part of England are names of places compounded with his name, that we must admit his worship to have been current throughout the island: it seems impossible to doubt that in every quarter there were localities (usually rising ground) either dedicated to him, or supposed to be under his especial protection; and thus that he was here, as in Germany, the supreme god whom the Saxons, Franks and Alamans concurred in worshiping. The following names of places may all be unhesitatingly attributed to this cause, and they attest the general recognition and wide dispersion of Wóden’s influence.
Wanborough, formerlyWódnesbeorh, in Surrey, lat. 51° 14´ N., long. 38´ W., placed upon the water-shed which throws down streams to north and south,and running from east to west, divides the county of Surrey into two nearly equal portions, once perhaps two petty kingdoms; the range of hills now called the Hog’s-back. It is a little to the north of the ridge, nearly on the summit; the springs of water are peculiarly pure and never freeze. In all probability it has been in turn a sacred site for every religion that has been received in Britain.Wanborough, formerlyWódnesbeorhin Wiltshire, lat. 51° 33´ N., long. 1° 42´ W., about 3½ miles S.E. of Swindon, placed upon the watershed which throws down the Isis to the north, and Kennet to the south.Woodnesborough, formerlyWódnesbeorh, in Kent, lat. 51° 16´ N., long. 1° 29´ E., throwing down various small streams to north and south, into the Stour and the sea.Wonston(probablyWódnesstán) in Hampshire, lat. 51° 10´ N., long. 1° 20´ W., from which small streams descend to north and south, into the Test and Itchen.Wambrook(probablyWódnesbróc) in Dorsetshire.Wampool(probablyWódnespól) in Cumberland.Wansford(probablyWódnesford) in Northamptonshire.Wansfordin the East Riding of Yorkshire.Wanstead(probablyWódnesstede) an old Roman station in Essex.Wanstrow, formerlyWódnestreówWanboroughorWarnborough, formerlyWódnesbeorh, two parishes in Hampshire.Wembury, formerlyWódnesbeorh, in Devonshire.Wonersh(probablyWódnesersc), a parish at the foot of the Hog’s-back, a few miles from Wanborough.Wansdike, formerlyWódnesdíc, an ancient dike or fortification, perhaps the boundary between different kingdoms: itextended in a direction from east to west through more than one of our southern counties. Its remains are visible three or four miles W.S.W. of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, and it crosses the northern part of Somerset from the neighbourhood of Bath to Portshead on the Bristol Channel, where it ends in lat. 51° 29´ N., long. 2° 47´ W.
In addition to these references, which might be made far more numerous, if necessary, we have many instances in the boundaries of charters, of trees, stones and posts set up in Wóden’s name, and apparently with the view of giving a religious sanction to the divisions of land. In this, as in other respects, we find a resemblance to Hermes. It is also to be borne in mind that many hills or other natural objects may in fact have been dedicated to this god, though bearing more general names, as Ósbeorh, Godeshyl and so forth.
One of the names of Odin in the Old-norse mythology isOsk, which by an etymological law is equivalent to the GermanWunsch, the AnglosaxonWisc, and the EnglishWish. Grimm has shown in the most convincing manner thatWunschmay be considered as a name of Wuotan in Germany[641]; and it is probable thatWúscorWíscmay have had a similar power here. Among the names in the mythical genealogies we find Wúscfreá,the lord of the wish, and I am even inclined to the belief that Oisc, equivalent to Ésk, the founder of the Kentish line of kings, may be a Jutish name of Wóden in this form,—ésc, or in an earlier form óski,i. e.Wunsch, Wýsc[642]. In Devonshire to this day all magical or supernatural dealings go under the common name ofWishtness: can this have any reference to Wóden’s name Wýsc? So again a bad or unfortunate day is awishtday: perhaps a diabolical, heathen, accursed day. There are several places which appear to be compounded with this name; among them:Wishanger(Wíschangraor Wóden’s meadow), one, about four miles S.W. of Wanborough in Surrey, and another near Gloucester;Wisley(Wíscleáh) also in Surrey;Wisborough(probablyWíscbeorh) in Sussex;Wishford(probablyWíscford) in Wiltshire.
2. ÞUNOR, in Old-norse ÞORR, in Old-german DONAR.—The recognition of Ðunor in England was probably not very general at first: the settlement of Danes and Norwegians in the ninth and following centuries may have extended it in the northern districts. But though his name is not found in the genealogies of the kings, there was an antecedent probability that some traces of his worship would be found among the Saxons. Thunar is one of the gods whom the Saxons of the continent were called upon to renounce, and a total abnegation of his authority was not to be looked for even among a race who considered Wóden as the supreme god. That the fifth day of the week was called by his name is well known: ThursdayisÐunres dæg,dies Jovis; and he is the proper representative of Jupiter, inasmuch as he must be considered in the light of the thundering god, an elemental deity, powerful over the storms, as well as the fertilizing rains[643]. His peculiar weapon, the mace or hammer, seems to denote the violent, crushing thunderbolt, and the Norse myth represents it as continually used against the giants or elemental gods of the primal world. In a composition whose antiquity it is impossible to ascertain, we may still discover an allusion to this point: in the Christian Ragna Ravk, orTwilight of the Gods, it was believed that a personal conflict would take place between the divinity and a devil, the emissary and child of Satan: in the course of this conflict, it is said: “se Ðunor hit þyrsceð mid ðǽre fýrenan æxe,” the thunder will thresh it with the fiery axe[644]; and I am inclined to see a similar allusion in the Exeter Book, where the lightning is calledrynegiestes wæpn, the weapon of Avkv Ðórr, thecar-borne god, Thunder[645].
The names of places which retain a record of Ðunor are not very numerous, but some are found: among themThundersfield,Ðunresfeld, in Surrey[646];Thundersley,Ðunresleáh, in Essex, near Saffron Walden;Thundersley,Ðunresleáh, also in Essex, near Raylegh, and others in Hampshire[647]. NearWanborough in Surrey isThursley, which may have been a Ðunresleáh also: it is unlikely that it was ever Ðóresleáh, from Ðórr (the Norse form of Ðunor), but it might have been Ðyrsleáh, the meadow of the giant or monster. Very near Thursley is a hill calledThunder hill, probablyÐunres hyl. A similar uncertainty hangs overThurleighin Bedfordshire,Thurlowin Essex,Thursbyin Cumberland,Thursfieldin Staffordshire, andThursfordin Norfolk[648]. The name of Ðunor was, to the best of my knowledge, never borne by any man among the Anglosaxons, which is in some degree an evidence of its high divinity. The only apparent exception to this assertion is found in an early tale which bears throughout such strong marks of a mythical character as to render it probable that some legend of Ðunor was current in England; especially as its locality is among the Jutish inhabitants of Kent. According to this account, Ecgbert the son of Eorcenberht, the fourth Christian king of Kent, had excluded his cousins from the throne, and fearing their popularity determined on removing them by violence. The thane Thuner divined and executed the intentions of his master. Under the king’s own throne were the bodies concealed; but a light from heaven which played about the spot revealed the crime: the king paid to their sister thewergyldofthe slain princes: a hind, let loose, defined the boundaries of the grant which was to make compensation for the murder: forty-eight hides of land thus became the property of Domneva, and the repentant king erected upon them a monastery. The assassin Thuner, however, added to his guilt the still higher atrocity of sneering at the king’s repentance and its fruits: the earth suddenly opened beneath his feet and swallowed him; while the church placed the names of his victims, Æðelred and Æðelberht, on the list of its martyrs. Any comment upon this, as a historical transaction, would be perfectly superfluous, but it may possibly contain some allusion of a mythological nature; for it seems that the very fact of Ðunor’s not being a god generally worshiped in England, would render him likely to form the foundation of heroic stories. I will not absolutely say that the dragon-slaughter of Beówulf is a direct reference to the myth of Ðunor, though this is possible. Another hero of Anglosaxon tradition bears the name of the “Wandering Wolf;” he slew five-and-twenty dragons at daybreak, “on dæg-ræd;” and fell dead from their poison, as Thórr does after slaying Midgard’s orm, and Beówulf after his victory over the firedrake. The wolf however is a sacred beast of Wóden, and these names of Wandering wolf, Mearcwulf, etc. may have some reference to him, especially as we learn from Grimm that in some parts of Denmark the wild huntsman, who is unquestionably Wóden, bears the name of the flying Marcolf[649]. The heathen character of thewhole relation is proved by the fact of the “famous sailor on the sea,” the “wandering wolf” being represented as the friend of Nebrond, probably Nimrod[650].
One of the names by which Ðunor is known in Germany is Hamar[651], which was perhaps originally derived from his weapon. This has become almost synonymous withdevil. Perhaps the same allusion lurks in one or two names of places in England: in the immediate neighbourhood of Thursley in Surrey, and at a short distance from Thunderhill, are some ponds known by the name of theHammer-ponds. It is remarkable that within two or three miles of Thursley and the Hammer-ponds, three singular natural mounds which form most conspicuous objects upon a very wild and desert heath, should bear the name of the Devil’s Jumps, while at a short distance a deep valley is known by that of the Devil’s Punchbowl, probably at some early period, the Devil’s Cup, Ðunres-cup or the Hamar-cup. The word Hamarden occurs in the boundaries of charters[652]; and other places recall the same name: thusHameringhamin Lincoln,Hamertonin Huntingdon,Homertonin Middlesex (hardlyHammersmithin Middlesex),Hamerton Greenin Yorkshire,Hamerton Kirkin Yorkshire,Hammerwickin Staffordshire.
3. TIW, the Old-norse TYR, and Old-german ZIU.—The third day of the week bears among usthe name of the god Tíw, the Old-norse Týr. In like manner we find him also giving his name to places. In the neighbourhood so often referred to in this chapter, and which seems to have been a very pantheon of paganism[653], not far from Thursley or from Wanborough, we findTewesley, which I have no scruple to pronounce the ancient Tíwesleáh. Tísleáh[654]seems to denote the same name, and it is probable that even a race acknowledged this god as its founder,—the Tiwingas, who gave their name toTewingin Herts.Tiwes mére[655]seems to be themereor lake of Tiw, and in another charter we have also Teówes þorn[656], which goes far towards substantiating the German form Ziu.
The Anglosaxon glossaries are perfectly accurate when they give the renderingMarsfor Tíw[657], and Tíwesdæg is rightlydies Martis. It cannot be doubted that our forefathers worshiped this god, as a supreme giver of victory, and especially a god of battle, in some parts of Scandinavia and Germany; whether or not in England appears doubtful. In the mythology of the North he is the bravest of the gods, the one who did not scruple to place hishand in the mouth of the wolf Fenris, when he demanded a pledge that the gods would unbind the chain they had forged for him, and on their breach of faith Týr paid the penalty[658]. The Roman historian tells of the Hermunduri having vowed to sacrifice the beaten Catti to Mercury and Mars, by which vow the whole of the horses and men belonging to the defeated force were devoted to slaughter. Jornandes says of the Goths, “Martem semper asperrima placavere cultura; nam victimae ejus mortes fuere captorum, opinantes bellorum praesulem aptius humani sanguinis effusione placatum[659].” Procopius tells the same tale of his Θουλίται, that is the Scandinavians: τῶν δὲ ἱερείων σφίσι τὸ κάλλιστον ἄνθρωπος ἐστιν, ὅνπερ ἂν δοριάλωτον ποιήσαιντο πρῶτον· τοῦτον γὰρ τῷ Ἄρει θύουσιν, ἐπεὶ θεὸν αὐτὸν νομίζουσι μέγιστον εἶναι[660]. The Norse traditions, although they acknowledge Oþinn as the giver of victory, are still very explicit as to Týr: he is particularly Wígaguð,deus praeliorum, and an especial granter of success in battle, “rǽðr miöc sigri í orostom[661].” Perhaps the Tencteri may be added to the number of those who paid an especial honour to Týr (in GermanZiu), since Tacitus makes them say, “communibus deis et praecipuo deorum Marti grates agimus[662],” where it is not at all necessary to suppose Wóden is meant; and Grimm has good reasonto number the Suevi among the worshipers of Ziu[663].
The Anglosaxon runic alphabet, which in several letters recalls the names or attributes of the ancient gods, uses Tír for T: the German runes wanting a Z = T, apply Ziu: there is however another rune, similar in shape to the runic T, but having the power of EA; this bears the name of Ear, but sometimes also in MSS. that of Tír: there are etymological grounds on which the word Tír,gloria, must be connected with Tíw, and we are hence led to the supposition that Ear may have been another name for that god. This gains a great importance when we bear in mind that in some parts of south Germany, the third day of the week is called, not Zistag, but Ertag, Eritag, Erichtag, for which we should indeed have expected Erestag: and when we find in Saxon Westphalia an undeniably heathen spot called Eresburg,Mons Martis, now Mersberg, i. e. Eresberg, the hill of Er, Ziu or Mars.
Now the Anglosaxon poem on the runic characters has something to tell us of Ear. It says of him,
Ear bið égleeorla gehwylcum,ðonne fæstlíceflǽsc onginneðhrá cólian,hrúsan ceósanblác to gebeddan.Blǽda gedréosað,wynna gewítað,wera geswícað[664].
Ear bið égleeorla gehwylcum,ðonne fæstlíceflǽsc onginneðhrá cólian,hrúsan ceósanblác to gebeddan.Blǽda gedréosað,wynna gewítað,wera geswícað[664].
Ear bið égleeorla gehwylcum,ðonne fæstlíceflǽsc onginneðhrá cólian,hrúsan ceósanblác to gebeddan.Blǽda gedréosað,wynna gewítað,wera geswícað[664].
Ear bið égle
eorla gehwylcum,
ðonne fæstlíce
flǽsc onginneð
hrá cólian,
hrúsan ceósan
blác to gebeddan.
Blǽda gedréosað,
wynna gewítað,
wera geswícað[664].
that is, “Ear is a terror to every man, when fast the flesh, the corpse beginneth to become cold and pale to seek the earth for a consort. Joy faileth, pleasure departeth, engagements cease.” It is clear that Ear,spica,arista, will not explain this, and we may believe that our forefathers contemplated the personal intervention of some deity whose contact was death. This may have been Tíw or Ear, especially in the battle-field, and here he would be equivalent to the Ἄρης βροτολοιγός μιαιφόνος of Homer.
More than this we shall hardly succeed in rescuing: but there yet remains a name to consider, which may possibly have tended to banish the more heathen one of Tíw. Among all the expressions which the Anglosaxons used to denote a violent death, none is more frequent than wíg fornam, or wíg gesceód, in which there is an obvious personality, Wíg (War) ravished away the doomed: here no doubtwarwas represented as personally intervening, and slaying, as in other similar cases we find the femininesHild, Gúð, which are of the same import, and the masculinesSwylt, Deáð,mors. The abstract sense which also lay in the wordwíg, and enabled it to be used without offence to Christian ears, may have been a reason for its general adoption in cases where at an earlier period Tíw would have been preferred. Old glossaries give us the rendering WígMars, and Hild,Bellona: it is therefore not at all improbable that these words were purposely selected to express what otherwise must have been referred to a god of perilous influence: Wíg was a more general, and therefore less dangerous name than Tíw, torecallrecallto the memory of apeople prone to apostasy. That the latter survived in the name of a weekday serves only to show that it was too deeply grounded to be got rid of; perhaps its very familiarity in that particular relation rendered it safe to retain the name of any deity, as was done by five out of the seven days. But Christianity was tolerant of heathen names in other than heathen functions, and in the genealogy of the kings of Wessex, Wíg is the father of Gewis, the eponymus of the race. I have already expressed my belief that this name represented either Wóden or Tíw, and think it very likely that it was the latter, inasmuch as the paganism of the Gewissas seems to have been remarkable, beyond that of other Anglosaxon tribes: “Sed Britanniam perveniens, ac primum Gewissorum gentem ingrediens, cum omnes ibidem paganissimos inveniret,” etc.[665]“Intrante autem episcopo in portum occidentalium Saxonum, gentem qui antiquitus Gewisse vocabantur, cum omnes ibidem paganissimos inveniret,” etc.[666]The events described are of the year 634. We find that Tíw enters into the composition of the names of a few plants[667]; on the other hand it is never found in the composition of proper names, any more than Tír; althoughnowTírberht or Tírwulf would seem quite as legitimate compounds as Eádberht, Sigeberht, Eádwulf, Sigewulf.
FREÁ, in Old-norse FREYR, in Old-german FRO.—The god whom the Norse mythology celebratesunder the name of Freyer must have borne among us the name of Freá. It is probable that he enjoyed a more extensive worship in all parts of Europe than we can positively demonstrate. At present we are only enabled to assert that the principal seat of his worship was at Upsala among the Swedes. In general there is not much trace in the North of phallic gods; but an exception must be made at once in the case of Freyr. One of the most beautiful poems of the Edda[668]tells how Freyr languished for desire of the beautiful Gerdr; it was for her love that he lost the sword, the absence of which brings destruction upon him in the twilight of the Gods. The strongest evidence of his peculiar character is found in the passage already cited from Adam of Bremen[669], and what he says of the shape under which Frea was represented at Upsala: “Tertius est Fricco, pacem, voluptatemque largiens mortalibus; cujus etiam simulachrum fingunt ingenti Priapo.” The fertilizing rains, the life-bringing sunshine, the blessings of fruitfulness and peace were the peculiar gifts of Freyr[670]; and from Adam of Bremen again we learn that he was the god of marriage: “Si nuptiae celebrandae sunt, sacrificia offerunt Fricconi.” In his car he travelled through the land, accompanied by a choir of young andblooming priestesses[671], and wherever he came plenty and peace abounded. The beast sacred to Freyr was the boar, and it is not improbable that various customs and superstitions connected with this animal may have had originally to do with his worship. It is not going too far to assert that the boar’s head which yet forms the ornament of our festive tables, especially at Christmas, may have been inherited from heathen days, and that the vows made upon it, in the middle ages, may have had their sanction in ancient paganism. But it is as an amulet that we most frequently meet with the boar in Anglosaxon. Tacitus says of the Æstyi, that, in imitation of the Suevish custom, “Matrem deum venerantur; insigne superstitionis, formas aprorum gestant. Id pro armis omnium que tutela; securum deae cultorem etiam inter hostes praestat[672].” The relation between Freá and theMater deorumis a near one. Now the Anglosaxon poems consider a boar’s form or figure so essential a portion of the helmet, that they use the wordeofor,aperpart of the armour:
And still more closely, with reference to the virtues of this sign:
And again:
Grimm citing this passage goes so far as even to render “freá wrasnum” byFrothonis signis, and thus connects it at once with Frea[676]; and we may admit at all events the great plausibility of the suggestion. But though distinct proof of Freá's worship in England cannot be supplied during the Saxon period, we have very clear evidence of its still subsisting in the thirteenth century. The following extraordinary story is found in the Chronicle of Lanercost[677], an. 1268. “Pro fidei divinae integritate servanda recolat lector quod, cum hoc anno in Laodonia pestis grassaretur in pecudes armenti, quam vocant usitate Lungessouth, quidam bestiales,habitu claustrales non animo, docebant idiotas patriae ignem confrictione de lignis educere et simulachrum Priapi statuere, et per haec bestiis succurrere. Quod cum unus laicus Cisterciencis apud Fentone fecisset ante atrium aulae, ac intinctis testiculis canis in aquam benedictam super animalia sparsisset, ac pro invento facinore idolatriae dominus villae a quodam fideli argueretur, ille pro sua innocentia obtendebat, quod ipso nesciente et absente fuerant haec omnia perpetrata, et adiecit, et cum ad usque hunc mensem Junium aliorum animalia languerent et deficerent, mea semper sana erant, nunc vero quotidie mihi moriuntur duo vel tria, ita quod agricultui pauca supersunt.”
Fourteen years later a similar fact is stated to have occurred in a neighbouring district, at Inverkeithing, in the present county of Fife.
“Insuper hoc tempore apud Inverchethin, in hebdomada paschae [Mar. 29-Ap. 5], sacerdos parochialis, nomine Johannes, Priapi prophana parans, congregatis ex villa puellulis, cogebat eas, choreis factis, Libero patri circuire; ut ille feminas in exercitu habuit, sic iste, procacitatis causa, membra humana virtuti seminariae servientia super asserem artificiata ante talem choream praeferebat, et ipse tripudians cum cantantibus motu mimico omnes inspectantes et verbo impudico ad luxuriam incitabat. Hi, qui honesto matrimonio honorem deferebant, tam insolente officio, licet reverentur personam, scandalizabant propter gradus eminentiam. Si quis ei seorsum ex amore correptionissermonen inferret, fiebat deterior, et conviciis eos impetebat.”
It appears that this priest retained his benefice until his death, which happened in a brawl about a year later than the events described above; and it is very remarkable that the scandal seems to have been less at the rites themselves than at their being administered by a person of so high a clerical dignity. Grimm had identified Freyr or Frowo with Liber: it will be observed that his train of reasoning is confirmed by the name Liber Pater, given in the chronicler’s recital. The union of theNeedfirewith these Priapic rites renders it proper to devote a few words to this particular superstition.
The needfire, nýdfýr, New-german nothfeuer, was called from the mode of its production,confrictione de lignis, and though probably common to the Kelts[678]as well as Teutons, was long and well known to all the Germanic races at a certain period. All the fires in the village were to be relighted from the virgin flame produced by the rubbing together of wood, and in the highlands of Scotland and Ireland it was usual to drive the cattle through it, by way of lustration, and as a preservative against disease[679].But there was another curious ceremony connected with the lighting of fires on St. John’s eve,—probably from the context, on the 23rd of June. A general reference for this may be made to Grimm’s Mythologie, pp. 570-592, under the general heads of Nothfeuer, Bealtine and Johannisfeuer; but the following passage, which I have not seen cited before, throws light on Grimm’s examples, and adds some peculiarities of explanation. It is found in an ancient MS. written in England and now in the Harleian collection, No. 2345, fol. 50.
“Eius venerandam nativitatem cum gaudio celebrabitis; dico eius nativitatem cum gaudio; non illo cum gaudio, quo stulti, vani et prophani, amatores mundi huius, accensis ignibus, per plateas, turpibus et illicitis ludibus, commessationibus, et ebrietatibus, cubilibus et impudicitiis intendentes illam celebrare solent.... Dicamus de tripudiis quae in vigilia sancti Johannis fieri solent, quorum tria genera. In vigilia enim beati Johannis colligunt pueri in quibusdam regionibus ossa, et quaedam alia immunda, et insimul cremant, et exinde producitur fumus in aere. Faciunt etiam brandas et circuunt arva cum brandis. Tercium de rotaquam faciunt volvi: quod, cum immunda cremant, hoc habent ex gentilibus. Antiquitus enim dracones in hoc tempore excitabantur ad libidinem propter calorem, et volando per aera frequenter spermatizabantur aquae, et tunc erat letalis, quia quicumque inde bibebant, aut moriebantur, aut grave morbum paciebantur. Quod attendentes philosophi, iusserunt ignem fieri frequenter et sparsim circa puteos et fontes, et immundum ibi cremari, et quaecumque immundum reddiderunt fumum, nam per talem fumum sciebant fugari dracones.... Rota involvitur ad significandum quod sol tunc ascendit ad alciora sui circuli et statim regreditur, inde venit quod volvitur rota.”
An ancient marginal note hasbonfires, intending to explain that word by the bones burnt on such occasions. Grimm seems to refer this to the cult of Baldr or Bældæg, with which he connects the name Beltane; but taking all the circumstances into consideration, I am inclined to attribute it rather to Freá, if not even to a female form of the same godhead, Fricge, the Aphrodite of the North. Freá seems to have been a god of boundaries; probably as the giver of fertility and increase, he gradually became looked upon as a patron of the fields. On two occasions his name occurs in such boundaries, and once in a manner which proves some tree to have been dedicated to him. In a charter of the year 959 we find these words: “ðonne andlang herpaðes on Frigedæges treów,”—thence along the road to Friday’s (that is Frea’s) tree[680]; and in asimilar document of the same century we have a boundary running “oð ðone Frigedæg.” There is a place yet called Fridaythorpe, in Yorkshire. HereFrigedægappears to be a formation precisely similar toBældæg,Swæfdæg, andWægdæg, and to mean onlyFreáhimself.
BALDÆG, in Old-norseBALDR, in Old-germanPALTAC.—The appearance of Bældæg among Wóden’s sons in the Anglosaxon genealogies, would naturally lead us to the belief that our forefathers worshiped that god whom the Edda and other legends of the North term Baldr, the father of Brand, and the Phœbus Apollo of Scandinavia. Yet beyond these genealogies we have very little evidence of his existence. It is true that the wordbealdorvery frequently occurs in Anglosaxon poetry as a peculiar appellative of kings,—nay even as a name of God himself,—and that it is, as far as we know, indeclinable, a sign of its high antiquity. This word may then probably have obtained a general signification which at first did not belong to it, and been retained to represent a king, when it had ceased to represent a god. There are a few places in which the name of Balder can yet be traced: thus Baldersby in Yorkshire, Balderston in Lancashire, Bealderesleah and Baldheresbeorh in Wiltshire[681]: of these the two first may very likely have arisen from Danish or Norwegian influence, while the last is altogether uncertain. Save in the genealogies the name Bældæg does not occur at all.But there is another name under which the Anglosaxons may possibly have known this god, and that is Pol or Pal.
In the year 1842 a very extraordinary and very interesting discovery was made atMersebergMersebergupon the spare leaf of a MS. there were found two metrical spells in the Old-german language: these upon examination were at once recognized not only to be heathen in their character, but even to contain the names of heathen gods, perfectly free from the ordinary process of Christianization. The one with which we are at present concerned is in the following words:
The general character of this poem is one well known to us: there are many Anglosaxon spells of the same description. What makes this valuable beyond all that have ever been discovered, is thenumber of genuine heathen names that survive in it, which in others of the same kind have been replaced by other sanctions; and which teach us the true meaning of those which have survived in the altered form. In a paper read before the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin, Grimm identified Phol with Baldr[682], and this view he has further developed in the new edition of his Mythology[683]. It is confirmatory of this view that we possess the same spell in England, without the heathendom, and where the place of the god Baldr is occupied by that of our Lord himself. The English version of the spell runs thus: