Wulfhere
02-05-2010, 11:20 AM
In Chapter 40 of the Germania (AD 98) Tacitus describes a very interesting religious ceremony that was shared by the Ingaevones. After listing some of their various tribes (including the Angles), he says:
There is nothing noteworthy about these tribes individually, but they share a common worship of Nerthus, or Mother Earth. They believe that she takes part in human affairs, riding in a chariot among her people. On an island of the sea stands an inviolate grove, in which, veiled with a cloth, is a chariot that none but the priests may touch. The priest can feel the presence of the goddess in this holy of holies, and attends her with deepest reverence as her chariot is drawn along by cows. Then follow days of rejoicing and merrymaking in every place that she condescends to visit and sojourn in. No one goes to war, no one takes up arms; every iron object is locked away. Then, and then only, are peace and quiet known and welcomed, until the goddess, when she has had enough of the society of men, is restored to her sacred precinct by the priest. After that, the chariot, the vestments, and (believe it if you will) the goddess herself, are cleansed in a secluded lake. This service is performed by slaves who are immediately afterwards drowned in the lake. (Mattingly & Handford translation, 1970)
It is usually thought by scholars that the island on which Nerthus’s statue was kept, and on which was situated her sacred lake, was Heligoland (the name of which means ‘Holy Land’). Heligoland is situated directly adjacent to the ancestral lands of the Angles in what is today Schleswig-Holstein, and has always had an aura of sacred mystery attached to it.
There are a number of literary references, dating from the seventh and eighth centuries, to a certain island called Fositesland, so named because it was sacred to the god Fosite, who was worshipped by the Frisians (and also, later, by the Scandinavians under the name of Forseti). The coastal dwellings of the Frisians have always been very unstable, and this region is full of old legends about sunken lands. For example, Fosite is said to have led the twelve Frisian asegen (‘law-givers’) over the sea to safety during a terrible storm in ancient times. Upon arrival at the sacred land, he threw his axe onto the shore, and there gushed forth a spring. A temple was then built over this spot called Axenshowe (‘Temple of the Axe’). Because of its Pagan associations, Fositesland attracted the attentions of various Christian missionaries. In particular, it was English monks who felt the urge to go there and preach the Gospel. Wulfram went to Fositesland in 689, closely followed by Willibrord in 690. In the following century Liudger spent five years there from 780 to 785. According to the chronicler Adam of Bremen:
The archbishop consecrated from among his own clerics Rudolf for Schleswig, Wilhelm for Zealand, Eilbert for Fyn. Eilbert, a convert from piracy, is said to have been the first to find the island of Farria, which lies hidden in a deep recess of the ocean… and, having built a monastery there, to have made it habitable… All sailors hold the place in awe, especially, however, pirates. Hence it got the name by which it is called, ‘Heiligland’. From the Vita of Saint Willibrord we learned that it was called Fositesland…
This passage makes it clear that Farria, Heiligland, and Fositesland were alternative names for the same place. The name ‘Farria’ is derived from the word farre, meaning ‘bull’, which refers to a herd of sacred cattle that was kept on the island and which were slaughtered by Willibrord in AD 690. Bishop Eilbert of Farria (appointed in 1030) was referred to as Farriensis Episcopus. When Willibrord arrived on Fositesland in 690 and slaughtered all the sacred kine, he not surprisingly incurred the wrath of the king of the island – thus indicating that it was large enough to have a king. All the Pagan temples and groves were destroyed by Liudger in the 780s, though it was not until the eleventh century that the island had its very own bishop, the aforementioned Eilbert, who built a monastery. In 1030 the island had nine parishes. Yet by 1065, thirty-five years later, Eilbert was in trouble with the Church authorities. As a former ‘pirate’ (i.e. Pagan) he was presumably one of the people who regarded Fositesland as sacred, and he seems to have reverted to his old religion – if, indeed, he had ever paid more than lip-service to Christianity. At any rate he refused to send tithes to the Church on the European mainland and stopped appearing at synods. Eilbert had originally broken with the Church in 1062, and the situation eventually became so serious that even the Pope was brought into the controversy. It is a great pity that we do not know the outcome of all this, nor the eventual fate of Eilbert, but we do know that in 1158 the island was placed under the direct ecclesiastical control of the metropolitan see of Hamburg.
According to various chronicles, Fositesland suffered terrible floods in 1202 and 1216, and seven of its nine churches were washed away. A further flood in 1362 destroyed the last two. The submerged land around Fositesland was usually referred to as Utland or Sudstrand. For example, in 1338, according to the Eiderstedt Chronicle, ‘Here began Utland first to break in two, and all the dykes to break up’. Then, in 1362, ‘at midnight there came the greatest of floods; then were drowned most of the folk of Utland’. Alternative versions of the name ‘Utland’ are Atland, Adalland, and Oatland (Fostemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch).
Today, Heligoland consists of two tiny rocky islands with a popolulation of less than 1500. A dialect of Frisian (an Ingaevonic language) is still spoken there.
There is nothing noteworthy about these tribes individually, but they share a common worship of Nerthus, or Mother Earth. They believe that she takes part in human affairs, riding in a chariot among her people. On an island of the sea stands an inviolate grove, in which, veiled with a cloth, is a chariot that none but the priests may touch. The priest can feel the presence of the goddess in this holy of holies, and attends her with deepest reverence as her chariot is drawn along by cows. Then follow days of rejoicing and merrymaking in every place that she condescends to visit and sojourn in. No one goes to war, no one takes up arms; every iron object is locked away. Then, and then only, are peace and quiet known and welcomed, until the goddess, when she has had enough of the society of men, is restored to her sacred precinct by the priest. After that, the chariot, the vestments, and (believe it if you will) the goddess herself, are cleansed in a secluded lake. This service is performed by slaves who are immediately afterwards drowned in the lake. (Mattingly & Handford translation, 1970)
It is usually thought by scholars that the island on which Nerthus’s statue was kept, and on which was situated her sacred lake, was Heligoland (the name of which means ‘Holy Land’). Heligoland is situated directly adjacent to the ancestral lands of the Angles in what is today Schleswig-Holstein, and has always had an aura of sacred mystery attached to it.
There are a number of literary references, dating from the seventh and eighth centuries, to a certain island called Fositesland, so named because it was sacred to the god Fosite, who was worshipped by the Frisians (and also, later, by the Scandinavians under the name of Forseti). The coastal dwellings of the Frisians have always been very unstable, and this region is full of old legends about sunken lands. For example, Fosite is said to have led the twelve Frisian asegen (‘law-givers’) over the sea to safety during a terrible storm in ancient times. Upon arrival at the sacred land, he threw his axe onto the shore, and there gushed forth a spring. A temple was then built over this spot called Axenshowe (‘Temple of the Axe’). Because of its Pagan associations, Fositesland attracted the attentions of various Christian missionaries. In particular, it was English monks who felt the urge to go there and preach the Gospel. Wulfram went to Fositesland in 689, closely followed by Willibrord in 690. In the following century Liudger spent five years there from 780 to 785. According to the chronicler Adam of Bremen:
The archbishop consecrated from among his own clerics Rudolf for Schleswig, Wilhelm for Zealand, Eilbert for Fyn. Eilbert, a convert from piracy, is said to have been the first to find the island of Farria, which lies hidden in a deep recess of the ocean… and, having built a monastery there, to have made it habitable… All sailors hold the place in awe, especially, however, pirates. Hence it got the name by which it is called, ‘Heiligland’. From the Vita of Saint Willibrord we learned that it was called Fositesland…
This passage makes it clear that Farria, Heiligland, and Fositesland were alternative names for the same place. The name ‘Farria’ is derived from the word farre, meaning ‘bull’, which refers to a herd of sacred cattle that was kept on the island and which were slaughtered by Willibrord in AD 690. Bishop Eilbert of Farria (appointed in 1030) was referred to as Farriensis Episcopus. When Willibrord arrived on Fositesland in 690 and slaughtered all the sacred kine, he not surprisingly incurred the wrath of the king of the island – thus indicating that it was large enough to have a king. All the Pagan temples and groves were destroyed by Liudger in the 780s, though it was not until the eleventh century that the island had its very own bishop, the aforementioned Eilbert, who built a monastery. In 1030 the island had nine parishes. Yet by 1065, thirty-five years later, Eilbert was in trouble with the Church authorities. As a former ‘pirate’ (i.e. Pagan) he was presumably one of the people who regarded Fositesland as sacred, and he seems to have reverted to his old religion – if, indeed, he had ever paid more than lip-service to Christianity. At any rate he refused to send tithes to the Church on the European mainland and stopped appearing at synods. Eilbert had originally broken with the Church in 1062, and the situation eventually became so serious that even the Pope was brought into the controversy. It is a great pity that we do not know the outcome of all this, nor the eventual fate of Eilbert, but we do know that in 1158 the island was placed under the direct ecclesiastical control of the metropolitan see of Hamburg.
According to various chronicles, Fositesland suffered terrible floods in 1202 and 1216, and seven of its nine churches were washed away. A further flood in 1362 destroyed the last two. The submerged land around Fositesland was usually referred to as Utland or Sudstrand. For example, in 1338, according to the Eiderstedt Chronicle, ‘Here began Utland first to break in two, and all the dykes to break up’. Then, in 1362, ‘at midnight there came the greatest of floods; then were drowned most of the folk of Utland’. Alternative versions of the name ‘Utland’ are Atland, Adalland, and Oatland (Fostemann, Altdeutsches Namenbuch).
Today, Heligoland consists of two tiny rocky islands with a popolulation of less than 1500. A dialect of Frisian (an Ingaevonic language) is still spoken there.