TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

118 GODS.
(see Suppl.). Here was a great wooden pillar erected, and wor
shipped under the open sky, its name signifies universal all-sustain
ing pillar. This interpretation appears faultless, when we take
with it other words in which the meaning is intensified by
composition with irmin. In the Hildebrands lied, irmingot is the
supreme god, the god of all, not a peculiar one, agreeing in sense
with thiodgod, the (whole) people s god, formed by another streng
thening prefix, Hel. 33, 18. 52, 12. 99, 6. irminman, an elevated
expression for man, Hel. 38, 24. 107, 13. 152, 11. irminthiod,
the human race, Hel. 87, 13 and in Hildebr. 1 In the same way I
explain proper names compounded with irman, irmin (Gramm. 2,
448). And irmansul, irminsdl is the great, high, divinely honoured
statue ; that it was dedicated to any one god, is not to be found in
the term itself. In like manner the AS. has eormencyn (genus
humanum), Beow. 309. Cod. Exon. 333, 3. eormengrund (terra),
Beow. 1711. (and singularly in an adj. form: ofer ealne yrmenne
grund, Cod. Exon. 243, 13). eormenstrfind (progenies). ON.
iormungrund (terra), iormungandr (anguis maximus), iormunreJcr
(taurus maximus). Erom all this may be gathered the high mythic
antiquity of these appellations, and their diffusion among all
branches of the Teutonic race ; for neither to the Goths can they
have been strange, as their famous king s name Ermanaricus
(Airmanareiks, ON. Ib rmunrekr) shows ; and beyond a doubt the
Hvrmunduri are properly Ermunduri (Gramm. 2, 175), the H being
often prefixed to all such forms.
Now whatever may be the probable meaning of the word irman,
iormun, 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.H6),with Mercury or Hermes, to
whom Greek antiquity raised similar posts and pillars, which were
themselves called Hermae, a name which suggests our Teutonic one.
The Saxons may have known more about this ;
the Eranks, in
Upper Germany, from the 8th to the 13th century, connected with
irmanstil, irminsul the general notion of a heathen image set up on
a pillar. Probably Euodolf associated with his truncus ligni the
1 The Slav, ramo, Bohem. ramenso, is with transposition the Lat. armus,
OHG. aram, and means both arm and shoulder in the Sloven, ; compound
does this point to
ramen-velik, valde magnus, it intensifies exactly like irman ;
an affinity between irman and arm ?
Schailarik 1, 427.
Arminius too is worth considering ; conf.