TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

zio. 199
no. 115 (1201) mons Martis; no. 153 (1219 Mersberch;
no. 167
(1222) Eresberch ; no. 179 (1228) mons Martis ; no. 186 (1229)
mons Heresberg ; no. 189 (1230) mons Martis and Mersberg.
Mons Martis was the learned name, Mersberg the popular, and
Eresberg the oldest. As mons and castellum are used by turns,
berg and burg are equally right. Widukind 2, 11 and Dietmar 2, 1
spell Heresbwrg and Eresburch, when they describe the taking of
the place in 938. According to the Ann. Corb. (Pertz 5, 8), they
are sacred to both Ares and Hermes (Mars and Mercury).
The names of plants also confess the god : ON. Tysfiola, I dare
say after the Lat. viola Martis, march- violet; Tyrhialm (aconitum),
otherwise Thorhialm, Thorhat (helmet, hat), conf. Germ, sturmhut,
eisenhut, Dan. troldhat, a herb endowed with magic power, whose
helmet-like shape might suggest either of those warlike gods Tyr and
Thorr; Tym&r9 T!y& wood, Dan. Tyved, Tysved (daphne mezereum),
in the Helsing. dial, tis, tisfbast, the mezereon, a beautiful poison-
flower (see Suppl.).
While these names of places and plants sufficiently vouch for
the wide-spread worship of the god, we must lay particular stress
on one thing, that the name for the third day of the week, which
is what we started with, bears living witness to him at this moment,
not only in Scandinavia and England (ON. Tysdagr, Swed. Tisdag,
Dan. Tirsdag, AS. Tiwesdseg), but among the common people in
Swabia and Switzerland (Ziestag, Tiestag, diestik, beside our uni
versal Dienstag); Schm. 4, 214 brings all the forms together. And
there is yet one more testimony to the high antiquity of Zio-worship
in Swabia, which we may gather from an old Wessobrunn gloss
Cyuvari = Suapa, MB. 7, 375 and Diut. 2, 370; which I take to
be not Teutonoari, as Zeuss does, pp. 146-9, but Ziowari Martern
colentes, warian expressing, like Lat. colere, both habitare and
OepcLTrevew, so that the Suevi are OepaTrovTes "Aprjos.
But that is not all : further and weighty disclosures on the
name and nature of the war-god await us at the hands of the Eunic
alphabet.
It is known that each separate rune has a name to itself, and
these names vary more or less according to the nations that use them,
but they are mostly very ancient words. The OHG. runes having
to bestow the name dorn on D, and tac on T, require for their
aspirate Z which closes the alphabet the name of Zio. In the ON.