TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

isis. 257
DEAE HLUDANAE SACEVM C. TIBERIVS VERVS. Hludana
is neither a Roman nor a Celtic goddess, but her name answers
perfectly to that of the Norse divinity, and Sk. Thorlacius has the
merit of having recognised and learnedly proved the identity of the
two. 1 In this inscription I see striking evidence of the oneness of
Norse and German mythology. Thorlacius, not without reason,
compares the name with ATJTCI) and Latona. Might not Hldrriffi,
an epithet of Thorr the son of Hloftyn, be explained as Hloftridi ?
2. TANFANA. NEHALENNIA.
Another goddess stands wrapt in thicker darkness, whom
Tacitus calls Tanfana, and a stone inscription Tamfana (TAM-
FANAE SACRUM, p. 80). We are sure of her name, and the
termination -ana is the same as in Hludana and other fern, proper
names, Bertana, Rapana, Madana. The sense of the word, and
with it any sure insight into the significance of her being, are
locked up from us,
We must also allude briefly to the Belgian or Frisian dea
NeJialennia, about whose name several inscriptions of like import 2
remove all doubt ; but the word has also given rise to forced and
unsatisfying interpretations. In other inscriptions found on the
lower part of the Rhine there .occur compounds, whose termination
(-nekis, -nehabus, dat. plurals fern.) seems to contain the same word
that forms the first half of Nehalennia ; their plural number
appears to indicate nymphs rather than a goddess, yet there also
hangs about them the notion of a mother (^see ch. XVI, the
Walachuriun).
3. (Isis).
The account in Tacitus of the goddess Isis carries us much
farther, because it can be linked with living traditions of a cultus
that still lingered in the Mid. Ages. Immediately after mentioning
the worship of Mercurius, Hercules, and Mars, he adds (cap. 9) :
Pars Suevorum et Isidi sacrificat Unde causa et origo peregrine
1
Antiq. bor. spec. 3, Hafn. 1782. Conf. Fiedler, gesch. tindalt. cles imtern
Germaniens, 1, *22(i. Steiner s cod. inscr. Rheni no. 632. Gotfr. b chiitze, in his
essay De dea Hludana, Lips. 1748, perceived the value of the stone, but could
not discern the bearings of the matter.
2 Montfaucon ant. expl. 2, 443. Vredii hist. Flandr. 1, xliv. Mem. de
1 acad. celt. 1, 199245. Mone, heidenth. 2, 346.
17