TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

354 HEROES.
in it the name of the war-god brought out on p. 202, Eru, Hern/
and to dissect Irman, Erman into Ir-man, Er-man, though, to judge
by the forms Irmin, Eormen, Ermun, lormun, this is far from
probable, the word being derivative indeed, yet simple, not com
pound ; we never find, in place of Ertag, dies Martis, any such
form as Ermintac, Irminestac. On behalf of Mercury there would
of the name Irmansul
speak the accidental, 1
yet striking similarity
or Hirmensul to Epprjs and ep^a = prop, stake, pole, pillar (p.
118), and that it was precisely Hermes s image or head that used
to be set up on such ep/juara, and further, that the Mid. Ages
referred the irmen-pillars to Mercury (p. 116). In Hirmin the
Saxons appear to have worshipped a Wodan imaged as a warrior.
If this view be well grounded, we have Wodan wedging himself
into the ancient line of heroes ; but the question is, whether Irmin
is not to be regarded as a second birth or son of the god, whethejj
even an ancestral hero Irmino is not to be distinguished from this
god Irmin, as Hermino in Tacitus is from Arminius ? So from thiod,
regin, were formed the names Thiodo, Ilegino.
It would be harder
to show any such relation between Ing and Ingo, Isc and Isco; but I
think I can suggest another principle which will decide this point :
when races name themselves after a famous ancestor, this may be a
deified man, a demigod, but never a purely divine being. There are
Ingaevones, Iscaevones, Herminones, Oescingas, Scilfingas, Ynglingar
(for Ingingar), Vb lsungar, Skioldungar, Mfitmgar, 2 as there were
Heracleidae and Pelopidae, but no Wodeningas or Thunoringas,
though a Wodening and a Kronides. The Anglo-Saxons, with
Woden always appearing at their head, would surely have borne
the name of Wodeningas, had it been customary to take name
from the god himself. Nations do descend from the god, but
name tli em-
through the medium of a demigod, and after him they
selves. A national name taken from the highest god would have
been impious arrogance, and alien to human feeling.
As Lower Saxony, especially Westphalia, was a chief seat of
the Irmin-worship, we may put by the side of Widukind s account
of Hirmin a few other traces of his name, which is not even yet
1 To the Greek aspirate corresponds a Teutonic S, not H : 6, 17 sa, so ;
sibun ; SXs salt. [There are exceptions : 6, 17, ot he, her, hig ; oXoy whole,
hela cXoi ; haul, holen].
2 A patronymic suffix is not : necessary the Gautos, Gevissi, Suapa take
name from Gauts, Gevis, Suap, divine heroes.