TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

3G2 HEROES.
extended in four directions, four such highways are likewise known
to English tradition, though it gives the name of Ermingestret to
only one, and bestows other mythic titles on the rest. Of Irmin
and of Iring, both the divine personality and the lapse into hero-
nature seem to be made out.
2. MA ESQ. GAMBARO. SUAPO.
Now that I have expounded the primeval triad of Germanic
races, I have to offer some conjectures on the sevenfold division.
Pliny s quintuple arrangement seems not so true to fact, his Vindili
are Tacitus s Vandilii, his Peucini not referable to any founder of a
race. But Tacitus to his first three adds four other leading races,
the Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi and Vandilii, in whose names there
exists neither alliteration nor the weak form as a mark of deriva
tion.
The Marsi between Rhine and Weser, an early race which soon
disappears, in whose country the Tanfana sanctuary stood, lead up
to a hero Marso, whom we must not mix up with the Pioman Mars
gen. Martis, nor with Marsus the son of Circe (who in like manner
gives name to an Italian people, Gellius 16, 11. Pliny 7, 2.
Augustine in Ps. 57). The Marsigni = Marsingi, a Suevic people,
acknowledged the same name and origin. The proper name Marso
occurs in Mabillon no. 18, in a deed of 692, also in the polypt.
Irminonis p. 158 a 163 b , but seldom elsewhere. Jl/em burg and
Marseburg, Pertz 8, 537. 540, seem to belong here, while some
other names given above, p. 201, are open to doubt; I do not
know if a MHG. phrase, obscure in itself, is at all relevant : zuo
alien marsen varn, MS. 1, 25a which , may signify, to go to all the
devils, expose oneself to every danger ; conf. einen marsen man/
Crane 2865. The Gothic marzjan (irnpedire, offendere) might seem
allied to the root, but that would have been merrian, merran
in OHG.
The name of the Gambrivii I assign to the root gambar,
kambar strenuus, from which also is derived the name of Gambara,
ancestress of the Langobards. There may have been likewise a
hero Gambaro. And the forest of Gambreta (instead of Gabreta).
is worth considering. Gambara s two sons are called Ibor = OHG.
Epur, AS. Eofor, ON. lofur, i.e. aper, boar, and Ajo : all the three
names appear to be corrupt in Saxo Gram.