TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

76 TEMPLES.
Still more unmistakably does this forest cultus prevail in the
North, protected by the longer duration of heathenism. The great
sacrifice at Ledera described by Dietmar (see p. 48) was performed
in the island which, from its even now magnificent beech-woods,
bore the name of Scelundr, sea-grove, and was the finest grove in all
Scandinavia. The Swedes in like manner solemnized their festival
of sacrifice in a grove near Upsala ; Adam of Bremen says of the
animals sacrificed: Corpora suspenduntur in lucum qui proximus
est templo ; is enim lucus tarn sacer est gentibus, ut singulae
arbores ejus ex morte vel tabo immolatorum divinae credantur. Of
HlotJr HeiSreksson we are told in the Hervararsaga cap. 16
(fornald. sog. 1, 491), that he was born with arms and horse in the
Iwly wood (a mork hinni helgu). In the grove Glasislundr a bird
sits on the boughs and demands sacrifices, a temple and gold-horned
cows, Saem. 140-1. The sacred trees of the Edda, Yggdrasil and
Mimamei&r, Ssem. 109 a , hardly need reminding of.
Lastly, the agreement of the Slav, Prussian, Finnish and Celtic
paganisms throws light upon our own, and tends to confirm it.
Dietmar of Merseburg (Pertz 5, 812) affirms of the heathen temple
at : Eiedegost quam undique sylva ab incolis intacta et venerabilis
circumdat magna ; (ibid. 816) he relates how his ancestor Wibert
about the year 1008 rooted up a grove of the Slavs : lucum Zuti-
bure dictum, ab accolis ut deum in omnibus honoratum, et ab aevo
antiquo nunquam violatum, radicitus eruens, sancto martyri
Eomano in eo ecclesiam construxit. Zutibure is for Sveti bor
holy forest, from bor (fir), pine-barren ; a Merseburg document of
1012 already mentions an ecclesia in Scutibure, Zeitschr. f.
archivkunde, 1, 162, An ON. saga (Fornm. sog. 11, 382) names a
Uotlundr (sacrificial grove) at Strsela, called Boku, Helmold 1, 1
says of the Slavs : usque hodie profecto inter illos, cum cetera
bark peeled off) quern venerabantur pro deo. Names given to particular trees
are at the same time names of goddesses, e.g. ON. Hlin, Gna. it is worthy of
notice, that the heathen idea of divine figures on trees has crept into Christian
legends, so deeply rooted was tree worship among the people. I refer doubters
to the story of the Tyrolese image of grace, which grew up in a forest tree
(Deutsche sagen, no. 348). In Carinthia you find Madonna figures fixed on the
trees in gloomy groves (Sartoris reise 2, 165). Of like import seem to be the
descriptions of wonderful maidens sitting inside hollow trees, or perched on the
boughs (Marienkind, hausmarchen no. 3. Romance de la infantina, see ch.
XVI.). Madonna in the wood, Mar. legend. 177. Many oaks with Madonnas
in Normandy, Bosquet 196-7.