Northern mythology

232 EPITOME OF GERMAN MYTHOLOGY.
her or after the Northern goddess Freyia \ but who in
Germany was probably called Frouwa ; and the goddess
Hludana, whom Thorlacius identifies with Hlodyn ^.
Of the god Saxnot nothing occurs beyond the mention
of his name in the renunciation^ which we have just seen.
In the genealogy of the kings of Essex a Seaxneat appears
as a son of Woden ^.
As the common ancestor of the German nation^ Tacitus,
on the authority of ancient poems "*, places the hero or
god Tuisco, who sprang from the earth ; whose son
Mannus had three sons, after whom are named the three
tribes, viz. the Ingsevones, nearest to the ocean ;
the Herminones,
in the middle parts ; and the Istsevones ^.
After all it is, perhaps, from the several prohibitions,
contained in the decrees of councils or declared by the laws,
that we derive the greater part of our knowledge of German
heathenism. Of these sources one of the most important
is the Indiculus Superstitionum et Paga-
NiARUM, at the end of a Capitulary of Carloman (a.d. 743),
contained in the Vatican MS. No. 577, which is a catalogue
of the heathen practices that were forbidden at the
council of Lestines (Liptinse), in the diocese of Cambrai ^.
^ The names of the sixth day of the week waver : Ohg. Fria dag, Frije
tag ; Mhg. Fritac, Vriegtag ; Mul. Vrtdach ; 0. Fris. Frigendei, Fredei ;
N. Fris. Fred ; A. Sax. Frige dag ; 0. Nor. Friadagr, Freyjudagr ;
Sw.
Dan. Fredag.
2 See page 21. MuUer, p. 88.
3 Lappenberg's England by Thorpe, i. p. 288. Midler, p. 89.
* Celebrant carminibus antiquis, quod uuum apud illos memoriae et aunalium
genus est, Tuisconem deum terra ethtum, etc.
5 Germania, c. 2.
• Although the Indiculus has been frequently printed, we venture to
give it a place here, on account of its importance for German Mythology.
Indiculus Superstitionum et Paganiarum.
I. De Sacrilegio ad Sepulchra Mortuorura.
II. De Sacrilegio super Defunctos, id est Dadsisas.
III. De SpurcaUbus in Februario.