Northern mythology

APPENDIX. 263
set up and regarded as images of tlie gods. Raised-up
poles or beams were, no doubt, also among tbe Germans
the prevailing and still symbolic species of images. The
Irmenseule was such a pole : to such an image, if so it can
be called, to a simple up -raised pillar, does the beforequoted
passage of Widukind allude'.
That prayers to the gods were frequently composed in a
metrical form, that religious songs and poems existed, is
evident from the circumstance that the Langobardi offered
to one of their gods the head of a goat, with certain ceremonies
and accompanied by a song^. The passage which
gives this account affords ground for the supposition that
certain saltations took place at the sacrifices. And why
should there not be religious songs at this period, when, at
a still earlier, songs in honour of Hercules v^'ere sung before
a battle, when Tacitus makes mention of old mythoepic
songs in which the traditions of the German people
were recorded ? The oldest poetry of a nation generally
attaches itself closely to religion, and the numerous forms
of adjurations and spells, which through tradition we have
inherited from heathenism, are for the most part composed
in a rhythmical garb.
It may, therefore, be reasonably
supposed that the popular songs were, in the first
Christian centuries, so bitterly decried by the clergy because
they contained many remains of heathenism, and,
consequently, seemed perilous to Christianity. The stigmatizing
of the popular songs as carmina diabolica, the
predicates turpia, inepta, obscoena applied to them give
to this supposition additional strength; and the Capitularies
explicitly forbid dances and songs as relics of
1 Milller, p. 70.
2 Gregor. M. Dialog. III. 28 : Caput caprse ei (dial)olo) per circuitum
curretites, carmine nefando dedieantes. In the grove of sacrifice by Upsala
ncenicE inlionestcB resounded.
Ad. Brem. p. 144, edit. Lindenbrog.