Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

The Irminsul 53
the sign and symbol of this sky-god that the ancient Saxons wor-
shipped a high pillar named the IrminsiV^. Thus, when Charles the
Great in 772 A.D. destroyed one of their cult-centres near Eresburg
in Westphalia, he overthrew a great trunk of timber erected under
the open sky and reverenced by the natives as the Inninstll, a worldpillar
supporting all thingsl Again, in 530 A.D. the Saxons had won
a great victory over the Thuringians at Scheidungen on the Unstrut.
' And, ' when morning dawned,' says Widukind', they set up an eagle
at the eastern gate and, erecting an altar of victory, worshipped their
melsgott ' in Abhandlungen zur germanischcn Philologie (Festgabe fiir Richard Heinzel)
Halle a. S. 1898 p. 197 ff.
' The best collection of evidence is still that of J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans.
J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 115 fif., 353 ff-, 1883 ii. 799f., 1888 iv. 1312, 1322.
Cp. E. H. Meyer Germanische Mythologic Berlin 1891 pp. 17, 83, W. Golther Handbiich
ff., R. Much
dcr gennanischen Mythologie Leipzig 1895 p. 593 '
gott '
Der germanische Himmels-
in Abhandlungen zur germanischen Philologie {Festgabe fiir Richard Heinzel) Halle
a. S. 1898 p. 203, K. Miillenhoff Deutsche Altertumsktmde Berlin 1900 iv. 520 ff.,
P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye The Religion of the Teutons Boston and London 1902
pp. 124 f., 360, Forrer Reallex. p. 389, R. M. Meyer Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte
Leipzig 1910 p. 192, K. Helm Altger?nanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 1913
P- 339 f-
" Rudolph of Fulda translatio S. Alexa?idri 3 (G. H. Pertz Monumenta Gerinaniae
historica Hannoverae 1829 ii. 676) Frondosis arboribus fontibusque venerationem ex-
hibebant. Truncum quoque ligni non parvae magnitudinis in altum erectum sub divo
colebant, patria eum lingua Irminsul appellantes, quod latine dicitur universalis columna,
quasi sustinens omnia. This passage was penned between 863 and March 865 A.D. It
may therefore be regarded as containing a comparatively trustworthy tradition of events
that had happened less than a century earlier. But we must beware of mistranslating the
last two clauses. P. D. Chantepie de la Saussaye Tlie Religion of the Teutons Boston
and London 1902 p. 124 f. renders 'a wooden pillar of unusual size in the open air,
worshipped in common, and whose destruction was a national calamity.' This interpreta-
tion (though in agreement with that of W. Mannhardt Wald- und Feldkulte- Berlin 1904
i. 303 ff., who took the Irniinsill to be the " Lebensbaum der Volksgesammtheit ') is
certainly wrong. The Latin ujtiversalis columna, quasi sustinens omnia can mean only
that the pillar in question was conceived to be the prop or central support of the universe.
This is clearly perceived and, to my thinking, successfully proved by F. Hertlein Die
Jitppitergigantensdulen Stuttgart 19 10 p. 73 ff.
' Widukind res gestae Saxonicae i. 12 (G. H. Pertz Monumenta Germaniae historica
Hannoverae 1839 iii. 423 f.) Mane autem facto ad orientalem portam ponunt aquilam,
aramque victoriae construentes, secundum errorem paternum sacra sua propria veneraiione
venerati sunt ; nomine Martem, efifigie columpnarum maitantes Herculem, loco Solem,
quern Graeci appellant Apollinem. Ex hoc apparet aestimationem illorum utcumque
probabilem, qui Saxones originem duxisse putant de Graecis, quia Hirmin vel Hermis
graece Mars dicitur quo vocabulo ad laudem vel ad vituperationem usque hodie etiam
;
t>
ignorantes utimur. K. Miillenhoff Deutsche Altertumskunde Berlin 1900 iv. 520 ff.,
following Pertz ad loc, understands ara?H... victoriae as an Irminsiil and construes nomine
{arae imitantes) Martem, effigie cohunpnarum (arae) imitantes Herculem, loco {arae imitantes)
Solem. See iitfra § 3 (a) iii (o). As to Widukind's concluding remark, J. Grimm
Teutonic Mythology trans. J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 354 f., 1888 iv. 1388 notes
that in Westphalia and Hesse the name Irmin still survives in a variety of popular sayings
under the forms Herm, Herme, Hermen, Herman, etc.