THE name of this venerated idol has been spelt with varying orthography. The Saxon Chronicle, published at Mentz in 1492, calls it Armensula, which accords with the pronunciation of modern Saxony. The appellation adhered to by Meibomius, the most elaborate investigator of this curious object of Saxon idolatry, is Irminsula.26 IT stood at Eresberg, on the Dimele.27 This place the Saxon Chronicle above mentioned calls Marsburg. The Rhyming Chronicle of the thirteenth century writes it Mersberg, which is the modern name.28 Its temple was spacious, elaborate, and magnificent. The image was raised upon a marble column. 29 THE predominant figure was an armed warrior. Its right hand held a banner, in which a red rose was conspicuous; its left presented a balance. The crest of its helmet was a cock; on its breast was engraven a bear, and the shield depending from its shoulders exhibited a lion in a field full of flowers.30 The expressions of Adam of Bremen seem to intimate that it was of wood, and that the place where it stood had no roof. It was the largest idol of all Saxony, and according to Rolwinck, a writer of the fifteenth century, whose authorities are not known to us, though the warlike image was the principal figure, three others were about it. 31 From the chronicle called the Vernacular Chronicle, we learn that the other Saxon temples had pictures of the Irminsula. 32 PRIESTS of both sexes attended the temple. The women applied themselves to divination and fortune-telling; the men sacrificed, and often intermeddled with political affairs, as their sanction was thought to insure success. THE priests of the Irminsula at Eresberg appointed the gow graven, the governors of the districts of continental Saxony. They also named the judges, who annually de26 Meibom. p. 6. It has been called Irminsulus, Irminsul, Irmindsul, Erminsul, Hermansaul, Hormensul, Hermesuel, Hermensul, and Adurmensul, ibid. 27 Ibid. c. ii. p. 6. 28 Ibid. p. 7. 29 Ibid. c. iii. p. 8. 30 Ibid. p. 9. The particular descriptions of this idol are all taken from the Saxon Chronicle printed at Mentz. CHAP. III. 31 Meibom. c. iii. p. 9. 32 Ibid. III. CHAP. cided the provincial disputes. There were sixteen of these judges: the eldest, and therefore the chief, was called Gravius; the youngest, Frono, or attendant; the rest were Freyerichter, or free judges. They had jurisdiction over seventy-two families. Twice a year, in April and October, the Gravius and the Frono went to Eresberg, and there made a placatory offering of two wax lights and nine pieces of money. If any of the judges died in the year, the event was notified to the priests, who, out of the seventy-two families, chose a substitute. In the open air, before the door of the person appointed, his election was seven times announced to the people in a loud voice, and this was his inauguration. In the hour of battle, the priests took their favourite image from its column, and carried it to the field. After the conflict, captives and the cowardly of their own army, were immolated to the idol. 33 Meibomius states two stanzas of an ancient song, in which the son of a Saxon king, who had lost a battle, complains that he was delivered to the priest to be sacrificed. 24 He adds, that, according to some writers, the ancient Saxons, and chiefly their military, on certain solemn days, clothed in armour, and brandishing iron cestus, rode round the idol, and, sometimes dismounting to kneel before it, bowed down and murmured out their prayers for help and victory. 35 To whom this great image was erected, is a question 33 Meib. c. iii. p. 10. Tacitus mentions generally of the Germans, that they detached their idols and banners from their sacred groves, and carried them to the field of battle. 54 The verses are, Germ. s. 7. Sol ich nun in Gottes fronen hende In meinen aller besten tagen Geben werden, und sterben so elende Das musz ich wol hochlich klagen. Wen mir das glucke fuget hette Dorffte ich nicht leisten diese wette 35 Meibom. p. 11. Meibom. p. 10. 36 full of uncertainty. Because Epuns approached the sound of Irminsul, and Apps that of Eresbergh, it has been referred to Mars and Mercury. Some considered it a memorial of the celebrated Arminius 37; and one has laboured to prove that it was an hieroglyphical effigy, intended for no deity in particular. 38 IN 772, this venerated object of Saxon superstition was thrown down and broken, and its fane destroyed, by Charlemagne. For three days the work of demolition was carried on by one part of the army, while the other remained under arms. Its immense wealth and precious vessels were distributed to the conquerors, or devoted to pious uses. 39 THE fate of the column of the image after its eversion may be noticed. 40 It was thrown into a waggon, and buried on the Weser, in a place where Corbey afterwards stood. It was found again in the reign after Charlemagne, and was transported beyond the Weser. The Saxons attempting to rescue it, a battle ensued on the spot, which was afterwards called Armensula, from the incident. The Saxons were repulsed, and, to prevent further chances, 96 Ibid. c. v. p. 11. 37 The names to this supposition are very respectable. 38 Joannes Goropius Beccanius is the person whose reveries are given at length in Meibomius, 13-17. We may suggest as a new opinion, that Hermansul literally expresses "The Pillar of the Lord the Moon, or of the Lord Man," whom the Germans, according to Tacitus, revered. As the moon was a male deity, Mannus and the moon may have been the same person. From the inscription mentioned below, it was clearly their war god. The similarity between Irmin and Epung may have led Tacitus to mention that the Germans chiefly worshipped Mercury, s. 9. 39 Meibom. p. 18. The image is said to have been long preserved in the monastery at Corbey. It then bore this inscription: "Formerly I was the leader and god of the Saxons. The people of war adored me. The nation who worshipped me governed the field of battle." Ibid. 40 It was about eleven feet long, and the circumference of the base was about twelve cubits. The base was of rude stone, or of gravel stone. The column was marble, of a light red colour. Its belts were of orichalchus; the upper and lower gilt, and also the one between these and the crown, which is also gilt, as is the upper circle incumbent on it, which has three heroic verses. The whole work was surrounded with iron rails, dentated to preserve it from injury. Meibom. p. 31. He has given a plate of it. VOL. I. III. CHAP. the column was hastily thrown into the Inner. A church being afterwards built in the vicinity, at Hillesheim, it was conveyed into it after much religious lustration, and placed in the choir, where it long served to hold their lights at their festivals. 41 For many ages it remained neglected and forgotten, till at length Meibomius saw it, and a canon of the church, friendly to his studies, had its rust and discoloration taken off. 42 IDOLATROUS nations are eminently superstitious. The proneness of mankind to search into futurity attempts its gratification, in the æras of ignorance, by the fallacious use of auguries, lots, and omens. ALL the German nations were addicted to these absurdities; and the account which Tacitus relates of them generally is applied by Meginhard to the ancient Saxons. They were infatuated to believe that the voices and flights of birds were interpreters of the Divine will. Horses were supposed to neigh from celestial inspiration, and they decided their public deliberations by the wisdom of lots. They cut a small branch of a fruit-tree into twigs, marked them, and scattered them at random on a white vest. The priest, if it were a public council, or the father, at a private consultation, prayed, gazed at heaven, drew each three times, and interpreted according to the mark previously impressed. If the omen were adverse, the council was deferred. 43 To explore the fate of an impending battle, they selected a captive of the nation opposing, and appointed a chosen Saxon to fight with him. They judged of their future victory or defeat by the issue of this duel. 44 41 Meibom. p. 19. and p. 31. 42 Ibid. p. 19. Our ancient Irmin-street has been lately conjectured to have been derived from the name of this idol. If so, the inference would be reasonable that it was worshipped also in England. 147. 49 Tacit. de morib. Germ. and Meginhard, p. 39.; and see Bede, p. 144. In the law of the Frisians there is a curious order of determining by lot, with twigs, who was guilty of a homicide, when it occurred in a popular tumult. See it in Lindenb. i. p. 496. Alfred, in his version of Bede, says, they hluton mid tanum, they cast lots with twigs, p. 624. 44 Meginhard, p. 39. III. THE notion which, from Chaldea, pervaded both East and CHAP. West, that the celestial luminaries influenced the fortunes of mankind, operated powerfully on the Saxon mind. Affairs were thought to be undertaken with better chance on peculiar days, and the full or new moon was the indication of the auspicious season. 45 MAGIC, the favourite delusion of ignorant man, the invention of his pride or malignity, or the resort of his imbecility, prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons. Even one of their kings chose to meet the Christian missionaries in the open air, because he fancied that magical arts had peculiar power within a house. 46 Or the speculative principles of the Anglo-Saxon Paganism we have no written evidence. But of the religion of the Northmen, which prevailed in or near the parts which the Angles and Saxons inhabited about the Elbe, and was the religion of the Northmen colonies of England, we have sufficient documents remaining. In these we probably contemplate the substance of the faith of our rude forefathers. In some respects the polytheism of the North was one of the most rational forms of its erroneous theory; and, though inferior in taste and imagination, displays on the whole a vigour and an improvement of mind beyond the classical mythology. The Edda, though wilder, has better theology than much of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is remarkable, that the Northmen venerated three principal supreme deities connected with each other by relationship. Odin, whom they called All-father, or the Universal Parent; Freya, his wife; and their son Thor. Idols of these three were placed in their celebrated temple at Upsal.47 Of these the Danes, like the Anglo-Saxons, paid the highest honours to Odin; the Norwegians and Icelanders to Thor; and the Swedes to Freya. 48 In the system of the Northmen's religion, we see the 46 Bede, i. c. 25. p. 61. 47 Ad. Brem. 45 Meginhard, p. 39. 48 Mallet. Nort. Antiq. vol. i. p. 97. So in the Edda Gangler is represented as beholding three thrones, each above the other. The lowest was called the lofty one; the second is equal; the highest was named "the third." Suppl. Nor. Ant. vol. ii. p. 282. |