Germanic art, artefacts and runes, BC-AD; news & discussion (2024)

Rodoorn

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03-29-2024, 08:47 PM (This post was last modified: 03-29-2024, 08:47 PM by Rodoorn.)

(03-29-2024, 08:41 PM)JonikW Wrote:

(03-29-2024, 08:24 PM)Rodoorn Wrote:

(03-29-2024, 08:16 PM)JonikW Wrote: Just had a quick look at that paper. I think he's reading way too much into wrist clasps, which were in my view just a convenient dress fastening adopted in the Anglian area that also offered opportunities for display. Same with cruciform brooches, although those have a wider distribution. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if we find some trend breakers on the matrilineal front in Europe here and there though, including in parts of IA Britain. I think Cartimandua might hint at that as well as the acceptance of Boudicca.

I'm inclined to disagree, claps, brooches is not because of convenience but transmits a "social sign".

Agree that such objects could and often did transmit a social sign. With wrist clasps in particular though they were just so common and often such poor quality that I don't see any grounds to think they weren't essentially functional. The same with the glorified safety pins that were the brooches. The small-long brooches are often extremely basic but of course they could be costly and elaborate. Those are very similar in design to cruciform brooches but don't end in an animal head.

But I always like ideas that break new ground and challenge our assumptions so I'll enjoy pondering this theory.

Agree without embracing it completely it gives a kind of perspective about the shifts in the Germanic world in migration time especially about their believes, values etc as for example represented in (the multilayered of course) Beowulf.

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JonikW

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04-03-2024, 05:29 PM

I'm in Malta and was lucky enough to visit the Roman villa at Rabat today. I was excited to see acanthus growing in the garden at the entrance to the site. I don't think I've ever seen the plant in real life before so I was over the moon given the role of acanthus leaves in so much art over the millennia, especially from my spheres of interest in the Roman period and the Anglo-Saxon age when acanthus featured in the Winchester style in manuscripts and on artefacts including copper-alloy strap ends. The Carolingians loved the acanthus leaf too, which is apparently what influenced its adoption by the late Anglo-Saxons. Here's a couple of pics from today for any fellow ancient art enthusiasts. :-)

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Ambiorix

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04-04-2024, 08:50 PM

I find myself gravitating more and more toward the content of Germanic folklore and mythology, and recently came up with an interesting solution to the dilemma of Tuisto/*Twistaz and the role of this deity prior to replacement by/metamorphosis into the figure Buri, who is freed from ice by the primordial cow Auðumbla. For the purposes of this post, I will be consulting the Thomas Gordon translation of Tacitus’ Germania (available here: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/ta...nygord.asp) – everyone will readily recognise the mention of Tuisto as a founder of the Germanic peoples in their ancient songs:

Quote:“In their old ballads (which amongst them are the only sort of registers and history) they celebrate Tuisto, a God sprung from the earth, and Mannus his son, as the fathers and founders of the nation” (Tac. Germ. I)

In this context, it is important to note the fact Tacitus equivocates Nerthus (erroneously referred to as Herthum by Gordon) with the Roman goddess Terra Mater (here translated as “Mother Earth”):

Quote:“What on the contrary ennobles the Langobards is the smallness of their number, for that they, who are surrounded with very many and very powerful nations, derive their security from no obsequiousness or plying; but from the dint of battle and adventurous deeds. There follow in order the Reudignians, and Aviones, and Angles, and Varinians, and Eudoses, and Suardones and Nuithones; all defended by rivers or forests. Nor in one of these nations does aught remarkable occur, only that they universally join in the worship of Herthum; that is to say, the Mother Earth. Her they believe to interpose in the affairs of man, and to visit countries. In an island of the ocean stands the wood Castum: in it is a chariot dedicated to the Goddess, covered over with a curtain, and permitted to be touched by none but the Priest. Whenever the Goddess enters this her holy vehicle, he perceives her; and with profound veneration attends the motion of the chariot, which is always drawn by yoked cows. Then it is that days of rejoicing always ensue, and in all places whatsoever which she descends to honour with a visit and her company, feasts and recreation abound. They go not to war; they touch no arms; fast laid up is every hostile weapon; peace and repose are then only known, then only beloved, till to the temple the same priest reconducts the Goddess when well tired with the conversation of mortal beings. Anon the chariot is washed and purified in a secret lake, as also the curtains; nay, the Deity herself too, if you choose to believe it. In this office it is slaves who minister, and they are forthwith doomed to be swallowed up in the same lake. Hence all men are possessed with mysterious terror; as well as with a holy ignorance what that must be, which none see but such as are immediately to perish” (Tac. Germ. II).

Unlike what older scholarship speculates, I think the rendition of Nerthus as Terra Mater has less to do with the idea of the goddess as an earth deity and more to do with the fact Nerthus was an agricultural and fertility goddess associated with sacrificial victims and domesticated animals, a trait shared with the Roman Terra Mater:

Quote:“Although the temple of Tellus on the Esquiline dates from only 268, there are reasons for believing that the site had been consecrated to her for more than two centuries at least. 2 In any case, the principal festival is very ancient. 3 On 15 April, two days after the Ides, there took place a veritable sacred slaughter. In the buildings of the thirty curiae, on the Capitol, and also privately, in the fields, there was the sacrifice forda boue , of a cow in calf, in the ceremony called Fordicidia. From the fact that the festival is not named after the goddess but after the act, it has sometimes been concluded that the goddess was not involved in it in primitive times and that the rite was originally based on pure magic, directly coercing nature without the intermediacy of a divine person. This is an intellectual view, which is contradicted by the descriptions. In all instances it is a question of sacrifices whose beneficiary is Tellus (Ov. F. 4.634: Telluri . . . uictima plena datur; 665: Tellus placanda ) or, in Greek, “Demeter” (Lyd. Mens. 4.72).
The principle of this sacrifice is clear. As Ovid says, it takes place at the moment when everything is gravid, the earth with its sowings, as well as the beasts. This is why a pregnant victim is offered to the pregnant Tellus, both by virtue of the ordinary symbolic rule that a divinity is offered victims which are hom*ologous to it (male or female, according to its sex; white, red, or black, according to the domain or the effect of its action); and also in order to provide this divinity, in a different form, with what it is supposed to produce. The establishment of the rites was attributed to Numa. One year all vegetable and animal fertility seemed to be corrupted; from the first shoots, Ceres deceived the farmer, the cows aborted, the ewes died while lambing . . . Numa consults Faunus, the giver of oracles and the expert, if not the trustee, of the secrets of life. The god answers him enigmatically: “O King, thou must appease Earth by the death of two cows: let one heifer yield two lives in sacrifice.” Egeria provides the solution to the riddle : “ What is demanded of thee,” she tells the king, “are the inwards of a pregnant cow.” Numa obeys the order; “the year proved more fruitful, and earth and cattle yielded their increase” (Ov. F. 4.641-72).
Sacrifice of cows in calf are rare elsewhere in the world. Recently Mme Marie-Jose Tubiana gave a fine description and analysis of several such sacrifices in a group of African societies, 4 but the most useful parallel is furnished by the Vedic Indians, who use another enigmatic expression, astapadl “the cow with eight feet,” to designate the victim. The Roman and the Indian rites have a parallel development, and once again the commentaries of the brahmins provide a simultaneous explanation of the Roman and the Indian ritual” (Dumézil 1966**, 371-372 - https://archive.org/details/ArchaicRoman...1/mode/2up).

Quote:“The Cerialia of 19 April — which later became the end of a period beginning on 12 April — follow by four days the Fordicidia of the fifteenth. Such an interval always proclaims a relationship between the festivals which its separates, and thus here connects Tellus and Ceres, while still respecting their difference. There is a close symbolic correspondence of the two rituals to their respective roles. Cows in calf were immolated to the “pregnant** Earth; of the Cerialia, except for the sacrifice of the animal appropriate to the goddess, the fertile sow (at least in the private cult, Ov. F. 4.413, on 12 April), only one rite is known. It concerns, in advance, the grown crops” (Ibid., 375).

Although Nerthus is being invoked as Terra Mater, this is only based on a few vegetal and sacrificial characteristics common to the respective goddesses, as emphasized by the ritual of the cattle-drawn cart, which for a Roman audience would make most sense when compared to Terra Mater. Furthermore, rather than being associated with the earth itself, Nerthus and later Njordr have a distinctly aquatic association, hence the sacrifice of the slaves into the lake alongside the idol of Nerthus. Although there is the possibility of a primordial water motif at work, the distinct appearance of Jord as personification of the earth in later Norse myth (in combination with the potential early attestation of the personified earth-goddess as Dea Hludana) would suggest that Nerthus was not necessarily the personified earth, but rather that the justification for rendering Nerthus as Terra Mater in theinterpretatio romana has become lost in translation for modern audiences and that this title simply emphasizes shared associations with fertility, cattle, and sacrificial rites.

Considering the above-mentioned factors, I arrived at a rather curious solution to the remark of Tuisto as being literally born out of the earth itself – what if Tuisto is supposed to be envisioned as a tree and therefore the basis for the Germanic motif of humanity being born from trees? This act of Tuisto being born from the ground would not only be a poetical description of this tree divinity sprouting out of the soil but would also have some fascinating implications for the later Yggdrasil as a cosmic and all-encompassing axis mundiconnecting the various worlds together (I have not come across this interpretation before). In this context, Tacitus’ description of the grove of the Semnones and their regnator omnium deus potentially reflects a direct attestation of the worship of Tuisto as a celebrated founder figure for all the Germanic tribes (if this is not a mention of *Wodanaz as *Irmunijaz, “enormous, universal, immense”):

Quote:“Of all the Suevians, the Semnones recount themselves to be the most ancient and most noble. The belief of their antiquity is confirmed by religious mysteries. At a stated time of the year, all the several people descended from the same stock, assemble by their deputies in a wood; consecrated by the idolatries of their forefathers, and by superstitious awe in times of old. There by publicly sacrificing a man, they begin the horrible solemnity of their barbarous worship. To this grove another sort of reverence is also paid. No one enters it otherwise than bound with ligatures, thence professing his subordination and meanness, and the power of the Deity there. If he fall down, he is not permitted to rise or be raised, but grovels along upon the ground. And of all their superstition, this is the drift and tendency; that from this place the nation drew their original, that here God, the supreme Governor of the world, resides, and that all things else whatsoever are subject to him and bound to obey him. The potent condition of the Semnones has increased their influence and authority, as they inhabit an hundred towns; and from the largeness of their community it comes, that they hold themselves for the head of the Suevians” (Tac. Germ. II).

While regnator omnium deus has traditionally been interpreted to refer to Odin, the idea of the god being born within the grove would still suggest a certain divine power conferred by being surrounded by trees in this central cultic location (in fact, the Odin-Yggdrasil sacrificial myth might derive from an earlier myth surrounding *Irmunijaz). The fact regnator omnium deus is seemingly implied to be a separate divinity from either “Mars” or “Mercury” (the latter of whom is mentioned as the chief deity among the Germanic tribes) is particularly interesting, especially since Tacitus seems to formulate a unique expression for the deity he is concerned with rather than glossing this deity with the name of a Roman god. If one accepts this interpretation of Tuisto as a tree, then the notion of the hermaphroditic character of Tuisto (implied by the *twi- “twice, twofold” root) would actually reference trees as seemingly self-generating compared to other living organisms, from which all other beings in this cosmology bifurcate and depend on the cosmic tree as a singular, self-containing, and vegetal being.

**I would like to note that in my previous post I made a typo where I accidentally typed “1996” instead of “1966”, apologies!

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Orentil

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Yesterday, 04:53 PM (This post was last modified: 11 hours ago by Orentil.)

(03-27-2024, 09:20 PM)Orentil Wrote: I just ordered a copy of the brand new issue of "Archäologie in Deutschland" with the title "Völkerwanderungszeit im Norden" (of Germany) with articles about Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern during the migration period. https://wbg-zeitschriften.de/produkt/voe...im-norden/
This journal is rather in a popular scientific style and the articles are rather short but the authors are well known archaeologists. Let's see if there is something relevant for our discussion topics. If yes, I will report it here.

In the meantime I received and read the above mentioned journal (available for 10 € as an e-paper). It contains indeed some nice information. For example in the article by Daniel Winger "Monster und Menschen – tierstilverzierte Funde" there are some nice finds like the one below from Groß Strömkendorf near Wismar, i.e. at the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It seems to be of Scandinavian origin (google translation):
“The fitting comes from Groß Strömkendorf near Wismar, the Reric trading center. In terms of form and design, the closest parallel can be found in the horse harness II of the boat grave 6 in Valsgärde in Uppsala from the late 7th century. The entire fitting is a collection of images: If you turn it, you get a large "beast" with a gaping mouth and bared teeth, big eyes and pointed chin. Between the tips of the teeth there is a notched circle, which also represents an animal head when supplemented with a mouth or beak. Its mouth, in turn, contains the head of a creature that has completely disappeared into the mouth of the large animal and can probably be addressed as a (animal) human. The fitting was old and had been carefully repaired; traces on the back also show that there was a change in the way it was worn: the picture was obviously intended to be preserved. Other new finds come from the Reric area, such as a sword pommel, which also refers to Valsgärde, so that this may have been a place of exchange and contact even before the 8th century.”
"Only when you look closer you discover all the mysterious details on the fittings in Groß Strömkendorf: Monster eats sun? Big monster eats man? Man tames little monster? Human with crippled legs and feathered hands?"

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Orentil

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11 hours ago (This post was last modified: 11 hours ago by Orentil.)

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Orentil

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11 hours ago (This post was last modified: 11 hours ago by Orentil.)

Daniel Winger is referring to this horse fitting from Valsgärde boat grave 6.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...entury.jpg

Actually, I would say that the Gross Strömkendorf fitting is a older then the Valsgärde one (mores style I, around 550 AD?).

PS:
For an analysis of the Valsgärde 6 fitting, see here.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/707065210221780937/

While the big "beast head" looks similar, I think the differences in the style of the small animal heads are clearly visible (animal style II).

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JonikW

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9 hours ago (This post was last modified: 9 hours ago by JonikW.)

(11 hours ago)Orentil Wrote: Daniel Winger is referring to this horse fitting from Valsgärde boat grave 6.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:...entury.jpg

Actually, I would say that the Gross Strömkendorf fitting is a older then the Valsgärde one (mores style I, around 550 AD?).

PS:
For an analysis of the Valsgärde 6 fitting, see here.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/707065210221780937/

While the big "beast head" looks similar, I think the differences in the style of the small animal heads are clearly visible (animal style II).

Thanks for posting all this. I can see exactly what you mean about elements of Style I but the general feeling of that Gross Strömkendorf image seems to my eye to be somewhere on the way towards Style E. Style E is typified by the Broa harness mounts and while it was undoubtedly a Scandinavian innovation that flourished in the late 8th century, as far as I know there's no clear picture on when it emerged. This stuff is infuriatingly (and enjoyably) subjective a lot of the time of course.

EDIT: Added a line on dating.

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Uintah106

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6 hours ago

(03-29-2024, 04:02 PM)Rodoorn Wrote:

(03-29-2024, 03:51 PM)Orentil Wrote: Can there be any doubt anymore that all relevant societies in Central Europe from the Neolithic to Iron Age have been patrilineal? It seems that any genetic study on kinship is confirming it.

Well ok, as such the structure is in IE-cultures has been patrilineair.Literally.

But this is more about "ideology" / "religion". So values.

It's indeed a change that Nerthus disappeared from the scene, contemporain with the whole shift from Gudme to the Lerje/Scyldingas kingdom....

The achivments of Capitalism and limited Government(Originating in Britian)Are indisputiable (see Ludvig von Mises) the leftwing backlash including this notion that IE was somehow matrileanal is absurd

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Uintah106

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6 hours ago

(03-29-2024, 04:02 PM)Rodoorn Wrote:

(03-29-2024, 03:51 PM)Orentil Wrote: Can there be any doubt anymore that all relevant societies in Central Europe from the Neolithic to Iron Age have been patrilineal? It seems that any genetic study on kinship is confirming it.

Well ok, as such the structure is in IE-cultures has been patrilineair.Literally.

But this is more about "ideology" / "religion". So values.

It's indeed a change that Nerthus disappeared from the scene, contemporain with the whole shift from Gudme to the Lerje/Scyldingas kingdom....

The achivments of Capitalism and limited Government(Originating in Britian)Are indisputiable (see Ludvig von Mises) the leftwing backlash including this notion that IE was somehow matrileanal is absurd

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