Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

The Irminsul

53

the sign and symbol of this sky-god that the ancient Saxons wor-
shipped a high pillar named the IrminsM1. 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 IrminsM, a world-
pillar supporting all things2. 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 Widukind3, ' they set up an eagle
at the eastern gate and, erecting an altar of victory, worshipped their

melsgott' in Abhandlungen zur germanischen Philologie (Festgabe fiir Richard Heinzel)
Halle a. S. 1898 p. 197 ff.

1 The best collection of evidence is still that of J. Grimm Teutonic Mythology trans.
J. S. Stallybrass London 1882 i. 115 ff., 353 ff., 1883 ii. 799f., 1888 iv. C312, 1322.
Cp. E. H. Meyer Germanische 'Mythologie Berlin 1891 pp. 17, 83, W. Golther Handbuch
der germanischen Mythologie Leipzig 1895 p. 593 ff., R. Much ' Der germanische Himmels-
gott' in Abhandlungen znr germanischen Philologie {Festgabe fiir Richard Heinzel) Halle
a. S. 1898 p. 203, K. Miillenhoff Deutsche Altertumskunde 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 Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte Heidelberg 1913
P- 339 f-

2 Rudolph of Fulda translatio S. Alexandri 3 (G. H. Pertz Monumenta Germaniae
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 The Religion of the Teutons Boston
and London 1902 p. 124^ 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 IVald- und Feldkulte- Berlin 1904
i. 303 ff., who took the IrminsM to be the ' Lebensbaum der Volksgesammtheit') is
certainly wrong. The Latin universalis 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
Juppitergigantensdiden Stuttgart 1910 p. 73 ff.

a Widukind res gestae Saxonicae 1. 12 (G. H. Pertz Monumenta Germaniae historica
Hannoverae 1839 m- 423 ^-) Mane autem facto ad orientalem portam ponunt aquilam,
. aramque victoriae construentes, secundum errorem paternum sacra sua propria veneratione
venerati sunt ; nomine Martem, effigie columpnarum imitantes 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
ignorantes utimur. K. Miillenhoff Deutsche Altertumskunde Berlin 1900 iv. 520 ft.,
following Pertz adloc, understands aram...victoriae as an IrminsM and construes nomine
(arae imitantes) Martem, effigie columpnarum (arae) imitantes Herculem, loco (arae imi-
tantes) Solem. See infra § 3 (a) iii (oj. 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.