Irminsul - WikiHQ

thumb|The Destruction of Irminsul by Charlemagne by [[Heinrich Leutemann (1882).]]

An Irminsul (Old Saxon 'great pillar') was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III.

Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples (including Donar's Oak), and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.

Etymology

thumb|upright|left|A modern interpretation of the Irminsul, erected 1996 in Harbarnsen-Irmenseul municipality (near [[Hildesheim in Lower Saxony). The sun cross on the top is based on the coat of arms of the village of Irmenseul.]]

The Old Saxon word compound means 'great pillar'. The first element, ('great') is cognate with terms with some significance elsewhere in Germanic mythology. Among the North Germanic peoples, the Old Norse form of is , which just like is one of the names of Odin. Yggdrasil (Old Norse 'Yggr's horse') is a cosmic tree from which Odin sacrificed himself, and which connects the Nine worlds. 19th century scholar Jakob Grimm connects the name with Old Norse terms like ("great ground", i.e. the Earth) or ("great snake", i.e. the Midgard serpent).

A Germanic god Irmin, inferred from the name and the tribal name Irminones, is in some older scholarship presumed to have been the national god or demi-god of the Saxons. could also be an aspect or epithet of some other deity – most likely Wodan (Odin). Irmin might also have been an epithet of the god Ziu (Tyr) in early Germanic times, only later transferred to Odin, as certain scholars subscribe to the idea that Odin replaced Tyr as the chief Germanic deity at the onset of the Migration Period. This was the favoured view of early 20th century Nordicist writers, but it is not generally considered likely in modern times.

Attestations

Irminsuls are attested in a variety of historic works discussing the Christianization of the continental Germanic peoples.

Royal Frankish Annals

According to the Royal Frankish Annals (772 AD), during the Saxon Wars, Charlemagne is repeatedly described as ordering the destruction of the chief seat of their religion, an Irminsul. The Irminsul is described as not being far from Heresburg (now Obermarsberg), Germany.

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Widukind is confused, however, about the name of the god, since the Roman Mars and the Greek Hermes do not correspond. Tolley supposes that the name Hirmin, of which Widukind does not know the meaning, is not to be related to Hermes, but to Irmin, the dedicatee of the Irminsul.

Hildesheim

Under Louis the Pious in the 9th century, a stone column was dug up at Obermarsberg in Westphalia, Germany, and relocated to the Hildesheim cathedral in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany. The column was reportedly then used as a candelabrum until at least the late 19th century. In the 13th century, the destruction of the Irminsul by Charlemagne was recorded as having still been commemorated at Hildesheim on the Saturday after Laetare Sunday.

On an Irminsul / stands an enormous idol / which they call their merchant

Concerning Julius Caesar:

Concerning Nero:

ABBOT DE LUBERSAC (Abbé de Lubersac): Discours sur les Monuments Publics (Speech on Public Monuments)

The abbot place the Irminsul in

Stattbergen, Bavaria. (P.183)

Hypotheses

A number of theories surround the subject of the Irminsul.

Germania, Pillars of Hercules, and Jupiter Columns

In Tacitus' Germania, the author mentions rumors of what he describes as "Pillars of Hercules" in land inhabited by the Frisii that had yet to be explored. Tacitus adds that these pillars exist either because Hercules actually did go there or because the Romans have agreed to ascribe all marvels anywhere to Hercules' credit. Tacitus states that while Drusus Germanicus was daring in his campaigns against the Germanic tribes, he was unable to reach this region, and that subsequently no one had yet made the attempt. Connections have been proposed between these "Pillars of Hercules" and later accounts of the Irminsuls.

Comparisons have been made between the Irminsul and the Jupiter Columns that were erected along the Rhine in Germania around the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Scholarly comparisons were once made between the Irminsul and the Jupiter Columns; however, Rudolf Simek states that the columns were of Gallo-Roman religious monuments, and that the reported location of the Irminsul in Eresburg does not fall within the area of the Jupiter Column archaeological finds.

Wilhelm Teudt, the Externsteine, and symbol

The medieval Externsteine relief, located on a rock formation near Detmold, Germany, features a shape often identified as a bent tree at the feet of Nicodemus. In 1929, German lay archaeologist and future Ahnenerbe member Wilhelm Teudt proposed that the symbol represented an Irminsul.

However, according to scholar Bernard Mees:

File:Extern-Relief-P1050037.jpg|The image identified as representing Irminsul by Wilhelm Teudt on the Externsteine Descent from the Cross relief, rejected by Bernard Mees and interpreted as an elaborate chair

File:Irminsul als Weltenbaum.jpg|An illustration of Wilhelm Teudt's proposed 'straightening' of the object, yielding what he considered to symbolize an Irminsul, and subsequently used in Nazi Germany and among some Neopagan groups

File:Irminsul_pillar_black.svg|A stylized illustration based on Wilhelm Teudt's proposal

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Footnotes

References

([790]): Annales regni Francorum [Royal Frankish Annals]. [In Latin] HTML fulltext.
(Trans.) (1999). Agricola and Germany. Oxford University Press
(1970): Noord-Europese Mysteriën ["Northern European mystery cults"]. [In Dutch]
(1891). The Migration of Symbols. A. Constable and Co.
(2002): Die Externsteine sind bis auf weiteres germanisch! - Prähistorische Archäologie im Dritten Reich ["Until further notice, the Externsteine are Germanic! - Prehistoric archaeology in the Third Reich"]. [In German] Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld.
(1997): Das Relief an den Externsteinen. Ein karolingisches Kunstwerk und sein spiritueller Hintergrund ["The Externsteine relief. A Carolingian artwork and its spiritual background"]. [In German] edition tertium, Ostfildern vor Stuttgart.
(2008): The Science of the Swastika. Central European University Press.
(1910): Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte ["Ancient Germanic Religious History"]. [In German]
(Trans.) (1999). Germania: Germania. Oxford University Press
(1917): The Conversion of Europe. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, New York, Bombay and Calcutta.
(2007) translated by Angela Hall. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. D.S. Brewer 0859915131
(1999): On the folklore of the Externsteine - Or a centre for Germanomaniacs. In: : Archaeology and Folklore: 153–169. Routledge. <small></small> Partial text at Google Books
(1892): Die Kaiserchronik eines Regensburger Geistlichen ["The Kaiserchronik of a Regensburg cleric"]. [In German] Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover. HTML fulltext
(1882). (Trans.) J. Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, volume I.
([98]): De Origine et situ Germanorum ["About the origin and location of the Germanic peoples"]. [In Latin] HTML fulltext at Wikisource
(1929): Germanische Heiligtümer. Beiträge zur Aufdeckung der Vorgeschichte, ausgehend von den Externsteinen, den Lippequellen und der Teutoburg ["Germanic sacred sites. Contributions to the discovery of prehistory, based upon the Externsteine, the Lippe springs and the Teutoburg"]. [In German] Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena.