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III.

to the idol." Meibomius states two stanzas of an ancient CHA P. 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." 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."

To whom this great image was erected, is a question full of uncertainty. Because Epμns approached the sound of Irminsul, and Apps that of Eresberg, it has been referred to Mars and Αρης Mercury. Some considered it a memorial of the celebrated. Arminius;" and one has laboured to prove that it was an hieroglyphical effigy, intended for no deity in particular."

36

In 772 this venerated object of Saxon superstition was thrown down and broken, and its fane destroyed by Charle→ magne. For three days the work of demolition was carried on by one part of the army, while the other remained under Its immense wealth and precious vessels were distributed to the conquerors, or devoted to pious uses."

arms.

The fate of the column of the image after its eversion may be noticed." It was thrown into a waggon, and buried on

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"The Pillar of the Lord the Moon, or the
Lord Man," whom the Germans, according
to Tacitus, revered. But there is no de
pendance to be placed on etymological de-
rivations; we must therefore be content to
leave the subject in all the obscurity with
which time has covered it.

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39 Meib. 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 orichal

VII.

BOOK the Weser, in a place where Corbey afterwards stood. It was found again in the reign after Charlemagne, and was trans-ported 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, the image 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." 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."

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."

chus; 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. Meib.
31. He has given a plate of it.
Meib. 19 and 31.
42 Ibid. 19.
43 Tacit. de morib. Germ. and Meginhard,
p. 39; and see Bede, p. 144, 147. In the

III.

To explore the fate of an impending battle, they selected a СНАР. 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.**

The notion which from Chaldea pervaded both East and 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."

Magic, the favourite delusion of ignorant man, the invention of his 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 air, because he fancied that magical arts had peculiar power within a house." But we will reserve a full account of the superstitions of our ancestors for a subsequent chapter.

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 verson of Bede, says, they

hluton mid tanum, they cast lots with
twigs, p. 624.

Meginhard, ib.

45 Ibid.

46 Bede, i. c. 25, p. 61.

BOOK
VII.

CHA P. IV.

On the Menology and Literature of the Pagan Saxons.

N their computation of time, our ancestors reckoned by IN nights instead of days, and by winters instead of years. Their months were governed by the revolution of the moon. They began their year from the day which we celebrate as Christmas-day, and that night they called Moedrenech, or mother night, from the worship or ceremonies in which it was spent. In the common years they appropriated three lunar months to each of the four seasons. When their year of thirteen months occurred, they added the superfluous month to their summer season, and by that circumstance had then three months of the name of Lida, which occasioned these years of thirteen months to be called Tri-Lidi. The names of their months were these:

Giuli, or æftera Geola, answering to our January.

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They divided the year into two principal parts, summer and winter. The six months of the longer days were applied to

IV.

the summer portion, the remainder to winter. Their winter CHAP. season began at their month Wyntyr fylleth, or October. The full moon in this month was the era or the commencement of this season, and the words Wyntyr fylleth were meant to express the winter full moon.

The reason of the names of their months of Sol monath, Rehd monath, Eostur monath, Halig monath, and Bloth monath, we have already explained. Bede thus accounts for the others:

Tri-milchi expressed that their cattle were then milked three times a day. Lida signifies mild or navigable, because in these months the serenity of the air is peculiarly favourable to navigation. Wenden monath implies that the month was usually tempestuous. The months of Geola were so called because of the turning of the sun on this day, and the diminution of the length of the night.'

It has been much doubted whether the Anglo-Saxons had the use of letters when they possessed themselves of England. It is certain that no specimen of any Saxon writing, anterior to their conversion to Christianity, can be produced. It cannot therefore be proved that they had letters by any direct evidence, and yet some reasons may be stated which make it not altogether safe to assert too positively that our ancestors were ignorant of the art of writing in their pagan state.

1st. Alphabetical characters were used by the Northern nations on the Baltic before they received Christianity; and the origin of these is ascribed to Odin, who heads the genealogies of the ancient Saxon chieftains, as well as those of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark; and who is stated to have

This valuable account of the Saxon year is in Bede, De Temporum Ratione, in the second volume of his works, in the edition of Cologne, p. 81. Other Saxon menologies may be seen in Wanley, 185 and 109; and a comparative one of the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Icelanders, Danes, and Swedes, is in Hickes's Gram. Anglo-Sax. p. 214.

VOL. II.

2 I would not attribute to the Runic letters an extravagant antiquity, but the inscriptions on rocks, &c. copied by Wormius in his Literaturæ Runicæ, and by Stephanius, in his notes on Saxo, prove that the Northerns used them before they received Christianity.

E

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