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53-701: The Lex Thuringorum ("Law of the Thuringians ") is a law code that survives today in one 10th-century manuscript, the Codex Corbeiensis, alongside a copy of the Lex Saxonum , the law of the Saxons . The code was compiled in the first decade of the 9th century, probably 802–3, under Frankish patronage. The language of the law code is Latin and few Thuringians could have read it, nonetheless some must have cooperated with Frankish officials during

106-566: A 'female Njörðr' continues into the Old Norse corpus as the Sister-wife of Njörðr and/or in the goddess name Njörun . Scholars associate Tacitus's description of Nerthus's vehiculum (translated above by Birley as "chariot" and by Mattingly as "cart") ritually deposited in a lacus (translated by Birley and Mattingly above as "lake") with ceremonial wagons found ritually placed in peat bogs around Tacitus's time, ceremonial wagons from

159-663: A description of a deity name Lýtir in Flateyjarbók and one featuring Frotho in Gesta Danorum , who is driven around for three days after his death so that the country wouldn't crumble. Both of these names have been interpreted by scholars as likely bynames for Freyr. Some scholars have interpreted this to reflect that this procession occurred as a cyclic ritual associated with the Vanir. According to Jens Peter Schjødt , Schjødt further writes: Hilda Davidson draws

212-643: A direct copy of the Codex Hersfeldensis , the oldest identifiable manuscript of the text. All other manuscripts of Tacitus's Germania are thought by scholars to stem from the Codex Aesinas. Some scholars have continued suggesting alternate readings to Nerthus . For example, in 1992, Lotte Motz proposes that the linguistic correspondence is a coincidence and that "The variant nertum was chosen by Grimm because it corresponds to Njǫrðr". Instead, Motz propose that various female entities from

265-493: A king of the Thuringii, Fisud , as a contemporary of Theudebert I . Nerthus In Germanic paganism , Nerthus is a goddess associated with a ceremonial wagon procession. Nerthus is attested by first century A.D. Roman historian Tacitus in his ethnographic work Germania as a "Mother Earth". In Germania , Tacitus records that a group of Germanic peoples were particularly distinguished by their veneration of

318-682: A parallel between these incidents and Tacitus's account of Nerthus, suggesting that in addition a neck-ring-wearing female figure "kneeling as if to drive a chariot" also dates from the Bronze Age. Davidson says that the evidence suggests that similar customs as detailed in Tacitus's account continued to exist during the close of the pagan period through worship of the Vanir. Known as bog bodies , numerous well-preserved human remains have been found in peat bogs in Northern Europe. Like

371-639: A people called the Bainochaimai , located to the west of the Elbe.) The name of the Thuringians appears to be first mentioned in the veterinary treatise of Vegetius , written early in the fifth century. The formation of the Thuringian kingdom may have had also been influenced by two longer-known tribes more associated with the eastern bank of the lower Elbe river, northeast of Thuringia, because

424-514: A process of official christianisation . The historian Timothy Reuter writes that "the manuscript transmission does not suggest that [the Thuringian law] was extensively used, though there are enough different strata of law still visible in the text to suggest that it was not merely a literary exercise." Per chapter 31 of the Lex Thuringorum , feuds were heritable: "To whomever an inheritance of land should descend, he also should receive

477-496: A sacred cult stone. Similar to Tacitus's description of Nerthus, Cybele was at times closely connected to or conflated with the concept of Terra Mater ('Mother Earth') through her identity as Mater Deum ('Mother of the Gods'), and was at times depicted with a chariot pulled by lions. The minor planet 601 Nerthus is named after Nerthus. The form "Hertha" was adopted by several German football clubs . Up until its superseding as

530-546: A translation into terms his Roman readers would find familiar." John Lindow says that Tacitus's "identification with Mother Earth probably has much less to do with Jörd in Scandinavian mythology than with fertility goddesses in many cultures". The Phyrgian goddess Cybele had been absorbed into the Roman pantheon by Tacitus's time, and Tacitus served as a priest in the cult of Cybele, which included duties such as washing

583-609: A variety of ways and affected early manuscript readings of the deity's name (especially Herthum , see "Name and manuscript variations" section above). In his assessment of the Old Norse personification of earth ( Jörð , a goddess in Norse mythology ), McKinnell says that the Old Norse earth personification does not appear to be notably connected to the Vanir , Njörðr, and/or Nerthus. He concludes that "it seems likely that Tacitus equates Nerthus with Terra Mater as an interpretatio Romana ,

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636-479: Is etymologically ambivalent, cognate not only with Old Irish nert 'strength' and Greek andro - but with Vedic sū-nrt́ā 'good vigor, vitality' (used especially for Uṣás , thus gender ambivalent)". According to McKinnell, "The meaning of the name has usually been connected with Old Irish nert 'strength' (so 'the powerful one'), but it might be related to Old English geneorð 'contented' and neorxnawang 'paradise' (literally 'field of contentment'), or to

689-494: Is nothing particularly worthy of comment about them as individuals, yet they are particularly distinguished as a group in that they all worship the goddess Nerthus. The chapter reads as follows: Latin: A. R. Birley translation: Harold Mattingly translation: Tacitus does not provide information regarding his sources for his description of Nerthus (nor the rest of Germania ). Tacitus's account may stem from earlier but now lost literary works (such as perhaps Pliny

742-636: The Prose Edda book Gylfaginning and in Lejre wed the legendary Danish king Skjöldr . Chambers notes that the mistaken name Hertha (see Name and manuscript variations above) led to the hydronym Herthasee , a lake on the German island of Rügen , which antiquarians proposed as a potential location of the Nerthus site described in Tacitus. However, along with the rejection of the reading Hertha ,

795-573: The Carolingian law code written for them was called the "law of the Angles and Varini that is the Thuringians". Much earlier, in his Germania for example, Tacitus had grouped the Anglii and Varini among the more distant Suebic tribes, living beyond the Elbe, and near a sea where they worshipped a goddess called Nerthus . These two tribes are among Germanic groups known to have been found north of

848-479: The King of Germany . Christianity had reached the Thuringii in the fifth century, but their exposure to it was limited. Their real Christianisation took place, alongside the ecclesiastical organisation of their territory, during the early and mid eighth century under Boniface, who felled their "sacred oak" at Geismar in 724, abolishing the vestiges of their paganism. In the 1020s, Aribo, Archbishop of Mainz , began

901-758: The Lahn , Main , and Neckar rivers were included. The Naab formed the south-eastern border of Thuringia at the time. The Werra and Fulda valleys were within it also and it reached as far as the Saxon plain in the north. Its central location in Germania , beyond the Rhine , was the reason it became the point d'appui of Boniface's mission work. The Thuringii had a separate identity as late as 785–786, when one of their leading men, Hardrad , led an abortive insurrection against Charlemagne . The Carolingians codified

954-557: The Oseberg tapestry fragments . These fragments depict a wagon procession. In Norse mythology, Njörðr is strongly associated with water, and he and his children, Freyr and Freyja, are particularly associated with wagons. Together this family is known in Old Norse sources as the Vanir . Njörðr is referred to as "god of wagons" (Old Norse vagna guð ) in the principal manuscript of Skáldskaparmál (the Codex Regius). According to

1007-632: The Prose Edda , Freyja drives a chariot driven by cats, which scholars have linked to the depiction of nine cats on the Oseberg ship burial wagon, potentially indicating a wagon procession featuring the goddess. Dated to the fourteenth century, Ögmundar þáttr dytts tells of a ritual wagon procession wherein a depiction of Freyr is driven around in a wagon by a priestess in a manner scholars have compared to Tacitus's description. Similar wagon procession-narratives may be found in two other texts, namely

1060-768: The Roman province of Rhaetia . Claudius Ptolemy mentions neither the Hermunduri nor the Thuringians in his geography, but instead the Teuriochaemae , who are described as living just north of the Sudetes mountains in, what is thought to be, the Ore Mountains . These may also be connected to later Thuringians. (" Chaemae " may represent a version of the Germanic word for "home". Ptolemy also for example mentions

1113-501: The seeress Ganna . The two visited Rome for a blessing from Roman emperor Domitian in 92 AD. While Tacitus appears to have been away from Rome during this period, he would have had plenty of opportunity to gain information provided by King Masyas and Ganna from those who spent time with the two during their visit. Tacitus's description of the Nerthus procession has been the subject of extensive discussion from scholars. All surviving manuscripts of Tacitus's Germania date from around

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1166-857: The Danube in this period. Procopius in his Gothic Wars describes the land of the Varini in the 6th century as being south of the Danes, but north of the Slavs , who were in turn north of the uncultivated lands which lay north of the Danube. Procopius describes a marriage alliance between the Angles of Britain and the Varni in the sixth century. They appear in some lists of the peoples involved in Attila 's invasion of Gaul . Walter Pohl has also proposed that they may be

1219-622: The Elder 's lost Bella Germaniae ), potentially his own experiences in Germania, or merchants and soldiers, such as Germanic peoples in Rome, or Germania and Romans who spent time in the region. Tacitus's Germania places particular emphasis on the Semnones, and scholars have suggested that some or all of Tacitus's information may come from King Masyas of the Semnones and/or his high priestess,

1272-736: The Franks. Gregory of Tours , a Gallo-Roman , includes the nearest account in time of the fall of the Thuringian Empire. Widukind of Corvey , writing in tenth-century Saxony , inundates his similar account with various legends. The Thuringii make brief appearances in contemporary Italian sources when their activities affect the land south of the Alps . Procopius , the Eastern Roman author, mentions them and speaks of their fall. The seventh-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum mentions

1325-520: The Thuringian legal customs (but perhaps did not use them extensively) as the Lex Thuringorum and continued to exact a tribute of pigs, presumably a Merovingian imposition, from the province. In the tenth century, under the Ottonians , the centre of Thuringian power lay in the north-east, near Erfurt . As late as the end of the tenth century, the porcine tribute was still being accepted by

1378-793: The Viking Age Oseberg ship burial wagon in Norway. The goddess's name Nerthus (from Proto-Germanic * Nerþuz ) is the early Germanic etymological precursor to the Old Norse deity name Njörðr , a male deity who is comparably associated with wagons and water in Norse mythology . Together with his children Freyja and Freyr , the three form the Vanir , a family of deities. The Old Norse record contains three narratives featuring ritual wagon processions that scholars have compared to Tacitus's description of Nerthus's wagon procession, one of which (and potentially all of them) focus on Njörðr's son Freyr. Additionally, scholars have sought to explain

1431-566: The Viking Age, and descriptions of ceremonial wagon processions in Old Norse texts. Notable examples include the Dejbjerg wagon —in fact a composite of two wagons—discovered in western Jutland , Denmark. A wagon from the Viking Age was found in the Oseberg ship burial in Norway. This wagon may have been incapable of turning corners and may have been used solely for ritual purposes. The ship burial contains tapestry fragments, today known as

1484-611: The allies who fought under Attila when he entered Gaul in 451. During the reign of Childeric I , Gregory of Tours and Fredegar record that the Frankish King married the runaway wife of the King of the Thuringians, but the story may be distorted. (For example, the area of Tongeren , now in Belgium, may have been intended. ) More clearly, correspondence is recorded with a kingdom of Thuringians by Procopius and Cassiodorus during

1537-405: The battlegear—that is to say, the breastplate—and the [obligations] of vengeance for kin and the payment of wergild ." Karl Müllenhoff cited this passage to show that heritable feuds were of German origin, but more recent scholarship has rejected the view that the early medieval Germanic law codes represent pure Germanic law; rather they fuse Germanic and Roman customs. In the Thuringian law,

1590-600: The collapse of the Hunnic Empire . There is also evidence from jewellery found in graves that the Thuringians sought marriages with Ostrogothic and Lombard women. Under the leadership of Alboin , a large group of Thuringii joined the Lombards on their migration into Italy. The Lombard king Agilulf (590–616) was of Thuringian descent. After their conquest, the Thuringii were placed under Frankish dukes, but they rebelled and had regained their independence by

1643-461: The continental Germanic folklore record, particularly those in central Germany and the Alps, stem from a single source, whom she identifies as Nerthus, and that migrating Germanic peoples brought the goddess to those regions from coastal Scandinavia. After her death, Motz's proposal received support from Rudolf Simek . John Lindow rejects Motz's proposal and Simek's support. He highlights the presence of

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1696-514: The difference in gender between the early Germanic and Old Norse forms of the deity, discussed potential etymological connections to the obscure female deity name Njörun , mention of the mysterious Sister-wife of Njörðr , proposed a variety of locations for where the procession may have occurred (generally in Denmark ), and considered Tacitus's sources for his description. Tacitus's Nerthus has had some influence on popular culture, and in particular

1749-473: The fifteenth century and these display significant variation in the name of the goddess: All attested forms are in accusative case and include Nertum (yielding the nominate form Nerthus ), Herthum (implying a nominative form of Hertha ) and several others (including Nechtum , Neithum , Neherthum , and Verthum ). Of the various forms found in the extant Germania manuscript tradition, two have yielded significant discussion among scholars since at least

1802-462: The form Nerthus as the etymological precursor to the Old Norse deity name Njǫrðr , the reading Nerthus has been widely accepted as correct in scholarship. In 1902, the Codex Aesinas (often abbreviated as E ) was discovered, and it was also found to contain the form Nertum , yielding the reading Nerthus . The Codex Aesinas is a fifteenth-century composite manuscript that is considered

1855-421: The form in the Codex Aesinas (discovered in 1902, while Grimm died in 1863), and asks, "would it not be an extraordinary coincidence that a deity who fits the pattern of the later fertility gods should have a name that is etymologically identical with one of them?" Scholars have proposed a variety of locations for Tacitus's account of Nerthus. For example, Anders Andrén says: Some scholars have proposed that

1908-635: The goddess has had her fill of human company, the priest returns the cart to her "temple" and slaves ritually wash the goddess, her cart, and the cloth in a "secluded lake". According to Tacitus, the slaves are then immediately drowned in the lake. Scholars have linked Tacitus's description of ceremonial wagons found from around Tacitus's time up until the Viking Age , particularly the Germanic Iron Age Dejbjerg wagon in Denmark and

1961-483: The goddess. Tacitus describes the wagon procession in some detail: Nerthus's cart is found on an unspecified island in the "ocean", where it is kept in a sacred grove and draped in white cloth. Only a priest may touch it. When the priest detects Nerthus's presence by the cart, the cart is drawn by heifers . Nerthus's cart is met with celebration and peacetime everywhere it goes, and during her procession no one goes to war and all iron objects are locked away. In time, after

2014-468: The late seventh century under Radulf . Towards the end of this century, parts of Thuringia came under Saxon rule. By the time of Charles Martel and Saint Boniface , they were again subject to the Franks and ruled by Frankish dukes, with their seat at Würzburg in the south. Under Martel, the Thuringian dukes' authority was extended over a part of Austrasia and the Bavarian plateau. The valleys of

2067-444: The location is no longer considered to be a potential site. Although Njörðr etymologically descends from * Nerþuz , Tacitus describes Nerthus female while the Old Norse deity Njörðr is male. The form * Nerþuz does not indicate whether the deity was considered male or female. This difference in gender between the two has resulted in significant discussion from scholars. A variety of reasons for this difference have been proposed: Over

2120-414: The location of the Nerthus procession occurred on Zealand in Denmark. They link the Nerthus with the medieval place name Niartharum (modern Nærum ) located on Zealand. Further justification is given in that Lejre , the seat of the ancient kings of Denmark, is also located on Zealand. Nerthus is then commonly compared to the goddess Gefjon , who is said to have plowed the island of Zealand from Sweden in

2173-655: The minting of coins at Erfurt , the oldest market town in Thuringia with a history going back to the Merovingian period. The economy, especially trade (such as with the Slavs), greatly increased after that. The Thuringian nobility, which had an admixture of Frankish, Thuringian, and Saxon blood, was not as landed as that of Francia . There was also a larger population of free peasant farmers than in Francia, though there

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2226-411: The nineteenth century, Nerthus and Hertha . Hertha was popular in some of the earliest layers of Germania scholarship, such as the edition of Beatus Rhenanus . These scholars linked the name with a common German word for Earth (compare modern German Erde ). This reading has subsequently been rejected by most scholars. Since pioneering nineteenth century philologist Jacob Grimm's identification of

2279-766: The now widely rejected manuscript reading of Hertha in Germany. Scholars commonly identify the goddess Nerthus with Njörðr , a deity who is attested in Old Norse texts and in numerous Scandinavian place names . Scholars identify the Romano-Germanic Nerthus as the linguistic precursor to the Old Norse deity name Njörðr and have reconstructed the form as Proto-Germanic * Nerþuz . As outlined by philologist John McKinnell, "Nerthus > * Njarðuz ( breaking ) > * Njǫrðuz > Njǫrðr ". Scholars have additionally linked both Nerthus and Njörðr to

2332-508: The obscure Old Norse goddess name Njörun . The meaning of the theonym is unclear, but seems to be cognate with Old Irish nert , meaning 'strength', perhaps meaning 'the powerful one'. The name may be related to Old English geneorð , meaning 'contented', and the Old English place name Neorxnawang , used to gloss the word 'paradise' in Old English texts, or the word north . According to philologist Jaan Puhvel , "*Nerthuz

2385-720: The process of collecting and codifying the customs. The Lex Thuringorum , the Lex Saxonum , the Lex Francorum Chamavorum and the Lex Frisionum comprise the four so-called "Carolingian tribal laws" ( karolingischen Stammesrechte ), because they were produced at the same time at the direction of King Charles I in order to accommodate the differing legal customs of the nations living within his empire. They were neither totally faithful nor comprehensive reproductions of tribal law, but were created as part of

2438-624: The reigns of Theoderic the Great (454–526) and Clovis I (approx. 466–511), after the downfall of Attila and Odoacer. The Thuringii established an empire in the late fifth century. It reached its territorial peak in the first half of the sixth before it was conquered by the Franks in 531–532. Examination of Thuringian grave sites reveal cranial features which suggest the strong presence of Hunnic women or slaves, perhaps indicating that many Thuringians took Hunnic wives or Hunnic slaves following

2491-640: The remnants of the Suebic Hermanduri , the last part of whose name ( -duri ) could represent the same sound as ( -thuri ) and the Germanic suffix -ing , suggests a meaning of "descendants of (the [Herman]duri)". This people were living near the Marcomanni . Tacitus , in his Germania , describes their homeland as being where the Elbe starts, but also having colonies at the Danube , and even within

2544-693: The same as the Turcilingi (or Torcolingi) who were one of the tribes near the middle Danube after the collapse of the empire of Attila, to whom they had apparently all been subject. They are specifically associated with Odoacer , who later became King of Italy, and are sometimes thought to have formed a part of the Sciri . Other tribes in this region at the time included the Rugii and the Heruls . Sidonius Apollinaris , in his seventh poem, explicitly lists them among

2597-442: The severity of punishment for the crime of raptus (abduction) is equivalent to that for murder, an indication that the former was understood to include rape or sexual violence. Per chapter 47, a woman was permitted to have money, but not to spend it as she saw fit, nor was she to marry without permission. Thuringii The Thuringians do not appear in classical Roman texts under that name, but some have suggested that they were

2650-446: The wagons interred in peat bogs discussed above, these bodies were intentionally and ritually placed . Various scholars have linked Tacitus's description of drowned slaves in a "lake" as a reference to the interment of human corpses in peat bogs. For example, according to archaeologist Peter Vilhelm Glob : In his description of Nerthus, Tacitus refers to the goddess as "Mother Earth" ( Terra Mater ). This has been received by scholars in

2703-513: The word 'north' (i.e. 'deity of the northern people', cf. Greek νέρτερος 'belonging to the underworld')." In chapter 40 of his ethnography Germania , Roman historian Tacitus, discussing the Suebian tribes of Germania , writes that, beside the populous Semnones and warlike Langobardi , there are seven more remote Suebian tribes; the Reudigni , Aviones , Anglii , Varini , Eudoses , Suarines , and Nuitones . The seven tribes are surrounded by rivers and forests and, according to Tacitus, there

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2756-434: The years, scholars have variously proposed that that Nerthus was likely one of a pair of deities in a manner similar to Njörðr's incestuous children Freyr and Freyja (perhaps involving hieros gamos ), that Nerthus was a hermaphroditic deity, that the deity's gender simply changed from female to male over time, or that Tacitus's account mistakes Nerthus for a female deity rather than male deity. Others have proposed that

2809-434: Was still a large number of serfs . The obligations of serfs there were also generally less oppressive. There were also fewer clergymen before Boniface came. There was a small number of artisans and merchants, mostly trading with the Slavs to the east. The town of Erfurt was the easternmost trading post in Frankish territory at the time. The history of the Thuringii is best known from the writings concerning their conquerors,

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