Revisiting the Semnonenhain: A Norse Anthropogonic Myth and the Germania
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i2.146Keywords:
trees, creation, anthropogeny, GermaniaAbstract
Perhaps the most mysterious of the gods identified by Tacitus in his Germania of c.98 is the Suebian regnator omnium deus—the god who is lord of all things. In a rather enigmatic fashion, Tacitus reveals that the woodland sanctuary of this god, the so–called Semnonenhain as it has become known in scholarship, was thought to have been the ancestral birthplace of a number of Germanic tribes.1 The aim of this essay is to show that traces of a similar tradition in Old Norse literature, postdating the Germania by over a thousand years, may indicate that a creation myth related to this belief was still alive in Iceland in the final years of Germanic heathen religion. I will begin by outlining what is known about the compositional contexts of the Germania, before discussing what can usefully be drawn from Tacitus’ description of the Semnonenhain and its associated anthropogonic myth. Following a brief consideration of the contexts in which the conversion of Scandinavia took place, we will move on to consider elements of a potentially related tradition preserved in Norse Eddic and Skaldic verse, and conclude with a few reflections on the extended potential of these observations.References
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———. Pagan Words and Christian Meanings. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
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Sayers, W. “Irish Perspectives on Heimdallr.” Alvíssmál: Forschungen zur Mittelalterlichen Kultur Skandinaviens 2 (1993): 3–30.
Scher, Steven P. “Rígsþula as Poetry.” MLN, 78, no. 4 (1963): 397–407. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/3042821.
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Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology, translated by Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993.
Sturtevant, Albert M. “Etymological Comments Upon Certain Old Norse Proper Names in the Eddas. “ PMLA, 67, no. 7 (1952): 346–48. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/459964 .
Syme, Ronald. Tacitus, vol. 1 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958.
———. “Tacitus: Some Sources of His Information. “The Journal of Roman Studies, 72 (1982): 68–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/299117.
———. Ten Studies in Tacitus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
Tolley, Clive. Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2009.
Turville-Petre, E. O. G., Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
Amory, F.. “The Historical Worth of Rígsþula.” Alvíssmál: Forschungen zur Mittelalterlichen Kultur Skandinaviens 10 (2001): 3–20.
Anderson, J. G. C., ed., Cornelii Taciti: De Origine et Situ Germanorum. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938.
Andersson, Theodore M.. The Legend of Brynhild. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.
Bintley., Michael D. J. “Life-Cycles of Men and Trees in Sonatorrek.” Opticon 1826, 6 (2009). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5335/opt.060902.
———. “Landscape Gardening: Remodelling the Hortus Conclusus in Judgement Day II.” The Review of English Studies 62, no. 253 (2011): 1–14. http://dx.doi. org/10.1093/res/hgq028
———. “Recasting the Role of Sacred Trees in Anglo-Saxon Spiritual History: The South Sandbach Cross ‘Ancestors of Christ’ Panel in its Cultural Contexts.” In Trees and Timber in the Anglo-Saxon World, edited by Michael D. J. Bintley and Michael G. Shapland (forthcoming).
——— “Trees and Woodland in Anglo–Saxon Culture.” PhD thesis. University College London, 2009
Beare, W. ‘”Tacitus on the Germans.” Greece and Rome, 2nd Series, 11, no. 1 (1964): 64–76.
Bowersock, Glen W. “Tacitus and the Province of Asia.” In Tacitus and the Tacitean Tradition. Edited by T.J. Luce and A.J. Woodman. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 1993.
Cary, Earnest, trans. Dio’s Roman History VIII, LCL. London: William Heinemann, 1925.
Chadwick., H. Munro. The Origin of the English Nation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924.
Derolez, René L.M.. Les Dieux et la Religion des Germains. Paris: Payot, 1962.
Dorey, T.A. Tacitus London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969.
Dronke, Ursula. “Beowulf and Ragnar?k.” Saga-Book,17 (1966–69): 302–25.
Dronke, Ursula, trans. The Poetic Edda I: Heroic Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
———. The Poetic Edda II: Mythological Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.
Faulkes, Anthony. Snorri Sturluson: Edda; Prologue and Gylfaginning, 2nd ed. London: Viking Society for Northern Research, University College London, 2005.
———. “The Sources of Skáldskaparmál: Snorri’s Intellectual Background.” Snorri Sturluson: Kolloquim Anlässlich der 750. Wiederkehr Seines Todestages, edited by Alois Wolf, (Tübingen: Narr, 1993).
Faulkes, Anthony, ed. Snorri Sturluson: Edda: Skáldskaparmál, Vol.1: Introduction, Text and Notes London: The Viking Society for Northern Research, 1998.
Gudeman, Alfred. “The Sources of the Germania of Tacitus.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 31 (1900): 93–111. doi 10.2307/282642.
Hagen, Sivert N. ‘”The Origin and Meaning of the Name Yggdrasill.” Modern Philology 1, no. 1 (1903): 57–69. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/386580.
Helgason, Jón. Skjaldevers. Oslo: Dreyers Forlag, 1968.
Hill, Thomas D. “Rígsþula: Some Medieval Christian Analogues.” Speculum 61, no. 1 (1986): 79–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2854537.
Hutton, M., trans. Tacitus: Agricola, Germania, Dialogus. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1914.
Jónsson, Finnur, ed., Den Norsk–Islandske Skjaldedigtning, 4 vols. Copenhagen: S.L. Mollers Bogtrykken, 1912–15.
Krebs, Christopher B., A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus’s ‘Germania’ from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich. London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2011.
Kristjánsson, Jónas. Eddas and Sagas; Iceland’s Medieval Literature,. translated by Peter Foote. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 1988.
Lewis, Charlton T. A Latin Dictionary: Founded on Andrews’ Edition of Freund’s Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1879.
Larrington, Carolyne. “Hávamál and Sources Outside Scandinavia.” Saga-Book 23 (1990–93): 141–57.
Martin, Ronald. Tacitus London: Bristol Classical Press, 1994.
McKinnell, John. “Hávamál B: A Poem of Sexual Intrigue. “ Saga-Book 29 (2003): 83–114.
Meissner, Rudolf. Die Kenningar der Skalden: ein Beitrag zur Skaldischen Poetik. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1984.
Mellor, Ronald. Tacitus. London: Routledge, 1993.
Mendell, Clarence W. Tacitus: the Man and His Work. London: Oxford University Press, 1957.
Much, Rudolf, ed. Die Germania des Tacitus. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Univertätsverlag, 1967.
Neckel, Gustav, ed. Edda: die Lieder des Codex Regius nebst verwandten Denkmälern, 5th ed. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1983.
North, Richard. Heathen Gods in Old English Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
———. Pagan Words and Christian Meanings. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991.
Orel, Vladimir. A Handbook of Germanic Etymology. Leiden: Brill, 2003.
Pettazzoni, Raffaele. “Regnator omnivm devs.” In Essays on the History of Religions, translated by H. J. Rose, 136–50. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954.
Picard, Eve. Germanisches Sakralkönigtum?: Quellenkritische Studien zur Germania des Tacitus und zur Altnordischen Überlieferung. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 1991.
Pipping, Hugo. “Eddastudier I.” Studier i nordisk filologi 16 (1925): 7–52.
Radin, Max. “Gens, Familia, Stirp.” Classical Philology 9, no. 3 (1914): 235–47. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1086/359887.
Rives, J .B., trans. Tacitus “Germania.” Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999.
Sayers, W. “Irish Perspectives on Heimdallr.” Alvíssmál: Forschungen zur Mittelalterlichen Kultur Skandinaviens 2 (1993): 3–30.
Scher, Steven P. “Rígsþula as Poetry.” MLN, 78, no. 4 (1963): 397–407. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/3042821.
See, Klaus von, Beatrice La Farge, Eve Picard, and Katja Schulz. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, Bd. 3: Götterlieder. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 2000.
See, Klaus von, Beatrice La Farge, Wolfgang Gerhold, Debora Dusse, Eve Picard, and Katja Schulz. Kommentar zu den Liedern der Edda, Bd. 4: Heldenlieder. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, 2004.
Simek, Rudolf. Dictionary of Northern Mythology, translated by Angela Hall. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993.
Sturtevant, Albert M. “Etymological Comments Upon Certain Old Norse Proper Names in the Eddas. “ PMLA, 67, no. 7 (1952): 346–48. http://dx.doi. org/10.2307/459964 .
Syme, Ronald. Tacitus, vol. 1 Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958.
———. “Tacitus: Some Sources of His Information. “The Journal of Roman Studies, 72 (1982): 68–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/299117.
———. Ten Studies in Tacitus. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970.
Tolley, Clive. Shamanism in Norse Myth and Magic. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 2009.
Turville-Petre, E. O. G., Scaldic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.
Published
2013-01-14
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Section
Articles
How to Cite
Bintley, M. D. (2013). Revisiting the Semnonenhain: A Norse Anthropogonic Myth and the Germania. Pomegranate, 13(2), 146-162. https://doi.org/10.1558/pome.v13i2.146
