Nerthus

All surviving manuscripts of Tacitus's Germania date from around 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).[11]

Of the various forms found in the extant Germania manuscript tradition, two have yielded significant discussion among scholars since at least the 19th 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 19th century philologist Jacob Grimm's identification of 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.[1]

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 15th-century composite manuscript that is considered 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.[12]

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".[13] Instead, Motz propose that various female entities from the continental Germanic folklore record, particularly those in central Germany and the Alps, stem from a single source, who she identifies as Nerthus, and that migrating Germanic peoples brought the goddess to those regions from coastal Scandinavia.[14] 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 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?"[15]

Scholars have proposed a variety of locations for Tacitus's account of Nerthus. For example, Anders Andrén says:

In the accounts of specific Germanic tribes, Tacitus also writes about the divine twins, the Alcis, among the Naharvali, and about the goddess Nerthus among a group of tribes, probably located in the southern part of present-day Denmark.[16]

Some scholars have proposed that 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 the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning and in Lejre wed the legendary Danish king Skjöldr.[17]

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, the location is no longer considered to be a potential site.[18]

Although Njörðr etymologically descends from *Nerþuz, Tacitus describes Nerthus female while the Old Norse deity Njörðr is male. The form *Nerþuz does indicate whether the deity was considered male or female. This difference in sex between the two has resulted in significant discussion from scholars. A variety of reasons for this difference have been proposed: Over 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 sex simply changed from female to male over time, or that Tacitus's account mistakes Nerthus for a female deity rather than male deity.[19] Others have proposed that a 'female Njörðr' continues into the Old Norse corpus as the Sister-wife of Njörðr and/or in the goddess name Njörun.[20]

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 the Viking Age, and descriptions of ceremonial wagon processions in Old Norse texts.[21] Notable examples include the Dejbjerg wagon—in fact a composite of two wagons—discovered in western Jutland, Denmark.[22] 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 been solely used for ritual purposes.[23] The ship burial contains tapestry fragments, today known as the Oseberg tapestry fragments. These fragments depict a wagon procession.[24]

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  The Dejbjerg wagon on display at the National Museum of Denmark, found deposited in a peat bog in Denmark and dating from around Tacitus's time
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  The reconstructed ceremonial wagon found in the Viking Age Oseberg ship burial. One side of the wagon features a depiction of nine cats.
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  Detail of the Oseberg wagon's depiction of nine cats

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).[25][26] According to 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.[27] Dated to the 14th 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.[28]

Similar wagon procession-narratives may be found in two other texts, namely a description of a god 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.[29]

Some scholars have interpreted this to reflect that this procession occurred as a cyclic ritual associated with the Vanir. According to Jens Peter Schjødt, "if we accept a close relationship among, perhaps even an identity of, Nerthus, Freyr, and Frotho ... it appears that these three descriptions are all part of a discourse connecting gods of the vanir type with circumambulations and thus with processions focusing on yearly rituals."[30] Schjødt further says:

Cyclical rituals have no doubt taken place during several millennia in the North as well as everywhere else. One of the most famous descriptions of such a ritual from the Early Iron Age is Tacitus's description of the Nerthus ritual in Germania ch. 40. Although it is not said explicitly that this is a cyclical ritual, there is no doubt that it is recurring and that it involves the whole community. Like with most other rituals of this type, we are not told at what time of the year the Nerthus procession took place, but since it is clearly a ritual connected with fertility and peace, we may conjecture that it was not during the summer, which was the season for war and other kinds of male activities.[31]

Hilda Davidson draws 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.[32]

The face of the Tollund Man, a well-preserved ritually deposited bog body found in Denmark and dated to the 4th century BC

Known as bog bodies, numerous well-preserved human remains have been found in peat bogs in Northern Europe. Like 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:

The description of the goddess' attendants in the lake on the completion of the rites recalls the sacrificed bog people. There is indeed much to suggest that the bog people were participants in ritual celebrations of this kind, which culminated in their death and deposition in the bogs.[33]

A depiction of the Phyrgian goddess Cybele with a chariot led by cats dated to the 3rd century BC

In his description of Nerthus, Tacitus refers to the goddess as "Mother Earth" (Terra Mater). This has been received by scholars in a variety of ways and impacted 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, a translation into terms his Roman readers would find familiar."[34] 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".[25]

The Phyrgian goddess Cybele had been absorbed into the Roman pantheon by Tacitus's time, and Tacitus himself served as a priest in the cult of Cybele, which included duties such as washing 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.[35]