A myth from Angeln in Germany

In those old days, when still but few people lived here in the land, it happened
one time, that a ship without steer and rudder drifted up into the Schlei inlet in Schleswig.
In the ship a new born child was laid down without any clothing and it slept
with its head on a sheaf of straw. Around the child many weapons were draped and also much beautiful jewelry. No one knew the boy and had any idea from where it came, but because people saw it as a miracle, he was cared and brought up until he reached manhood. And it was because people believed he was sent there by a god, seeing too his beauty and pulchritude, he was chosen to become the first king of the Angles and he was called Skeaf, because of the sheaf he was lying with his head on as a baby.
Skeaf lived at the place which was known from time immemorial as Schleswig and he ruled many years illustriously over his people.
His son was called Skild which means Shield. Soon all people around had to obey him, among his people he was a beloved sovereign. Many years he kept without children, until at a high age him was born a son called Beowulf or also Beaw. His fame was spread soon enough in the Skedelands in and around the two seas.
As it happened that the old king Skild died, his people brought, on his own wish, his body to the banks of the Schlei, where a ship for the funeral was completely prepared and it gleamed like ice. The mourning people laid down the king with his head towards the mast.
No other ship ever was equiped with so much splendor: a huge amount of weaponry, valuable trinkets, juwelry and battle dresses, just as it was a long time ago in the ship Skeaf arrived in. High in the mast the king’s golden banner was tied and then the ship was pushed off the banks and left over to the waves and the wind.
From that time on, Beowulf reigned the lands of his father and through his many sons he became the first ancestor of all noble lines, not only among the Angles, but also among the Goths, Wandals, Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, Jutes, Frisians and Saxons, yes from all people who lived along the East and the West seas.

From the book “Myths and fairytales from Angeln”, published by G. Hubrich-Messov, Husum, 1995, the myths part, chapter History.
Myth and book-title translated by GardenStone

Here is another opinion about the hero Sceáf CLICK

After I was advised to do so, I’ve created over the last days for (almost) each of my books a Facebook page.
Of course now they need very many ‘Like‘ clicks to make them a little bit useful.
My books aren’t supported by professional advertisement campaigns, I’ve published them all myself with all the risks for me personally.
That is why I need now the help of the Facebook, Google+ and Twitter communities to spread these book-pages as much as possible to bring them under the attention of interested people.

That is why I’ll post here now those links – please click the blue links…….

MY ENGLISH BOOKS

• Goddess Holle – In search of a Germanic Goddess
• The Mercury-Woden complex
• The Nerthus Claim (Soon to be published)

The book “Partner of the Gods” is expected to become published in autumn 2012.

MY GERMAN BOOKS

• Die Rückkehr der Göttin Nehalennia
• Göttin Holle  auf der Suche nach einer alten Göttin
• Der Nerthus Anspruch
• Germanischer Götterglaube – ASATRU, eine moderne Religion aus alten Zeiten
• Nebelhexen leben zwischen Dies- und Jenseits
• Aus GardenStones Schatzkiste 1

MY DUTCH BOOKS

• Nehalennia – Godin van de zeekust
• Het Mercurius – Wodan complex
• De Nerthus claim

HOPING FOR LOTS OF HELPING CLICKS AND SHARING ! !

Sometimes, when I early in the morning read my email, there are questions I can’t really answer satisfying. This one was such a question I was asked:

QUESTION
Is it possible to distinguish clearly on the basis of genetics between Celts, Slaves and Germanics?

Therefore I forwarded this question to someone I know from the web with good knowledge of genetic research.
If you’re interested, don’t give up because of the very difficult stuff….. the more you dig in it, the more fascinating it may become. The blue links give some background information, however, it doesn’t make it really easier.
Anyway, here’s his answer

ANSWER:
The problem is that the question you are asked is far too simplistic.
What is a Slav, Celt or Germanic?

Your paternal genetic lineage shown by your Y chromosome is only 1/46th of your nuclear genetic make up. The other 45/46ths, the autosomal or aDNA, can come from anyone in your past. Your maternal genetic lineage, the mtDNA is not even nuclear DNA. All these things can be quite different.

In general terms, someone living today in an area where their family has lived for centuries will have autosomal DNA which reflects that locality. This is because you have so many gt. gt. .. grandparents anyone of whom may have contributed some of your aDNA. In some parts of Europe these could have included Slavs, Celts and Germanics so, as far as your aDNA is concerned, you are a mix of all three.

The paternal ancestry as shown in your Y chromosome is passed
unchanged. So, I might be descended from an Anglo-Saxon male who came to Britain and took a wife. My yDNA would be the same as that Anglo-Saxon male. However, if he took a Celtic wife and every subsequent son took a woman who was of Celtic descent all the way down to my mother, my mtDNA would be Celtic. So, am I Celtic or Anglo- Saxon? It depends on what type of DNA one looks at.

In the same way that I am a mix today, there never was such a thing as a pure Anglo-Saxon, Celt or Slav in earlier days. They too were mixes.
A Gaul and a Warnian may have had a common paternal ancestor at some time in the remote past. Both groups probably contained a typical marker R1b and ALL R1b males share a common ancestor, the original R1b. Many Slavs have a marker R1a but R1a and R1b are both themselves derived from carriers of R and thus some Slavs, Warnians and Gauls all shared a common ancestor tens of thousands of years ago.

But they all went their separate ways and at one point in time their gt. gt. … grandsons found themselves in Gaul, Jutland and eastern Europe. The only thing they had in common by this time was coded in their Y chromosome. Their mtDNA, the maternal lineages, could be very different and their aDNA, 45/46ths of their genetic make up was almost certainly very different.

Because people tend to marry local people, aDNA reflects the typical aDNA make up of the locality. Autosomal DNA splits and recombines whereas yDNA and mtDNA do not and of course, there is so much more aDNA that either of the others.

Whilst aDNA can tell us roughly where we have lived during the past 10 – 15 generations, it can’t tell us where we lived 60 generations ago.
Is yDNA or mtDNA of any help? As we learn more, it is starting to become possible to take a marker such a yDNA R1b and see small differences between R1b types. Seeing patterns in the distribution of these different types however is not easy and we can’t say where or when a particular pattern started. There’s a lot of confusion about this. For example, a certain type of pattern called Frisian R1b is not particularly Frisian. You get it in Germany, Denmark, Norway and Britain. It is likely therefore that someone with this pattern has a paternal ancestry from one of these countries but impossible to state that they are Frisian, Anglo-Saxon or Norwegian or Danish viking and yet that is precisely what some people do.

Does it even make them Germanic? We can’t be sure because the pattern may have originated in Frisia and spread to those places via Frisian trade but, we don’t know who the original Frisians were. Were the people living in Frisia say 1000 BCE Celtic, Germanic or speakers of some other language? Cultures come and go. Languages come and go.
People move about and mix with each other. Trying to pin point where one of your paternal ancestors was at some particular period in time is not easy. Even if one can successfully do that, making a claim, I am Germanic or Viking etc on the basis of yDNA alone completely ignores most of your genetic history.

And not forgetting to mention that autosomal or aDNA can be very heavily influenced by marriage customs and in particular those customs which only allow marriage to someone of the same faith or sect. Some others have the male moving into the wife’s village. This can bring a new yDNA lineage to the area but, several generations down the line, the aDNA makeup will look very much like that which is typical of the area and of course, the mtDNA will look ancient even though the Y line is fairly recent.

That’s it.

Here is an Article I wrote quite some years ago. It came back into my mind in a short web-discussion recently. So, now I’m posting it here, before it gets subconscious once again.

———————————————————————————————————–
Since proving the existence of one or more Gods is often attempted there are many books on the topic. Some of those books are so theoretically advanced they are incomprehensible to the average reader. In this paper I, as an average reader, am going to attempt to write for average readers.

First:
By proof we generally expect the presentation of irrefutable facts or arguments, to include the development of conclusions through the application of logic and / or an ordered progression of thought.  It is, however, reasonable to ask whether one can support faith in certain Gods by facts or arguments at all.

Confucius:
“explaining the unknown through what is
           known is a logical procedure; explaining
           the known through what is unknown is a
           form of theological insanity.”

In Tacitus’ “Germania” Gods are named, Gods in which various tribes did truly believe, at least in Tacitus’ opinion.  In the two Eddas, and in many legends and myths, Gods are similarly named, some repeatedly, some only once. Additionally, these sources describe the Gods, whom Teutons believed determined their existence and also the majority of everyday events.  But did all, or even some, of these Gods really exist? These sources had no proof to support their writings, which makes it amazing how often the occurrence of Gods’ names in these sources is seen as proof of the Gods existence in and of themselves.

If certain Gods are named repeatedly in the different sources, that can mean that they were regarded as important in certain endeavors particular to life at that time. Nowadays, however, we have a completely different society, with substantial changes to the traditional endeavors and new concerns and activities which were not existent, or existent only in a very rudimentary form, among the Teuton tribes.  It follows that the Gods of the significant fields of endeavor from that time should occur frequently in the sources, whereas those of the less significant fields should be sparsely referred to, or possibly left out completely. It would seem logical then that we, in the current age, need either other Gods, or changes in the understood scope of responsibility for some Gods.

Some of the names of our Gods can be traced back through certain time periods and across linguistic derivations. We can conclude that certain names were recognized across numerous peoples with minor variations, but we can’t be certain that they all referred to the same God.  It is possible, but an element of assumption is introduced. If one accepts the logic behind such an assumption, then it’s easy to quickly accept the entire argument as fact. This is in spite of the assumption required, which effectively means we are accepting the existence of deities common to multiple tribes because it is consistent with our convictions, as opposed to empirical fact.

Additionally, some names are mentioned but not developed by the sources, and we cannot determine with any certainty whether a name refers to a God, and if so, what they were the God of. Simply rejecting such an ambiguous name would nonetheless be short-sighted. If someone among us dedicates themselves to such a divinity, than it is likely a God or a Goddess, that is if we assume we are “called” by our Gods.  If we reject the name, we are immediately faced with a slippery slope to Agnosticism, since there are good arguments for rejecting any divinity.

In any case, mythological sources are not a proof for the existence of the Gods. If Gods are not named in such sources, that does not prove they don’t exist.
Theologians of many religions also understood that, and therefore they look for their proof in lines of rational theoretical thought…

For example, there is the search for the existence of one or several great powers, who reign over good and evil, and offer an explanation for the purpose of our existence. This invariably leads to the following question, what intentions would these Gods have with us?

There have been many attempts to prove the existence of one or more Gods, but the resulting proofs are never based on where or how often a name occurs in mythological sources or how valid those sources are, instead the proofs rest on mental constructs, human logic, philosophical conclusions, and theoretical considerations, in short, on a whole array of unverifiable indications.

The existence of the Gods was not seriously doubted until a few centuries ago. Prior to that, theoretical considerations in this field only supported the existing fundamental convictions. With the rise of analytical thinking and an increasing secularization of our society the question about proving the existence of God emerged ever more frequently and became, in Christianity for example, its own philosophical discipline.  Even today, even among the many Asatru who have a fundamental conviction in the existence of the Gods, there is a search for logical explanations and generally accepted proof to support their faith. That does not have to be negative, unless thereby the faith of others is judged, or seen as speculative.

Religion is never abstract for believers. For believing Asatru the honored Gods are as real as any observable object, as are the myths. Whenever someone hangs their faith in a divinity on where and how often the divinity appears in myths, sagas, and so on, it’s likely they have strayed from the correct faith.

Thus, according to our scientific standards, the existence of one or more divinities is not provable, it always finally comes down to belief, to the acceptance of a condition. That could be, for example, that there must be “something higher”, to which we owe our existence. Something “absolute”, something “all-powerful”, something incomprehensible, something unyieldingly permanent, in counterpoint to our transience….

For the mathematicians among us there is also “mathematical proof of the Gods”. A paraphrased quotation:

“a God or a Goddess is the supreme and
              infinite of a function within an equation,
              or is the entire equation. Through this the
              respective conception of a religion is
              considered. An example is a binary God
              (ambivalence) which is either infinite or
              supreme. Humans represent thereby a constant
              in a qualified equation.”

Understood? …

In order to prove anything explanations are necessary. Explaining means, however, describing the unknown with the known. There is a necessary chain that leads from knowing, to explaining, to understanding. Without knowing, there can be no explanation, and without explanation there can be no understanding. Since the Gods are not knowable, they cannot be explained or understood. That makes every proof speculative, and it all comes down to assumptions, to faith.

There is also a question whether we, without faith in Gods, would maintain our moral values. If there were not a watching and decisive divinity, or faith that after death one lives in the proximity of a divinity, it’s plausible that a crucial, critical, constraint for our moral behavior would be lost.

There are plenty of arguments for the existence of our Gods, just not proof…

Is it really not completely brain-cracked to believe my faith is more logical than yours because the name of my deity appears more frequently than yours in some kind of text?
Isn’t it just as abnormal that the existence of your honored deity is questionable, at least more questionable than mine, because your deity is scarcely noted in some old Codex, or is even omitted entirely?
Just because a name isn’t noted, that doesn’t prove that a particular deity doesn’t exist or didn’t exist under another name.  Suppose it did, why should one not be allowed then to accept that such a divinity could be honored under another name…

Maybe a deity would not hear an old name anymore at all.
Can someone who has named their dog Wotan or Balder, the cat Freia, the computer Forseti, the canary Gerda, assumed the nickname Frigga, and named their son Thor, really expect each of these deities to react when their name is spoken?  …..;-)….

There are Asatru who regard my Representations of the Gods, including the names from my catalog of Gods (1) as extremely speculative, and may therefore also reject the validity of the deities. They themselves support their beliefs by similarly speculative sources. These are sources about whose contents centuries of specialists have argued, sporadically issuing new explanations and deleting the old, with no shortage of ridiculous justifications coming from either.

As Asatruar one must have a thick skin. However, if one is attacked because of their faith in a certain hardly mentioned divinity or several “unknown” Gods, even within the Asatru community, sneered at, and secretly or publicly criticized or ignored, then this indicates an illness within the community. We should react equally positively and without reservations to those who honor Lytir, Loll, Ostara, Thysa, Vagdavercustis, Perchta, and the others, as well as though who honor Odin, Thor and Freyja.

Then we can leave the question about proofs of the respective divinities behind us, ridiculous in reason, at least as far as faith and religion are concerned. On that note…

GardenStone, February, 2002.
English translation by Loren Hokanson, 2006.

(1): This catalog with information about over 130 Germanic deities will be part of the upcoming book “Partner of the Gods“, which is a translation of the existing German edition. The publication is expected in autumn 2012.

Near the Dutch city Maastricht in the year 1894 the part of a votive stone was found in which the name of the goddess ‘Gamaleda’ appears. This happened during building construction work for a brewery.

The readable parts of the inscription reads:
AMMACAE SIVE GAMALEDAE … VNDI
which is translated:
‘to either Ammaca or Gamaleda‘.
According to texts on other votive stones, it is assumed to have been a request or
the fulfillment of a vow.

The female name Ammaca (AHM-mah-kah) is documented as Gaulish, so this Goddess is likely Celtic.
However, Gamaleda is most likely of Germanic origin and is from that language explained as ‘old honorable wise mother.
This means, the stone was dedicated both to a Gaulish and a Germanic goddess; this should not amaze though, because that area was in the first centuries CE habituated by Celts and Germanics.

As I mentioned lately in a conversation the “Æcerbot Ritual”, I was asked first, what kind of ritual that was, they never heard of it. After mentioning the very often cited sentence “Erce, Erce, Erce, earth’s mother“, they recognized those words.
The charm is often cited in Pagan literature and on Pagan webpages, however, almost always just partially, suggesting, it is a heathen ritual from the Anglo-Saxons. In fact, it isn’t. It is clearly a Christian ritual which contains most likely traces of heathenism, but even that is a case of interpretation.
Here’s the complete Æcerbot – Field Remedy Ritual, so you can see and conclude for yourself.

Æcerbot – Field Remedy Ritual

Here is the remedy, how you may better your land, if it will not grow well or if
some harmful thing has been done to it by a sorcerer [dry] or by a poisoner
[lyblace].

Take then at night, before dawn, four sods from four sides of the land, and mark where they were before.
Then take oil and honey and yeast, and milk of each animal that is on the land, and a piece of each type of tree that grows on the land, except hard beams, and a piece of each herb known by name, except burdock [glappan] only, and put then holy water thereon, and drip it three times on the base of the sods, and say then these words:

Crescite, grow, et multiplicamini, and multiply, et replete, and fill, terre,
the earth. In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti sit benedicti. [In the
name of the father and the son and the holy spirit be blessed.] And the Pater
noster [Our Father] as often as the other.

And then bear the sods into church, and let a masspriest sing four masses over the sods, and let someone turn the green [sides] to the altar, and after that let someone bring the sods to where they were before, before the sun sets. And have made for them four signs of Christ [crosses] of quickbeam and write on each end: Matthew and Mark, Luke, and John. Lay that sign of Christ in the bottom of the pit [where each sod had been cut out], saying then: crux Matheus, crux Marcus, crux Lucas, crux sanctus Iohannes.

Take then the sods and set them down there on [the crosses], and say then nine times these words, Crescite [grow], and as often the Pater noster, and turn then to the east, and bow nine times humbly, and speak then these words:

Eastwards I stand, for mercies I pray,
I pray the great domine [lord], I pray the powerful lord,
I pray the holy guardian of heaven-kingdom,
earth I pray and sky
and the true sancta [holy] Mary
and heaven’s might and high hall,
that I may this charm [galdor] by the gift of the lord
open with [my] teeth through firm thought,
to call forth these plants for our worldly use,
to fill this land with firm belief,
to beautify this grassy turf, as the wiseman said
that he would have riches on earth who alms
gave with justice by the grace of the lord.

Then turn thrice with the sun’s course, stretch then out lengthwise and
enumerate there the litanies and say then: Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus to the end. Sing then Benedicite with outstretched arms and Magnificat and Pater noster thrice, and commend it [the land] to Christ and saint Mary and the holy cross for praise and for worship and for the benefit of the one who owns that land and all those who are serving under him.4 When all that is done, then let a man take unknown seed from beggars and give them twice as much as he took from them, and let him gather all his plough tools together; then let him bore a hole in the beam [of the plough, putting in] incense and fennel and hallowed soap and hallowed salt. Take then that seed, set it on the plough’s body, say then:

Erce, Erce, Erce, earth’s mother,
May the all-ruler grant you, the eternal lord,
fields growing and flourishing,
propagating and strengthening,
tall shafts, bright crops,
and broad barley crops,
and white wheat crops,
and all earth’s crops.
May the eternal lord grant him,
and his holy ones, who are in heaven,
that his produce be guarded against any enemies whatsoever,
and that it be safe against any harm at all,
from poisons [lyblaca] sown around the land.
Now I bid the Master, who shaped this world,
that there be no speaking-woman [cwidol wif] nor artful man
[craeftig man] that can overturn these words thus spoken.

Then let a man drive forth the plough and the first furrow cuts, say then:

Whole may you be [Be well] earth, mother of men!
May you be growing in God’s embrace,
with food filled for the needs of men.

Take then each kind of flour and have someone bake a loaf [the size of] a hand’s palm and knead it with milk and with holy water and lay it under the first furrow. Say then:

Field full of food for mankind,
bright-blooming, you are blessed
in the holy name of the one who shaped heaven
and the earth on which we live;
the God, the one who made the ground, grant us the gift of growing,
that for us each grain might come to use.

Say then thrice Crescite in nomine patris, sit benedicti [Grow in the name of
the father, be blessed]. Amen and Pater noster three times.

————————————————————————————
Source: “Popular Religion in Late Saxon England: Elf Charms in Context”, MS Cotton Caligula, British Library A. VII, fol. 176a-178a, late tenth or early eleventh century. Translation by Karen Louise Jolly, 1996.

The German poet Friedrich David Gräter (1768-1830) wrote a beautiful poem about the Earth goddess Hertha.
Here is side by side my translation and the German original.

A citation from my book “The Mercury – Woden complex”; it starts with the sentence from the “Germania’ by Tacitus, who writes about the Germanics:

“As for gods, Mercury is the one they worship most,
and on certain days they think it right to propitiate him
even with human victims” ….

means that, if we accept Tacitus here, the Germanics sacrificed
humans to their ‘Germanic Mercury’. Because other sources state
that Odin got similar sacrifices, a connection between the two
gods is quickly created. Too fast! Because: If only these two gods
were offered these kind of sacrifices, it might be indeed an indication
for the equation, but that is not the case. Human sacrifices
were not unusual among the Celts and Germanics, and certainly
not restricted to one god. Furthermore, it should be noted here
that Tacitus with his comment about human sacrifice most likely
followed what Caesar wrote about the Celts, but generally he may
have heard about such practices among the Germanic peoples.

Some examples of human sacrifice among the
Germanics

1. In the year 104 BCE the Cimbri and Teutons devastatingly
defeated the Roman Army at Arausio. Livy writes about this:

“80,000 soldiers and 40,000 servants and camp followers
were killed near Arausio.”
…………………………………………….Livy, Periochae, book 87.

All the plunder, including captured enemies were sacrificed the
gods.

2. Tacitus wrote about what Germanicus found years later at the
battlefield of Varus’ defeat:
“In the open fields lay their bones all bleached and
bare, some separate, some on heaps; just as they had
happened to fall, flying for their lives, or resisting unto
death. Here were scattered the limbs of horses, there
pieces of broken javelins; and the trunks of trees bore
the skulls of men. In the adjacent groves were the savage
altars; where, of the tribunes and principal centurions,
the barbarians had made a horrible immolation.”
………………………………Tacitus, the Annals, book I, 14 and 15 CE

So, the Cherusci and their allies had sacrificed important leading
Roman officers to their gods.

3. The Hermunduri had ordained their enemies to Mars and
Mercury before their battle with the Chatti (49 CE), and after
the victory they indeed sacrificed their prisoners. A legend
tells us:

The conflict between the Chatti and Hermunduri
about the holy salt river
Where the territory of the Hermunduri bordered that of
the Chatti, the river Saale flowed. For both people this
was a holy river, whose water, when poured over hot
glowing boles, provided them salt.
Generally, sources where salt was found were holy to
the Germanics, because they believed that gods were
dwelling there and therefore prayers at such places were
heard and granted more than elsewhere. Chatti and
Hermunduri got into a conflict about the possession for
this salt river. Before the battle, the Chatti dedicated the enemy’s
army, both the men and the horses, to their gods Mars
and Mercury. But they were unfortunate, they lost the
battle and the Hermunduri did with them what the
Chatti would have done; the sacrificed the prisoners to
their gods.
……………………….Karl Lyncker, Deutsche Sagen und Sitten
………………………..in hessischen Gauen, 1854

4. At the time that the Gothic war-chief Radagaisus invaded
with his Germanic warriors in the 5th century in Italy, he
vowed to sacrifice the Christian enemies to his gods. Here is
even clearly spoken in plural, of several gods to whom they
were offering.

Where victories of Germanic tribes are mentioned, usually human
sacrifice, as part of the victory celebration, are also mentioned.
To which gods exactly those offerings were made can not
be determined anymore. It can be assumed that these were the
gods who had previously been approached and asked to give help
in the battle or the campaign; they may differ from tribe to tribe.
Even when war gods from two tribes are called Mercury by the
Romans, it may concern in fact different gods.

5. Human sacrifices are also mentioned in church documents,
the missionary Ludger (Liudger, 742– 809) experienced such
things himself. The work of the missionaries also included
the fight against these sacrificial practices. Up to the 9th century,
the still heathen Saxons and Frisians were said to have
sacrificed humans, often in honor of their most important
war gods. Since the Saxons very likely knew Woden, it would
be quite possible that people also were sacrificed to him, but
probably not exclusively, because the Saxons had additional
war gods.
Archaeological finds of human bodies show that in heathen times
the practice of human sacrifices was rare but not unheard of
among the Germanics.

The Mercury-Woden complex
GardenStone
ISBN-10: 3844807500
ISBN-13: 978-3844807509
Available here and in other bookstores

A votive-altar, dedicated to this goddess was found near Handrian’s Wall in the town
Birrens, Dumfriesshire, Scotland,where in the ancient Roman time the Roman fort Blatobulgium was located.
The stone itself also dates likely from the first centuries CE, the inscription on it reads, written in full:

DEAE HARIMELLAE SACRUM.
GAMIDIAHUS ARC(ITEUTUS)
V(OTUM) S(OLVIT) L(IBENS) M(ERITO)

which means:
Dedicated to the goddess Harimella.
The architect Gamidiahus has fulfilled his vow willingly, gladly and deservedly.

However, the interpretation here of ARC as ‘ARCIDEUTUS‘ (architect) is disputed.
Other interpretations are

• ARC(ARIUS) = treasurer, cashier and
• AR(MORUM) C(USTOS) = armourer Literally ‘Keeper of the Armaments’

From ancient Roman documents it is known, that two cohorts of Tungri served the Roman army in Britain, one of them in that fort Blatobulgium. Therefore it is assumed, that it was a Tungri who dedicated that votive altar. The Tungri were a Germanic tribe, so it is likely, that Harimella is a goddess of Germanic origin.

Unfortunately the altar with the collection number CIL VII 1065 is lost without trace
meanwhile.

The name of this goddess is probably related to the Germanic words ‘harja-‘
(army), ‘Malla‘, ‘madla‘ (place of gathering, court place) and ‘harimaþla‘, which
means moot or gathering of the army. A linguistic connection exists here
with the Anglo-Saxon word ‘heremeðel‘ which points to an assembly from either
the people or an army.

Interpreting this personally……
Harimella was likely a war goddess and her aspect planning, advising at these gatherings.
In heathenism today, and maybe especially in Asatru she might be helpful when strategy and tactics are important components of wished success. Everyone who is involved in planning for whatever aim should consider honoring and calling this goddess for help.

First a snippet from Norse mythology……
Mani (Máni) is an Oldnorse word for ‘moon’ and the personality Mani is often interpreted as the ‘moon-god’, some call him a demigod, so a personified moon. However, that view is controversial. His father was the giant Mundilfari, his sister is called ‘Sol’ or Sunna, who is as a personality often seen as a sun-goddess. Mani drives his horse
drawn carriage through the skies and is accompanied by the children ‘Bil’ (the
waning one) en Hjuki (the waxing one). In another view Mani is pushing the moon along it’s orbit. His job there high in the sky wasn’t  probably a voluntary choice, according to the myths he should be assigned by Woden for it as a kind of punishment for the name he was given by his father. On his way he is continuously persued by the wolf Hati. At Ragnarok (Doomsday) he is catched up by the wolf who will devour Mani, the wagon, horses, children and the moon.
So far this intro……

You, dear reader, are you a heathen? Did you perhaps dedicate yourself to Mani? If you didn’t that, you might consider that  thoroughly. Because his influence on us should not be underestimated!
Yes, Mani has a well filled slate! Read on and you’ll get some insights about that…..

The ancient Greek already knew and that is why their word for an obsession is ‘manic’  and the inhabitants Philippine Islands honored Mani by giving their Capital city his name … Manila.

Research has proven, that every second human, more precise, every second woman and almost every fourth man perceives the influence of the moon at themselves. Obviously we are not aware how much we’re manipulated by Mani.
According to a big scale inquiry some years ago,52 % of the women believe, that the phases of the moon has influence on their sleep. 45 % is convinced, that the moon affects their state of mind, both positive and negative. Unfortunately the inquiry didn’t say a thing about the consequences, that many women let manicure their hands by a manicurist – and since even more and more men also manicure their hands, Mani‘s grip on us had increased.
OK, men are less sensitive for moon influences than women, About 22 % says the moon influences their mood and 28 % think, the moon affects their sleep.
Well.. say for yourself…. together that is a lot of influence!

There are men who think, they’ve a better chance to have sex with a woman when the moon is full, on the other hand, they smile (pseudo?) understandingly about a woman who things, some gardening things should be done by waxing moon, other things at waning moon, because that should have a big influence on the effectiveness.

A web search showed, that there are people who think, much harm and suffering is caused by the moon or the responsible moon-god Mani. From a female view, that may sound logical, because a male is responsible for the moon and in the eyes of many women men are in general principally guilty, never mind for what. So Mani is to blame… and that may be the reason for so many manic depressions.

On the other hand the moon appears very positive in many songs and poems, often the moon is by those lyricists rather sentimentally praised to the skies, maybe a bit strange, because he was there already – the myths tell us, that Woden has put him there aeons ago.

Several alcoholic effects are also connected to Mani….. once a month the moon is full.. as a human is ‘full’ when he or she is zonked, smashed, blotto….. history tell us, that this was always a typical male quality. We may ‘thank’ Mani for it, that you need at full moon less alcohol to become drunk.

To stick another moment at that ‘male’….. as every man, also Mani has his weak, vulnerable characteristics….. that explains clear enough the waxing and waning of the moon, often he even disappears completely or Mani uses the clouds if there is some reason for him to stay out of sight. He may have done something to be ashamed of, or he did something that should keep secret, hidden.

Our gods, semi-gods and the other immaterial, spiritual beings need the attention and devotion of us humans. Loneliness leads, we all know that, to very curious reclusing behavior and in the end often to lunacy and mania. Just think what all could happen if Mani became mad! Therefore we do have to worry and concern for Mani, we have to give him our affection and, because we humans are really traders, we expect and indeed we get something back for that attention…. at least an increasing of our emotional, inner life…… called monomania.

Insiders know, ancestor worship reaches back to Mani, already the Romans from classical Antiquity knew that and that is why they called it Manism (MANISMUS) when the meant the worship of ancestors or in general the dead.
The Romans also knew the same kind of the savagery and reckless frenzy in battle  the Germanics knew as Berserks; they brought such men together in a small fighting unit which they called MANIPEL, as a part of a cohort, a bigger military unit.

Even the ancient Babylonians knew our Mani; he founded there a religion to let people venerate

him – as a matter-of-course, that religion is known as Manichaeism and was one of the first big world religion. We know this from Mani because of a manuscript from the 5th century which is preserved in the German city of Cologne – that is why the document is called the Cologne Mani-Codex.

And the early Persian people (now called Iranian) knew Mani in the religion called Zoroastrianism. Another name for Mani there was Ahriman and he was the bad opponent of the ‘good’ Ahura Mazda; the Persians must have had bigger objections towards the moon.
By the way, the Persian expression ‘Arimani‘ means ‘god of the Aryans’ and that meant in those old days just ‘brave men’; only in 20th century Europe that Aryan concept became abused… most extremely by the Nazis.

There is even more….far away from Europe…in North-America, even the Indians knew our Germanic Mani, they even made him the highest of their gods and venerated him as Manitou, the Canadians honored this by naming one of their provinces after him: Manitoba.

Finally, even the Buddhists added Mani to their religion in their famous mantra ‘Om mani padme hum’.

After reading and understanding this all, even the most simple minded people will understand, that Mani is a ‘world-god’, the only Germanic god who was and is venerated worldwide.
And the most attractive fact is…… there are still a few places vacant for the initiation to Mani-priest; for them it is a yearly task to organize and spread Mani‘s annual celebration, called Manifestation.

You can apply now…. but don’t get out of line.