It is well known that, in ancient times, it was a common practice of the early christians to erect churches on top of Heathen temples. The notion was that the locals are accustomed to attending these places for worship, and that using these familiar places would aid in getting them used to the new creed by minimizing the feeling of it being something different. What is not as commonly recognized is that the same was done with the very language of the Volk. An obvious example of this is in the use of the word “lent”.
Modern English is a bastardized tongue borrowing from Latin, Spanish, German, Greek and various Native American languages; but it is predominantly descended from Anglo-Saxon. This is why Anglo-Saxon is commonly referred to as “Old English”. Anglo-Saxon is closely related to Old High German, which is why so many of the terms used in
Irminenschaft are remarkably similar to the terms used in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. If one keeps this in mind while considering terms discussed herein all will become clear.
Most people today are familiar with the term “Lent” from its use in many christian traditions. Lent (Lat: Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, alms-giving, and denial of ego.
How did Quadragesima come to be renamed as Lent? In Irminenschaft we use a calendar based on the one left by Karl der Groß (Charlamagne); Anglo-Saxon Heathens use the calendar of Bæde (Bede). The third month in the Irminic calendar is Lenzomânôd (“lent month”), roughly corresponding with Hrédmónað (month of Hréða) in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. Hréða is a goddess barely remembered. Most believe that she is associated with the concepts of fame and/or victory.OHG lenz, and its derivative term, lenzen are attested to mean “to lengthen”, a reference to the longer days found in the Springtime. As a matter-of-fact, the AS cognate, lencten, is where we derive our Modern English term lengthen. Thus, we might say that Lenzomânôd may be translated as “Spring month”. Further information on this may be found in Heathen Timekeeping: An Examination of the Germanic Lunar Reckoning by James Hjuka Coulter and in Lore of the Seasons by Gert Æscbéam McQueen.
Christians begin the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to the dictum "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations. The Anglo-Saxon Æcerbót, however, tells us that this tradition began very differently. Heathen Lent, of course, is the nôtfiur (need-fire) season. If one considers what a dirty job it would have been in ancient times to clean out the hearth before starting the new fire... Would there not be soot on people’s faces? I will take this opportunity to remind readers of Jakob Grimm’s words inTeutonic Mythology about the use of heilawag (‘holy water’) being boiled over the nôtfiur to purify the air.
Like the term Lent, christianism has also perverted the use of the word Easter. After Lenzomânôd in the Irminic calendar comes Ôstarmânôd (‘Ostara’s month’). Similarly, in the AS calendar, after Hrédmónað comes Éostremónað (‘Éostre’s month). German Ostara and English Éostre are similar goddesses. So similar, in fact, that one might say that their major differences are more in cultural perception than anything else. Similar to the difference between the Scandinavian distrust of Óðinn versus the German conception of Wodan as “all-father”, so the English see their springtime goddess in a slightly different light than their German counterparts.
According to the dictionary Easter is a christian festival celebrating the resurrection of Christ via a complicated formula meant to relate the event to the Jewish Pesach (‘Passover’). The proper name for the festival is Pasche or Pascal, but no one actually uses that term, substituting ‘Easter’ instead. In De Temporum Ratione Bæde writes: “Eosturmonath, which is now interpreted as ‘’Pascal month’ had its name from theirgoddess Eostre, to whom they held festivals, thus in naming the Paschal season after her, they designate the joys of a new celebration by the customary term applied to an ancient observance.” Grimm counters, however, that “Eostre must have denoted a higher being whose worship was so firmly rooted that the christian teachers tolerated the name and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries... the divinity of the radiant dawn, of up-springing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessings, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection day of the christian’s God.”
Fortunately, today all of us-- even christians-- still pay homage to Ostara with our bunnies and eggs, our best clothing, and our propensity to mingle with others==often in the most coquettish of ways! But it is not only in the feast days that christianism has perverted our very language. Consider, for example, in the use of theological terms. Sin is one of the most important concepts in christian theology. To a christian in represents a wrongful act which hampers the relationship between an individual and the divine. The word is derived from AS synn meaning “to be” or in some translations “that which is true”. The OHG cognate is suntea. The opposite of this state is OHG selbwahst or AS béon meaning “to grow” or “to become”. Thus, “sin” is not a state of evil or of transgression, but rather a state of stasis preventing one from becoming all that one could potentially be. In the German tradition we refer to this state as reaching Übermensch (MoHG ‘superman’, ‘overman’) whereas in the English tradition Heathens speak of the process of worthing (AS weorð, OHG werd ‘worth’).
Another of these altered concepts is in defining that which is ‘holy’ versus that which is ‘sacred’. Because of defects in christian cosmology these terms are considered to by synonymous. However, upon investigation, we find that this is not necessarily the case. OHG heilag and OE hálig, from which the modern word ‘holy’ is derived, both mean ‘whole’, ‘complete’ and are closely related to ‘healthy’ (OHG heil; OE hál). The opposite of this, OHG unholda and OE unhálig were used much as they are today when we say “unholy”, that is ‘wicked’, ‘impious’, ‘unprotected by law’. On the other hand we find the OHG word wîh and its AS cognate wíh meaning ‘set apart with unworldly power’. That is, it is something that invokes a sense of awe. It is from wîh that we gain the notion of something that is sacred. As christians would argue that anything within nature is “with sin” it therefore cannot be either holy or sacred. But as we see here, in the Heathen mind something must be part of nature to be holy. Furthermore, Heathens recognize that somethings may be both holy and sacred, referred to by Irminen as being in a state called wîh-heilig.
For our final example, why not consider the basic concepts of Good and Evil. OHG guot and AS gód both mean ‘virtuous’, ‘upright’. In both cases the notion is closely related to the idea of bettering and/or supporting the innergart (OE innergard). Kirsten Hastrup in Culture and History in Medieval Iceland (obviously writing from a more Norse perspective) suggests that the innergart of human society may be viewed as “coterminous with the law”. Thus, anyone else-- whether a wild animal, an opposing nation, or some precarious wihtir (AS wihta)-- might all be considered to be “out of law”or outside the enclosure. One might assume from the above that Heathenry possesses a rather xenophobic weltanschauung, but this is the farthest from the truth. Surviving documents as diverse as Ibn Fadlan's Travel-Report: As It Concerns the Scandinavian Rüs (Stephen Flowers, 1998) and Gesta Danorum (H. E. Davidson, 1980) demonstrate that this was not the case. A strong distinction is made in the Heathen mind, though, between a foreigner and an enemy. Some might think that Heathens lack a conception of evil at all. This is the furthest from the truth. OHG ubil and AS yfel are both predecessors to our Modern English word ‘evil’. Both terms bear notions of being defective or diseased. In other words, evil is not the opposite of good; it is the opposite of holy.
One could go on, but the point here is well made: christianism did not only come along to subvert our native spirituality, but it also had the effect of perverting our very language and culture. For more on this topic this author recommends Germanic Heathenry: A Practical Guide by James Hjuka Coulter (2003), especially for his discussion about the nature of the sêla (soul) as well as We Are Our Deeds: The Elder Heathenry, Its Ethic and Thew by Eric Wódening (2011) for concepts such as right, law, and custom.
Modern English is a bastardized tongue borrowing from Latin, Spanish, German, Greek and various Native American languages; but it is predominantly descended from Anglo-Saxon. This is why Anglo-Saxon is commonly referred to as “Old English”. Anglo-Saxon is closely related to Old High German, which is why so many of the terms used in
Irminenschaft are remarkably similar to the terms used in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. If one keeps this in mind while considering terms discussed herein all will become clear.
Most people today are familiar with the term “Lent” from its use in many christian traditions. Lent (Lat: Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the christian liturgical calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends approximately six weeks later, before Easter Sunday. The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, alms-giving, and denial of ego.
How did Quadragesima come to be renamed as Lent? In Irminenschaft we use a calendar based on the one left by Karl der Groß (Charlamagne); Anglo-Saxon Heathens use the calendar of Bæde (Bede). The third month in the Irminic calendar is Lenzomânôd (“lent month”), roughly corresponding with Hrédmónað (month of Hréða) in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry. Hréða is a goddess barely remembered. Most believe that she is associated with the concepts of fame and/or victory.OHG lenz, and its derivative term, lenzen are attested to mean “to lengthen”, a reference to the longer days found in the Springtime. As a matter-of-fact, the AS cognate, lencten, is where we derive our Modern English term lengthen. Thus, we might say that Lenzomânôd may be translated as “Spring month”. Further information on this may be found in Heathen Timekeeping: An Examination of the Germanic Lunar Reckoning by James Hjuka Coulter and in Lore of the Seasons by Gert Æscbéam McQueen.
Christians begin the Lenten season with Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the placing of repentance ashes on the foreheads of participants to the dictum "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations. The Anglo-Saxon Æcerbót, however, tells us that this tradition began very differently. Heathen Lent, of course, is the nôtfiur (need-fire) season. If one considers what a dirty job it would have been in ancient times to clean out the hearth before starting the new fire... Would there not be soot on people’s faces? I will take this opportunity to remind readers of Jakob Grimm’s words inTeutonic Mythology about the use of heilawag (‘holy water’) being boiled over the nôtfiur to purify the air.
Like the term Lent, christianism has also perverted the use of the word Easter. After Lenzomânôd in the Irminic calendar comes Ôstarmânôd (‘Ostara’s month’). Similarly, in the AS calendar, after Hrédmónað comes Éostremónað (‘Éostre’s month). German Ostara and English Éostre are similar goddesses. So similar, in fact, that one might say that their major differences are more in cultural perception than anything else. Similar to the difference between the Scandinavian distrust of Óðinn versus the German conception of Wodan as “all-father”, so the English see their springtime goddess in a slightly different light than their German counterparts.
According to the dictionary Easter is a christian festival celebrating the resurrection of Christ via a complicated formula meant to relate the event to the Jewish Pesach (‘Passover’). The proper name for the festival is Pasche or Pascal, but no one actually uses that term, substituting ‘Easter’ instead. In De Temporum Ratione Bæde writes: “Eosturmonath, which is now interpreted as ‘’Pascal month’ had its name from theirgoddess Eostre, to whom they held festivals, thus in naming the Paschal season after her, they designate the joys of a new celebration by the customary term applied to an ancient observance.” Grimm counters, however, that “Eostre must have denoted a higher being whose worship was so firmly rooted that the christian teachers tolerated the name and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries... the divinity of the radiant dawn, of up-springing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessings, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection day of the christian’s God.”
Fortunately, today all of us-- even christians-- still pay homage to Ostara with our bunnies and eggs, our best clothing, and our propensity to mingle with others==often in the most coquettish of ways! But it is not only in the feast days that christianism has perverted our very language. Consider, for example, in the use of theological terms. Sin is one of the most important concepts in christian theology. To a christian in represents a wrongful act which hampers the relationship between an individual and the divine. The word is derived from AS synn meaning “to be” or in some translations “that which is true”. The OHG cognate is suntea. The opposite of this state is OHG selbwahst or AS béon meaning “to grow” or “to become”. Thus, “sin” is not a state of evil or of transgression, but rather a state of stasis preventing one from becoming all that one could potentially be. In the German tradition we refer to this state as reaching Übermensch (MoHG ‘superman’, ‘overman’) whereas in the English tradition Heathens speak of the process of worthing (AS weorð, OHG werd ‘worth’).
Another of these altered concepts is in defining that which is ‘holy’ versus that which is ‘sacred’. Because of defects in christian cosmology these terms are considered to by synonymous. However, upon investigation, we find that this is not necessarily the case. OHG heilag and OE hálig, from which the modern word ‘holy’ is derived, both mean ‘whole’, ‘complete’ and are closely related to ‘healthy’ (OHG heil; OE hál). The opposite of this, OHG unholda and OE unhálig were used much as they are today when we say “unholy”, that is ‘wicked’, ‘impious’, ‘unprotected by law’. On the other hand we find the OHG word wîh and its AS cognate wíh meaning ‘set apart with unworldly power’. That is, it is something that invokes a sense of awe. It is from wîh that we gain the notion of something that is sacred. As christians would argue that anything within nature is “with sin” it therefore cannot be either holy or sacred. But as we see here, in the Heathen mind something must be part of nature to be holy. Furthermore, Heathens recognize that somethings may be both holy and sacred, referred to by Irminen as being in a state called wîh-heilig.
For our final example, why not consider the basic concepts of Good and Evil. OHG guot and AS gód both mean ‘virtuous’, ‘upright’. In both cases the notion is closely related to the idea of bettering and/or supporting the innergart (OE innergard). Kirsten Hastrup in Culture and History in Medieval Iceland (obviously writing from a more Norse perspective) suggests that the innergart of human society may be viewed as “coterminous with the law”. Thus, anyone else-- whether a wild animal, an opposing nation, or some precarious wihtir (AS wihta)-- might all be considered to be “out of law”or outside the enclosure. One might assume from the above that Heathenry possesses a rather xenophobic weltanschauung, but this is the farthest from the truth. Surviving documents as diverse as Ibn Fadlan's Travel-Report: As It Concerns the Scandinavian Rüs (Stephen Flowers, 1998) and Gesta Danorum (H. E. Davidson, 1980) demonstrate that this was not the case. A strong distinction is made in the Heathen mind, though, between a foreigner and an enemy. Some might think that Heathens lack a conception of evil at all. This is the furthest from the truth. OHG ubil and AS yfel are both predecessors to our Modern English word ‘evil’. Both terms bear notions of being defective or diseased. In other words, evil is not the opposite of good; it is the opposite of holy.
One could go on, but the point here is well made: christianism did not only come along to subvert our native spirituality, but it also had the effect of perverting our very language and culture. For more on this topic this author recommends Germanic Heathenry: A Practical Guide by James Hjuka Coulter (2003), especially for his discussion about the nature of the sêla (soul) as well as We Are Our Deeds: The Elder Heathenry, Its Ethic and Thew by Eric Wódening (2011) for concepts such as right, law, and custom.
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