|
In Germanic paganism, Nerthus is a goddess associated with fertility. Nerthus is attested by Tacitus, the first century AD Roman historian, in his ethnographic work ''Germania''. In ''Germania'', Tacitus records that the remote Suebi tribes were united by their veneration of the goddess at his time of writing and maintained a sacred grove on an (unspecified) island and that a holy cart rests there draped with cloth, which only a priest may touch. The priests feel her presence by the cart, and, with deep reverence, attend her cart, which is drawn by heifers. Everywhere the goddess then deigns to visit, she is met with celebration, hospitality, and peace. All iron objects are locked away, and no one will leave for war. When the goddess has had her fill she is returned to her temple by the priests. Tacitus adds that the goddess, the cart, and the cloth are then washed by slaves in a secluded lake. The slaves are then drowned. The name ''Nerthus'' is generally held to be a Latinized form of Proto-Germanic *Nerþuz, a direct precursor to the Old Norse deity name ''Njörðr''. While scholars have noted numerous parallels between the descriptions of the two figures, Njörðr is attested as a male deity. Various scholarly theories exist regarding the goddess and her potential later traces amongst the Germanic peoples, including that the figure may be identical to the unnamed sister-wife of Njörðr mentioned in two Old Norse sources. ==Name, Identification with Later Figures, and ''Hertha''== Nerthus is often identified with the van Njörðr who is attested in various 13th century Old Norse works and in numerous Scandinavian place names. The connection between the two is due to the linguistic relationship between ''Njörðr'' and the reconstructed Proto-Germanic '' *Nerþuz'',〔Simek (2007:234)〕 ''Nerthus'' being the feminine, Latinized form of what ''Njörðr'' would have looked like around the first century.〔Lindow (2001:237—238)〕 This has led to theories about the relation of the two, including that Njörðr may have once been a hermaphroditic deity or that the name may indicate the otherwise forgotten sister-wife in a divine brother-sister pair like the Vanir deities Freyja and Freyr.〔Simek (2007:234). Note that Simek supports the notion of an unattested divine brother and sister pair.〕 While developments in historical linguistics ultimately allowed for the identification of ''Nerthus'' with ''Njörðr'', various other readings of the name were in currency prior to the acceptance of this identification, most commonly the form ''Hertha''. This form was proposed as an attempt to mirror the Old Norse goddess name ''Jörð'' 'earth'.〔Simek (2007:145).〕 Writing on this topic in 1912, Raymond Wilson Chambers says "strange has been the history of this goddess Nerthus in modern times. Sixteenth century scholars found irresistible the temptation to emend the name of 'Mother Earth' into ''Herthum'', which nineteenth century scholars further improved into ''Hertham'', ''Ertham''. For many years this false goddess drove out the rightful deity from the fortieth chapter of the ''Germania''".〔Chambers (2001 ():70).〕 Up until its superseding, the name ''Hertha'' had some influence. For example, ''Hertha'' and ''Herthasee'' (see "location" section below) play major roles in German novelist Theodor Fontane's 1896 novel ''Effi Briest''.〔Hardy (2001:125).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Nerthus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|