Irmin

Irmin ( handwritten Hirmin ) is a fictional character of Widukind of Corvey from his early medieval historiographical writing the history of Saxony.

Medieval studies researchers concluded in connection with the Irminsul from Widukind representation on Irmin as a variant or an epithet of the god Tiwaz / Saxnot or as an independent deity of Saxony. With Norbert Wagner Irmin is evaluated as the product of Widukind combination joyful and etymologisierender scholarship today.

Tradition

The section with the entry of Irmin is found in the initial part of Widukind's report to the mythical, or historically illiterate antiquity of the formation of the Saxon tribe in the fifth and sixth centuries, the so- called literary history also particularly heroic age. In the battle of Burgscheidungen in 531 the Merovingian Franks defeat the Thuringian under Irminfried by the aid of Saxon quotas. After the victorious battle the Saxons celebrate a three -day festival, build a Irminsul and a sacrificial altar.

" Mane autem facto ad orientalem Portam ponunt aquilam, aramque victoriae construentes secundum errorem Paternum sacra sua propria veneratione venerati sunt: nomine Martem, effigy columnarum imitantes Herculem, loco Solem, quem Graeci appelant Apollinem. Ex hoc apparet aestimatonem illorum utcumque probabilem, qui Saxones originem duxisse putant de Graecis, Hirmin vel hermiso Grace Mars dicitur quia; quo vocabulo ad Laudem vel ad usque hodie etiam vituperationem ignorant utimur "

" When it was day, they placed at the east gate the eagle down and erected a victory altar to worship according to the erroneous belief of the fathers to them Saints with their own worship: with the name of Mars, with the replication of columns of Heracles and choosing the place to Sol, the Greeks call Apollo. It shows go, that in any case the opinion that is credible, who are of the opinion that the Saxons descended from the Greeks, because Hirmin or hermiso is the Greek name of Mars; and to this day we use that word for emphasis in praising or in reproving sense, albeit unknowingly. "

Etymologically can be vastly fix for large, for the Germanic Irmin * ( e) irmanaz. This lexeme is found in other early medieval textual witnesses again, for example in Hildebrandslied in the composites Irmin - deot and Irmin -got, and in personal names as above at Irmin -fried.

Swell

• Widukind of Corvey: Res gestae Saxonicae. HE Lohmann and P. Hirsch ( eds.), A. Bauer, R. Rau ( translation ). In: sources on the history of the Saxon Empire. Vol 8, 1971, p 1-183.
• Ekkehardt Rotter, Bernd Schneidmüller ( Translator, eds ): Widukind of Corvey. Res gestae Saxonicae / The Saxons history. Latin - German, Reclam, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-15-007699-4.