Page 109 [109]
A MYSTERY AMONG THE MYSTERIES: ARE THERE OLD ICELANDIC MYSTERIES
within the same Christian religion). Anyhow, we do not find any reference
to “mysteries” behind the data referring to the three “genuine” cult systems
among the early Germanic tribes.
In chapter 9, Tacitus says that some Suebians offer sacrifices also to
the Egyptian goddess Isis (Pars Sueborum et Isidi sacrificat). For Tacitus it
seemed strange that the Germans should adopt any cult of a faraway goddess.
He supposed that they found the decorated heavenly boat, that is, the symbol
of Isis, familiar (unde causa et origo peregrino sacro, parum comperi, nisi quod
signum ipsum in modum liburnae figuratum docet advectam religionem). We
know that there was a strong cult of Isis all over Egypt (and in Rome). It is
interesting to notice that according to Tacitus, the contemporary Germans
invoked the secret names of the gods, which they observed in “reverence”
(lucos ac nemora consecrant deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud,
quod sola reverentia vident). This “secret knowledge” announced by the name
of the gods might be interpreted, to some extent, as a kind of “mystery.”
Tacitus as a very early witness is even more intriguing if we consider
the archaeological data connected with Nehalennia.* The name of a Germanic
goddess, Nehalennia occurs centuries later on many votive tablets from the
3 century AD among Western Germans. The richest archaeological sites
are Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of river Schelde, i.e., along
the westernmost seashore in today’s Netherlands. Unfortunately, we do not
know direct descriptions of the rites which may have been carried out then
or later because since Tacitus’ time, the two shrines or temples once existing
there have been covered by sand dunes or were simply washed away by
the sea. Two tablets with identical motifs were also found in the Köln - Deutz
area. On the tablets, we see the goddess with a basket of fruits, a dog, often
inclining on a boat, or with an oar. The Romanized symbolic motifs were
definitely borrowed from the “Cult of Matrons” in Rome; the dog as an animal
referring to death and the ship belong to the lore of many “sea-faring” gods
in the Antiquity. The inscriptions reveal a connection of Nehalennia with
deep sea sailing. It is imaginable that this was the reason why Nehalennia
had a cult on the western coast of the European continent. One votive altar
inscription (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. XIII, N° 8798) directly
equates Nehalennia with Isis.
There has been a lengthy discussion among German philologists in the 19"
and 20" centuries on whether we can suppose the existence of any “sea¬
goddess” among the early Germans. Or is Nehalennia only a reminiscence
of a simple local variation of a rite of the seamen living on the coasts of
the Atlantic? The reports do not refer to any “mysteries” but we cannot
5 See G. Neumann - P. Stuart, Nehalennia, in Heinrich Beck et al. (eds.), Reallexikon
der germanischen Altertumskunde. (Hereafter RDA.) Zweite, völlig bearbeitete und stark
erweiterte Auflage. Berlin - New York, Walter de Gruyter, 2002, Bd. 21, 61-64.
+ 107 +
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 107 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:15