View source for Irminsul

{{short description|Sacred, pillar-like object in Saxon paganism}}
[[File:Zerstörung der Irminsaule durch Karl den Großen by Heinrich Leutemann.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|"The destruction of Irminsul by Charlemagne" by [[Heinrich Leutemann]], 1882]]

An '''Irminsul''' ([[Old Saxon]] 'great pillar') was a sacred, [[Column|pillar]]-like object attested as playing an important role in the [[Germanic paganism]] of the [[Saxons]]. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by [[Charlemagne]] during the [[Saxon Wars]]. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by [[Pope Leo III]].
[[Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology|Sacred trees and sacred grove]]s were widely venerated by the [[Germanic peoples]] (including [[Donar's Oak]]), and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112">d'Alviella (1891:112).</ref>

==Etymology==
[[File:Irminsul in Harbarnsen-Irmenseul 2009.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A modern interpretation of the Irminsul, erected 1996 in Harbarnsen-Irmenseul municipality (near [[Hildesheim]] in [[Lower Saxony]]). The [[sun cross]] on the top is based on the coat of arms of the village of Irmenseul.<ref>{{cite web|title=Wiedererrichtung der Irminsul |website=Heimatverein-Irmenseul |url=http://www.heimatverein-irmenseul.de/wiedererrichtung-der-irminsul/ |access-date=11 December 2022}}</ref>]]
The [[Old Saxon]] word compound {{lang|osx|Irminsûl}} means 'great pillar'. The first element, {{lang|osx|Irmin-}} ('great') is [[cognate]] with terms with some significance elsewhere in [[Germanic mythology]]. Among the [[North Germanic peoples]], the [[Old Norse]] form of {{lang|osx|Irmin}} is {{lang|non|Jörmunr}}, which just like {{lang|non|[[List of names of Odin|Yggr]]}} is one of the [[List of names of Odin|names]] of Odin. [[Yggdrasil]] (Old Norse 'Yggr's horse') is a [[Norse cosmology|cosmic tree]] from which Odin sacrificed himself, and which connects the [[Nine worlds]]. 19th century scholar [[Jakob Grimm]] connects the name {{lang|osx|Irmin}} with [[Old Norse]] terms like {{lang|non|iörmungrund}} ("great ground", i.e. the Earth) or {{lang|non|iörmungandr}} ("great snake", i.e. the [[Midgard serpent]]).<ref name="GRIMM-1835-115-119">Grimm (1835:115-119)</ref>

A Germanic god [[Irminism|Irmin]], inferred from the name {{lang|osx|Irminsûl}} and the tribal name [[Irminones]], is in some older scholarship presumed to have been the national god or [[demi-god]] of the Saxons.<ref>Robinson (1917): p.389</ref> It has been suggested{{By whom|date=June 2025}} that {{lang|osx|Irmin}} was more probably an aspect or [[epithet]] of some other deity – most likely Wodan ([[Odin]]).{{Citation needed|date=June 2025}} Irmin might also have been an epithet of the god Ziu ([[Tyr]]) in early Germanic times, only later transferred to Odin, as certain scholars subscribe to the idea that Odin replaced Tyr as the chief Germanic deity at the onset of the [[Migration Period]]. This was the favored view of early 20th century Nordicist writers,<ref>E.g. Meyer (1910): p.192</ref> but it is not generally considered likely in modern times.<ref>E.g. Farwerck (1970): p.33</ref>

==Attestations==
Irminsuls are attested in a variety of historic works discussing the Christianization of the continental Germanic peoples:

===Royal Frankish Annals===
According to the [[Royal Frankish Annals]] (772 AD), during the [[Saxon Wars]], [[Charlemagne]] is repeatedly described as ordering the destruction of the chief seat of their religion, an Irminsul.<ref name=STALLYBRASS116-118>Stallybrass (1882): 116-118).</ref> The Irminsul is described as not being far from Heresburg (now [[Obermarsberg]]), Germany.<ref name=STALLYBRASS116-118/> [[Jacob Grimm]] states that "strong reasons" point to the actual location of the Irminsul as being approximately {{convert|15|mi|km}} away, in the [[Teutoburg Forest]] and states that the original name for the region "Osning" may have meant "Holy Wood".<ref name=STALLYBRASS116-118/>

===''De miraculis sancti Alexandri''===
The [[Benedictine]] monk [[Rudolf of Fulda]] (AD 865) provides a description of an Irminsul in chapter 3 of his Latin work ''De miraculis sancti Alexandri''. Rudolf's description states that the Irminsul was a great wooden pillar erected and worshipped beneath the open sky and that its name, Irminsul, signifies universal all-sustaining pillar.<ref name=STALLYBRASS116-118/>

===Widukind of Corvey===
Clive Tolley has argued that [[Widukind of Corvey]] in a passage of his ''[[Deeds of the Saxons]]'' (c. 970) is in fact describing an ''ad hoc'' Irminsul erected to celebrate the Saxon leader [[Hadugato]]'s victory over the [[Thuringians]] in 531. Widukind says the Saxons set up an altar to their god of victory, whose body they depicted as a wooden column:
<blockquote>
When morning was come they set up an eagle at the eastern gate, and erecting an altar of victory they celebrated appropriate rites with all due solemnity, according to their ancestral superstition: to the one whom they venerate as their god of Victory they give the name of Mars, and the bodily characteristics of Hercules, imitating his physical proportion by means of wooden columns, and in the hierarchy of their gods he is the Sun, or as the Greeks call him, Apollo. From this fact the opinion of those men appears somewhat probable who hold that the Saxons were descended from the Greeks, because the Greeks call Mars Hirmin or Hermes, a word which we use even to this day, either for blame or praise, without knowing its meaning.<ref>Raymund F. Wood, ed. and trans., ''The Three Books of the Deeds of the Saxons, by Widukind of Corvey: Translated with Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography'', PhD diss. (University of California, Los Angeles, 1949), pp. 178–79.</ref>
</blockquote>

Widukind is confused, however, about the name of the god, since the Roman Mars and the Greek Hermes do not correspond. Tolley supposes that the name Hirmin, of which Widukind does not know the meaning, is not to be related to Hermes, but to Irmin, the dedicatee of the Irminsul.<ref>Clive Tolley, "Oswald's Tree", in Tette Hofstra, L. A. J. R. Houwen and Alasdair A. MacDonald, eds., ''Pagans and Christians: The Interplay Between Christian Latin and Traditional Germanic Cultures in Early Medieval Europe'' (Groningen: 1995), pp. 151–52.</ref><ref>[[Carole M. Cusack]], ''The Sacred Tree: Ancient and Medieval Manifestations'' (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011), pp. 137–38.</ref>

===Hildesheim===
Under [[Louis the Pious]] in the 9th century, a stone column was dug up at [[Obermarsberg]]<ref name=ANNALS>According to the [[Royal Frankish Annals]] (Anonymus ([790]): chapter 772):
<blockquote>
''Et inde perrexit partibus Saxoniae prima vice, Eresburgum castrum coepit, ad Ermensul usque pervenit et ipsum fanum destruxit et aurum vel argentum, quod ibi repperit, abstulit. Et fuit siccitas magna, ita ut aqua deficeret in supradicto loco, ubi Ermensul stabat; et dum voluit ibi duos aut tres praedictus gloriosus rex stare dies fanum ipsum ad perdestruendum et aquam non haberent, tunc subito divina largiente gratia media die cuncto exercitu quiescente in quodam torrente omnibus hominibus ignorantibus aquae effusae sunt largissimae, ita ut cunctus exercitus sufficienter haberet.''
</blockquote></ref> in [[Westphalia]], Germany, and relocated to the [[St. Mary's Cathedral, Hildesheim|Hildesheim cathedral]] in [[Hildesheim]], [[Lower Saxony]], Germany. The column was reportedly then used as a [[candelabrum]] until at least the late 19th century.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-106">d'Alviella (1891), [https://books.google.com/books?id=7qUje6CufvkC&pg=PA106 pp. 106-107]</ref> In the 13th century, the destruction of the Irminsul by Charlemagne was recorded as having still been commemorated at Hildesheim on the Saturday after [[Laetare Sunday]].<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112"/>

The commemoration was reportedly done by planting two poles six feet high, each surmounted by a wooden object one foot in height shaped like a pyramid or a cone on the cathedral square.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112"/> The youth then used sticks and stones in an attempt to knock over the object.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112"/> This custom is described as existing elsewhere in Germany, particularly in [[Halberstadt]] where it was enacted on the day of Laetare Sunday by the [[Canon (priest)|Canons]] themselves.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112"/>

===''Kaiserchronik''===
[[File:Irminsul nach Sebastian Münster.Ca. 1590.JPG|thumb|upright|A late 16th century interpretation of an Irminsul bearing the cult image of a god of war and commerce, from [[Sebastian Münster]]'s ''[[Cosmographia (Sebastian Münster)|Cosmographia]]'']]
Awareness of the significance of the concept seems to have persisted well into Christian times. For example, in the twelfth-century ''[[Kaiserchronik]]'' an Irminsul is mentioned in three instances:

Concerning the origin of the Wednesday:
{{poemquote|''ûf ainer irmensiule / stuont ain abgot ungehiure, / daz hiezen si ir choufman.''<ref>Schröder (1892): p.81, lines 129-131</ref>
On an Irminsul / stands an enormous idol / which they call their merchant}}

Concerning [[Julius Caesar]]:
{{poemquote|''Rômâre in ungetrûwelîche sluogen / sîn gebaine si ûf ain irmensûl begruoben''<ref>Schröder (1892): p.92, lines 601-602</ref>
The Romans slew him treacherously / and buried his bones on an Irminsul}}

Concerning [[Nero]]:
{{poemquote|''ûf ain irmensûl er staich / daz lantfolch im allez naich.''<ref>Schröder (1892): p.158, lines 4213-4214</ref>
He climbed upon an Irminsul / the peasants all bowed before him}}

ABBOT DE LUBERSAC (Abbé de Lubersac): Discours sur les Monuments Publics (Speech on Public Monuments)

The abbot place the Irminsul in 
Stattbergen, Bavaria. (P.183)

==Hypotheses==
A number of theories surround the subject of the Irminsul.

===''Germania'', Pillars of Hercules, and Jupiter Columns===
In [[Tacitus]]' ''[[Germania (book)|Germania]]'', the author mentions rumors of what he describes as "[[Pillars of Hercules]]" in land inhabited by the [[Frisii]] that had yet to be explored.<ref>Tacitus ([98]): chapter 34</ref> Tacitus adds that these pillars exist either because [[Hercules]] actually did go there or because the Romans have agreed to ascribe all marvels anywhere to Hercules' credit. Tacitus states that while [[Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus Germanicus]] was daring in his campaigns against the Germanic tribes, he was unable to reach this region, and that subsequently no one had yet made the attempt.<ref name=BIRLEY55>Birley (1999:55).</ref> Connections have been proposed between these "Pillars of Hercules" and later accounts of the Irminsuls.<ref name="DALVIELLA-1891-112"/> [[Hercules]] was probably frequently identified with [[Thor]] by the Romans due to the practice of ''[[Interpretatio graeca|interpretatio romana]]''.<ref name=RIVES160>Rives (1999:160).</ref>

Comparisons have been made between the Irminsul and the [[Jupiter Column]]s that were erected along the [[Rhine]] in [[Germania]] around the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE. Scholarly comparisons were once made between the Irminsul and the Jupiter Columns; however, Rudolf Simek states that the columns were of [[Gallo-Roman religion|Gallo-Roman religious]] monuments, and that the reported location of the Irminsul in [[Eresburg]] does not fall within the area of the Jupiter Column archaeological finds.<ref name=SIMEK175-176>Simek (2007:175-176).</ref>

===Wilhelm Teudt, the Externsteine, and symbol===
The medieval [[Externsteine relief]], located on a rock formation near [[Detmold]], Germany, features a shape often identified as a bent tree at the feet of [[Nicodemus]]. In 1929, German lay archaeologist and future [[Ahnenerbe]] member [[Wilhelm Teudt]] proposed that the symbol represented an Irminsul.<ref>Teudt (1929): p.27-28</ref><ref>Halle (2002)</ref>

However, according to scholar [[Bernard Mees]]:
{{Blockquote|A medieval relief depicting Christ's descent from the cross on one of the Extern Stones seems to show what Teudt interpreted as a tree being withered by the cross (less imaginative researchers consider it to simply be an elaborate chair) ... [the symbol] joined the runes and the swastika as one of the foremost symbols of the anti-Christian ''völkisch'' identity at the time and remains a motif treasured among German neopagans today.<ref name="MEES-2008-192-194">Mees (2008: 192-194).</ref>}}

<gallery>
File:Extern-Relief-P1050037.jpg|The image identified as representing Irminsul by Wilhelm Teudt on the [[Externsteine]] [[Descent from the Cross]] relief, rejected by Bernard Mees and interpreted as an elaborate chair
File:Irminsul als Weltenbaum.jpg|An illustration of Wilhelm Teudt's proposed 'straightening' of the object, yielding what he considered to symbolize an Irminsul, and subsequently used in Nazi Germany and among some Neopagan groups
File:Irminsul_pillar_black.svg|A stylized illustration based on Wilhelm Teudt's proposal
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Ahnenerbe]]
*[[Asherah pole]]
*[[Celtic Cross]]
*[[Irminenschaft]]
*[[Maypole]]
*[[Mjölnir]]
*[[Palmette]]
*[[Roland]] (''[[:de:Roland (Statue)|Rolandssäulen]]'')
*[[Sacred grove]]
*[[Sacred tree at Uppsala]]
*[[Thor's Oak]]
*[[Yggdrasil]]

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Commons category|Irminsul}}
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{aut|Anonymus}} ([790]): ''[[Annales regni Francorum]]'' [Royal Frankish Annals]. [In Latin] [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/annalesregnifrancorum.html HTML fulltext].
* {{aut|Birley, Anthony Richard}} (Trans.) (1999). ''Agricola and Germany''. Oxford University Press {{ISBN|0-19-283300-6}}
* {{aut|Farwerck, F.E.}} (1970): ''Noord-Europese Mysteriën'' ["Northern European mystery cults"]. [In Dutch]
* {{aut|[[Eugene Goblet d'Alviella|d'Alviella, Eugène Goblet]]}} (1891). ''The Migration of Symbols''. A. Constable and Co.
* {{aut|Halle, Uta}} (2002): ''Die Externsteine sind bis auf weiteres germanisch! - Prähistorische Archäologie im Dritten Reich'' ["Until further notice, the Externsteine are Germanic! - Prehistoric archaeology in the Third Reich"]. [In German] Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld.
* {{aut|Matthes, Walther & Speckner, Rolf}} (1997): ''Das Relief an den Externsteinen. Ein karolingisches Kunstwerk und sein spiritueller Hintergrund'' ["The Externsteine relief. A Carolingian artwork and its spiritual background"]. [In German] edition tertium, Ostfildern vor Stuttgart.
* {{aut|Mees, Bernard}} (2008): ''The Science of the Swastika''. [[Central European University Press]]. {{ISBN|9786155211577}}
* {{aut|Meyer, Richard Moritz}} (1910): ''Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte'' ["Ancient Germanic Religious History"]. [In German]
* {{aut|Rives, J.B.}} (Trans.) (1999). ''Germania: Germania''. [[Oxford University Press]] {{ISBN|0-19-815050-4}}
* {{aut|Robinson, Charles Henry}} (1917): ''The Conversion of Europe''. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, New York, Bombay and Calcutta.
* {{aut|Simek, Rudolf}} (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''. [[Boydell & Brewer|D.S. Brewer]] 0859915131
* {{aut|Schmidt, Martin & Halle, Uta}} (1999): On the folklore of the Externsteine - Or a centre for Germanomaniacs. ''In:'' {{aut|Gazin-Schwartz, Amy & Holtorf, Cornelius}}: ''Archaeology and Folklore'': 153–169. Routledge. <small>{{ISBN|0-415-20144-6}}</small> [https://books.google.com/books?id=s3h3JER7RmgC&pg=RA2-PA153 Partial text] at [[Google Books]]
* {{aut|Schröder, Edward}} (1892): ''[[Kaiserchronik|Die Kaiserchronik eines Regensburger Geistlichen]]'' ["The ''Kaiserchronik'' of a Regensburg cleric"]. [In German] Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover. [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/german/frames.pl?file=kchr.xml HTML fulltext]
* {{aut|Stallybrass, James Steven}} (1882). (Trans.) J. Grimm's ''[[Deutsche Mythologie|Teutonic Mythology]]'', volume I.
* {{aut|[[Tacitus|Tacitus, Publius Cornelius]]}} ([98]): ''[[Germania (book)|De Origine et situ Germanorum]]'' ["About the origin and location of the Germanic peoples"]. [In Latin] [[s:Germania|HTML fulltext]] at [[Wikisource]]
* {{aut|[[Wilhelm Teudt|Teudt, Wilhelm]]}} (1929): ''Germanische Heiligtümer. Beiträge zur Aufdeckung der Vorgeschichte, ausgehend von den Externsteinen, den Lippequellen und der Teutoburg'' ["Germanic sacred sites. Contributions to the discovery of prehistory, based upon the Externsteine, the Lippe springs and the Teutoburg"]. [In German] Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Jena.
{{Refend}}

{{Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:History of North Rhine-Westphalia]]
[[Category:Paderborn]]
[[Category:Old Saxony]]
[[Category:Trees in Germanic paganism]]
[[Category:Persecution of Pagans]]
[[Category:Charlemagne]]