Were it not for Tacitus, our knowledge of Germanic
mythology would have been limited to most fairly late mediaeval sources, like
the prose – and poetic Edda. Not that Tacitus goes much into detail, but what
he gives is of significant interest as we glimpses of myths unattested in later
sources.
In the first part of chapter 2, Tacitus states that he
believes that the Germanic people are indigenous No wonder, as no other people
wants to live there! Of course Tacitus is wrong: they result from a mixture of
tribes speaking an Indo-European language and original inhabitants. This
process must have taken place from Southern Sweden from 500 BC onwards, when
proto-Germanic tribes migrated to the European continent and mixed with people
speaking an unknown language. Given the fairly high number of words without
cognates in other Indo-European languages, the conclusion must be that these
words derive from that unknown substrate language. Isn’t that fascinating?
In the second part Tacitus mentions a myth about the
origin of men: Tuisto had a son, Mannus,
who is the father of three Germanic tribes covering the whole Germanic area.
This myth has not survived in Old Norse sources, but a parallel myth is known
from the Rigveda: Manu is the first
mortal and father of mankind. Tuisto has at first sight no parallel in the
Rigveda, but there is the god Yama, ruler of the dead and brother of Manu. His
name means `double’, so the same is Tuisto. In later Norse mythology we find
the giant Ymir, out of whom the world is created, exactly as in the Purusha
hymn Rigveda x.90. There is no exact correspondence, but it is clear that both
the Germanic and the Vedic myths must have a common source.
I can’t go into many details and will leave questions
about Germanic tribes aside. Scholarly commentaries tend to run into pages for
every chapter of the Germania and though highly interesting, I don’t feel inclined to translate and take
over the 25 pages Rudolph Much has spent on chapter 2 in his Die Germania des Tacitus (1967), however
intersting. It goes without saying that with such a difficult text, I have made
use of the commentaries by Furneaux, Much and Anderson.
Tacitus Germania
c.2
[2] Ipsos Germanos indigenas crediderim minimeque aliarum
gentium adventibus et hospitiis mixtos, quia nec terra olim, sed classibus
advehebantur qui mutare sedes quaerebant, et inmensus ultra utque sic dixerim
adversus Oceanus raris ab orbe nostro navibus aditur. Quis porro, praeter
periculum horridi et ignoti maris, Asia aut Africa aut Italia relicta Germaniam
peteret, informem terris, asperam caelo, tristem cultu adspectuque, nisi si
patria sit?
Celebrant
carminibus antiquis, quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est,
Tuistonem deum terra editum. Ei filium Mannum, originem gentis conditoremque,
Manno tris filios adsignant, e quorum nominibus proximi Oceano Ingaevones,
medii Herminones, ceteri Istaevones vocentur. Quidam, ut in licentia
vetustatis, pluris deo ortos plurisque gentis appellationes, Marsos Gambrivios
Suebos Vandilios adfirmant, eaque vera et antiqua nomina. Ceterum Germaniae
vocabulum recens et nuper additum, quoniam qui primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos
expulerint ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen, non
gentis evaluisse paulatim, ut omnes primum a victore ob metum, mox etiam a se
ipsis, invento nomine Germani vocarentur.
indigena – ae: a native,
autochthonous
terra: abl!
classibus
advehebantur: Tacitus must have had colonization of various places around
the Mediterranean and The Black Sea undertaken by Greek city states in mind and
of course the journey of Aeneas.
mutare sedes: migrate
inmensus ultra
utque sic dixerim adversus Oceanus raris ab orbe nostro navibus aditur: and
the immense Ocean beyond, and so to say contrary, is but rarely entered by
ships from our world.
(adversus is
problematic and the translation `hostile’ is by some adopted)
porro:
moreover, further
peteret: who would have left
informem terries: rough in landscapes (terris and caelo are ablatives of description. cultu and adspectu are
mostly taken as supines: awful to inhabit and to behold.)
unum memoriae et
annalium genus est: the only kind of tradition and history. Writing in
their vernacular languages was unknown to the Germanic tribes and it was not
until bishop Wulfila (ca 311-382) translated major parts of the Bible in the
Gothic, that anything substantial was
written in a Germanic language.
Mannus: the
same word as English `man’
editum terra:
born from the earth
Ingaevones, medii
Herminones, ceteri Istaevones: that is the near the ocean, in the middle of
Germania and along the Rhine
originem gentis
conditoremque: (hendiadys) `forefather of the people’ (some editions have conditoresque, taking Tuisto and Mannus together as forefathers)
quidam: now lost Roman sources? Germanic speakers providing information?
Probably the first. The remainder of c.2
is depending on quidam…adfirmant
ut in licentia
vetustatis (fit): as happens within
the margins allowed by antiquity
pluris deo ortos
plurisque gentis appellationes: that more (pluris = plures) (sons)
are borne from god and more names of a tribe. (What follows is an asyndetic enumeration)
ceterum: to
the contrary
Germaniae vocabulum:
the name `Germania’
ac nunc Tungri,
tunc Germani vocati sint: this
belongs to the most disputed passages in Latin literature. Clear is that from
the tribal name Germani the whole
area with Germanic tribes has been designated. The etymology of the name Germani is unclear, but probably not
Celtic, as has been suggested by some. Roman folk etymology readily derived it
from Latin germanus `brother’, but
this is of course of no great help. I am
of Germanic stock, but have no clue what that name means. Let’s hope that germani doesn’t mean `ass-holes’…
ita nationis nomen,
non gentis evaluisse paulatim: thus
what has been a tribal, not national name, prevailed gradually (Furneaux)
ut omnes primum a
victore ob metum, mox etiam a se ipsis, invento nomine Germani vocarentur: so that all were initially called germani after the victor because of fear (the fear they inspired), soon however they
were called by themselves with this
recently acquired name.
(But the sentence is difficult and the exact meaning is disputed.
Tacitus is wrong in asserting that they called themselves Germani: they did
only so when in Roman service.)
Translation by Alfred John Church and William Jackson
Brodribb , 1876.
The Germans themselves I should regard as aboriginal, and
not mixed at all with other races through immigration or intercourse. For, in
former times, it was not by land but on shipboard that those who sought to
emigrate would arrive; and the boundless and, so to speak, hostile ocean beyond
us, is seldom entered by a sail from our world. And, beside the perils of rough
and unknown seas, who would leave Asia, or Africa, or Italy for Germany, with
its wild country, its inclement skies, its sullen manners and aspect, unless
indeed it were his home? In their ancient songs, their only way of remembering
or recording the past, they celebrate an earth-born god, Tuisco, and his son
Mannus, as the origin of their race, as their founders. To Mannus they assign
three sons, from whose names, they say, the coast tribes are called Ingævones;
those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istævones. Some, with the
freedom of conjecture permitted by antiquity, assert that the god had several
descendants, and the nation several appellations, as Marsi, Gambrivii, Suevi,
Vandilii, and that these are genuine old names. The name Germany, on the other
hand, they say, is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes
which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called
Tungrians, were then called Germans. Thus what was the name of a tribe, and not
of a race, gradually prevailed, till all called themselves by this
self-invented name of Germans, which the conquerors had first employed to
inspire terror.
