The Spring Bride by F.E. Farwerck

 In Tacitus' Germania, which provides descriptions of various Germanic tribes in its final chapters, we find mention of several tribes such as the Reudigni, Aviones, Anglii, Varini, Eudoses, Suar-dones, and Nuithones. These tribes lived in areas protected by forests and rivers. Tacitus notes that although there are no specific details about their way of life, they all shared a common practice of worshipping Nerthus, also known as Mother Earth... On an island in the sea, there is a sacred forest, within which rests a revered wagon veiled in cloth. Only the priest is permitted to handle it. He perceives when the goddess is present in the innermost sanctuary and accompanies the wagon, which is pulled by cows, with the greatest reverence. Then come joyful days; all places where the goddess graciously visits and is a guest are festively adorned. There, strife ceases, and weapons are set aside. All iron is locked away. Only peace and tranquility are known, only these are cherished until the goddess is satisfied with her interaction with humans, and the priest leads her back to the sanctuary. Then the wagon, cloth, and, if one chooses to believe, the goddess herself are cleansed in the lonely sea..

Nerthus procession

Here we clearly have a ritual of worship, similar to what we find among other peoples. In the Phrygian cult of the Great Mother, held in Rome since Emperor Claudius in March, they paraded the image of the Great Mother in a wagon pulled by cows, and finally, it was bathed in the Almo, a stream that flows into the Tiber. It is therefore not impossible that we see in Nerthus a variant of an Indo-European mother goddess, and that her procession celebrated the reawakening of Mother Earth.

The name Nerthus is not transmitted to us from Scandinavia, but that of Njordhr is, which etymologically corresponds precisely with it. However, in Scandinavia, Njordhr was a god and not a goddess. He was the father of Freyr and Freyja, of whom the former was especially revered as a fertility god. Perhaps there were once a brother and sister, Njordhr-Nerthus, and the worship of one was preserved in Scandinavia and the other in Germania, while in the former land, the old pair was revived as Freyr-Freyja. However, this is only a conjecture for which there is no evidence.

In an old saga, a Swedish religious ritual is recounted, where a priestess rode around a man believed to be the god Freyr, and to the great joy of the people, she became pregnant. Apparently, this was seen as an omen that the god's fertility powers would also extend to cattle and crops. It appears that we are dealing here with a similar practice as in the procession of Nerthus, which presumably also related to fertility. Originally, the procession likely involved an image of Freyr. There have been various explanations proposed for the name of the goddess, but only three are somewhat plausible. Firstly, the name is associated with the Sanskrit word "nrtd," meaning dancer. Dance held great significance in the worship of all ancient peoples, including the Germanic tribes, and it is possible that the goddess's procession was accompanied by dancing. Secondly, some connect the name with the Celtic "nertos," meaning strength, particularly emphasizing vegetative forces closely associated with the worship. Lastly, some link it to the Greek word "nerteroi," meaning the dead. As Mother Earth, a chthonic deity, Nerthus may have also been a goddess of the underworld, which according to various Indo-European and non-Indo-European beliefs, was closely tied to fertility, as life emerged from it.

Tacitus also mentions in his Germania another goddess revered by the Suevi, whom he refers to as Isis. Presumably, he followed the Roman custom here and gave the goddess a name that was known among the Romans and of which the bearer more or less possessed the characteristics that were communicated to him of the Suevic goddess. 'A part of the Suevi,' he says, 'sacrifices to Isis.' The meaning and origin of this strange cult I could not ascertain; only the emblem, shaped like a ship, indicates the introduction of a cult from across the sea—a conclusion that we entirely leave to Tacitus' account. We have images of the Egyptian Isis, with which he apparently identified the Suevic goddess, sitting in a boat. Cows were dedicated to her, and she was, among other things, a goddess of fertility, the underworld, and the sea. Similar representations were perhaps also associated with the Suevic goddess, and this was presumably the reason for Tacitus to label her with the name Isis.

Isis

A third goddess, who may have been the same under a different name, has been handed down to us as Nehalennia. Like Isis, she is also depicted with a ship. Ship and wagon, however, seem to be interchangeable attributes, sometimes combined in the form of a ship-chariot. Other forms of the same attribute may be the sled and the plow, with which in various folk customs processions are made in the spring. The connection between ship and fertility may be indicated by the tradition that the Scandinavian Freyr, the god of fertility, possessed a miraculous ship, Skidbladnir, which could be folded up like a cloth.

Nehalennia

Tacitus's account is notable for mentioning a goddess and a priest, whereas Scandinavian lore speaks of a god and a priestess participating in a procession, during which the priestess's pregnancy played a role. It is possible that both instances involved a "hieros gamos" [holy marriage] as part of the ritual, a phenomenon seen in various forms among different cultures.

Within the Eleusinian Mysteries, a ritual likely symbolizing the union of Zeus and Demeter, or more broadly, the Sky Father and Mother Earth, was enacted. Here, the hierophant and a priestess symbolized the divine couple, with the hierophant concluding the ceremony by displaying an ear of wheat, symbolizing the anticipated outcomes of the divine union. A similar practice was observed in the annual union of Dionysus with the 'queen of Athens,' representing a woman of high moral standing from the city. This ritual, held in February, aimed to boost the fertility of grapevines and other plants sacred to Dionysus. Homer's Iliad also celebrates the union of Zeus and Hera, linking their marriage to the flourishing of nature on earth. Customs in Argos and Samos involved leading a priestess to the temple, part of which included preparing a ceremonial bridal bed. Pausanias's writings mention Hera's annual bath in the Kanathos spring, symbolically renewing her virginity. These myths and rituals collectively underscore themes of fertility and renewal. In ancient Rome, kings were regarded as representatives of the fertility god and held personal responsibility for agricultural success, a belief echoed in Scandinavian traditions. 
The legend of the marriage between the Roman king Numa and the nymph Egeria likely preserves remnants of the "sacred marriage," in which the kings of Rome once united with the goddess of fertility. Some have argued that the Greeks, Romans, and Germanic peoples borrowed these rites from Oriental religious practices, where the mother goddess often held a dominant role. However, an Oriental analogy does not necessarily imply that the ritual was borrowed from the East, even when one considers the argument that these rites should be seen as non-Germanic. Such reasoning only aligns with more conservative modern views. We can assume that for a farming society like the Germanic peoples, where fertility in crops and livestock played a crucial role, the connection between agricultural fertility and sexuality was apparent. They likely celebrated the renewal and fertility of nature through a ritual where human procreation symbolized what was happening throughout nature.

Marriage of Numa and Egeria

Some support for this idea may be found in the following. In Sweden and adjacent areas during the Bronze Age (1600–800 BCE), many rock surfaces with numerous engravings were covered. The meaning of these engravings was long debated, but it is now established that they depict, at least in large part, religious rituals. Among these engravings are numerous depictions of ships, the significance of which is not always clear due to the lack of specific details. Ships featuring dancers, horn players, a sun symbol, a deer, or a tree, or ships carried by a man, likely played a role in cultic processions where the ships were presumably pulled on sledges. At Sandéker in Bohuslän, there are two images of ships that belong to this category. On the first ship is a deer, a sacrificial animal par excellence, which was likely sacrificed after being carried in a ship during the procession. A trace of a similar ritual is found in the now largely disappeared practice of leading the decorated Easter ox through the streets before it was led to slaughter. On the second ship are a man and a woman performing a hieros gamos ritual. Evidently, this was a religious ritual deemed worthy of being documented in the rocks.

Rockcarvings at Sandéker in Bohuslän

From the centuries after the Christianization, we have several reports similar to what Tacitus has conveyed to us. For instance, Gregory of Tours, the Frankish historian born around 540, relates that in Autun, the Franks had the custom of driving the statue of a goddess in a cart pulled by oxen, with the intention of safeguarding the rye against natural disasters. However, detailed information is lacking, so the complete context remains somewhat speculative. Cult wagons, likely used for a similar purpose, have been preserved to this day. The image below shows a wagon found at Dejbjerg in Jutland. Also, in the Oseberg ship, originating from the Viking Age and found in a burial mound possibly belonging to Queen Asa of Vestfold, the mother of the historically known Harald Fairhair, such a ritual wagon was discovered amidst numerous ceremonial and artistic objects.

Dejbjerg Wagon

A depiction related to that of a goddess transported in a wagon can be found in the stories about Frau Holle, which were circulated during the Middle Ages and even afterward. They are not mentioned in older sources, but this does not exclude the possibility that they already existed back then, given that very little from Germanic antiquity has been preserved. Frau Holle was sometimes believed to live in a pond, sometimes in a mountain, but mostly underground, displaying various characteristics of an underworld goddess, especially because she is associated with fertility. According to legends, she rides in a wagon, and her annual procession was thought to take place during the "twelve nights," the period between Christmas and Epiphany. It was primarily this procession that brought fertility, but Frau Holle also traveled at other times, such as during the flax harvest. Her connection to fertility is also evident in the custom in Kerstlinrode of leaving a handful of uncut ears of wheat during the harvest as a thanksgiving offering to Frau Holle. The procession of Frau Holle in her wagon is likely related to that of Berchta with a plow and also to that of the "countess in a black coach," with the latter variant likely intended to provide a "natural explanation" for the supernatural elements deemed undesirable in the legend.

Frau Holle

In Christian times, spring was associated with Mary in the form of May festivals, through which she adopted various traits of the pagan mother goddess. This is particularly evident in her association with fertility. She is often depicted in a blue mantle adorned with ears of wheat, and according to legend, in 1694, she caused three ears of wheat to sprout from the snow at a location where she wished to have a church built. Similarly, around a Marian statue in Kaltenbrunn, Tyrol, ears of wheat are said to have grown miraculously, although no one knows how. Old pagan beliefs and rituals were also transferred onto various saints. For instance, in Nivelles, Belgium, the wine of St. Gertrude was drunk from a glass shaped like a ship, and like Nerthus, the statue of this saint was paraded in a wagon, which was later kept in the church for a long time.

In latere folk customs, we find various traces that remind us of the old pagan rituals. However, they are no more than traces because, influenced by the Church, the original meaning has been largely lost over time. Due to this forgetfulness of the background, there has been a mixing with various foreign elements and loss of other components. As a result, these later folk customs, which have almost ceased to exist now, have preserved very little of the old rituals except for a few main features. Yet, it is precisely these few features that point towards the old beliefs, although it is difficult to historically prove their origins.

One of these folk customs is that of the May Queen. In France, on May 1st, the "reine du printemps" [queen of spring], dressed in white and wearing a flower crown, was paraded in a wagon followed by a procession in the Cote d’Or region. In the Jura department, a girl led by shepherds and adorned entirely with flowers and ribbons was called "la belle de mai" or "la reine de mai" [the beauty of May or the queen of May].

The crowning of the May Queen

The antiquity of this custom is evident from a mention by a prior of the Saint-Claude monastery in 1466 regarding a gift given by the monastery, which was intended for "the queen and the nine girls under nine years old who formed her entourage." In Bresse, a girl called "the bride" walked through the village on May 1st, also adorned with flowers and ribbons, accompanied by a young man. In England, the May Queen tradition was quite widespread. In Warwickshire, it was represented by a little girl paraded in a wagon. This tradition also persisted in parts of Germany for quite some time, but like in England, it often merged with customs related to the battle between winter and summer.

The old customs were forbidden in Christian times. If banning them outright proved impossible because the population held onto them despite the prohibitions, they were modified and associated with Christian holidays. This was not done uniformly everywhere, and so we see the May Queen tradition in our country associated with Pentecost. There are already old examples of this practice. Aegidius, who wrote a history of the bishops of Liège in the thirteenth century, mentions that during the time of Bishop Albero, who died in 1155, the priests, along with the people, would choose a girl from among the priests' concubines as their queen during the festivities from Easter to Pentecost. She would be dressed in purple, adorned with a diadem, and placed on the bishop's throne. The clergy would then dance a round dance while singing psalms and honor her as a goddess, "as if they were possessed by idolatry," adds the writer indignantly.

We also find, as a purely Dutch folk custom, especially during Pentecost, the practice of parading a girl known in the western regions as the "pinksterblom" [Pentecost flower] and in the eastern regions as the "pinksterbruid" [Pentecost bride]. The customs do not differ much. A girl dressed in white and adorned with flowers walks through the village, sometimes being carried on a platform. This tradition has persisted in some places until our century. One of the reasons why it was not abolished earlier, like many other misunderstood customs, may be because the Pentecost girl collected gifts that benefited the participants.

Pinksterbruid

Next to the processions of various descendants of the fertility goddess, we also find the custom of young men or boys parading as the May King, May Count, or similar titles, which may have been the last distorted remnants of an ancient procession of the fertility god, influenced primarily by medieval forms and beliefs. In Antwerp, the May Count held his processions around mid-Lent, a practice associated with Count Louis' entry into Antwerp in 1358, clearly aimed at erasing any connection with pagan times. May games were held in Sweden and Norway, where the May Count led a procession, and this custom was widespread in Lower Germany as well.

May King and Queen

Besides the independent role of the May King or May Count and that of the May Queen or Pentecost bride, there are also examples where a boy and a girl jointly hold a procession. An example of such a practice in Bresse was mentioned earlier. In East Flanders, it was customary until 1930 for the May guild to plant a Maypole. At sunrise, the May Count stood before the pole, the girls circled around hand in hand singing, and the May Count then crowned one of them with a wreath, making her the May Countess. Various forms of this custom are also known in Germany, where a May King chooses a May Queen, and in England, they also had "the lord and lady of May." In Twente, during the May processions, Jaan and Greet often participated, two humorously dressed individuals usually with a baby carriage. Here, the couple is portrayed comically, but the baby carriage might hint at a marriage ritual as its origin. Finally, it's possible that in the old children's game, which was also popular among adults and began with the words "There walked a little priest along the side," we see a distorted form of an old spring custom. The lines "hey, it was in May" and "come priest, give your nun a kiss" at least point in that direction.

Dance around the Maypole

In these and similar folk customs, three traces can be found that suggest a possible connection with the distant past. First is the practice of parading the May Queen or any other name given to the girl in a carriage; carrying a girl or boy on a litter or on a ladder may be variations of this. Furthermore, it is noticeable that there is often a reference to a wedding: the name "bride" or the appearance of a May couple. And finally, during the processions, there are often dances performed, which may be related to Nerthus and the cultic dances performed in ancient religious ceremonies.

F.E. Farwerck in Nehalennia, March 1957.