Ēostre is the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess according to the eighth-century Benedictine monk Bede's De temporum ratione ("On the Reckoning of Time"). Anglo-Saxon paganism refers to the Migration Period religion practiced by the English in 5th to 7th century England. Benedictine refers to the Spirituality and Consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in Bede (ˈbiːd (also Saint Bede, the Venerable Bede, or (from Latin Beda (beda (c De temporum ratione ( English: On The Reckoning Of Time) is a treatise written in Latin by the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon [1] Bede described the pagan worship of Ēostre among the Anglo-Saxons as having died out before the time he was writing. Anglo-Saxon paganism refers to the Migration Period religion practiced by the English in 5th to 7th century England. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south No information regarding the figure exists outside of this brief mention by Bede although some speculations have arisen surrounding her. In 1835, Jacob Grimm referred to Bede when he proposed an equivalent Old High German name, *Ostara, in his work Deutsche Mythologie. Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm ( Hanau, January 4, 1785 &ndash September 20, 1863 in Berlin) German Philologist Deutsche Mythologie ( Teutonic Mythology) is a seminal treatise on Germanic mythology by Jacob Grimm.
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Etymology
The modern English term Easter developed from the Old English word Ēastre, which itself developed prior to 899. Easter ( Greek: Πάσχα Pascha or Pasxa) is the most important religious feast in the Christian Liturgical year. [2] According to Bede, the name refers to a goddess named Ēostre, who was celebrated at the Spring equinox. A goddess is a Female Deity. Many Cultures have goddesses Often deities are part of a polytheistic system that includes several deities An equinox is the event of the Sun passing over the Earth's equator in its annual cycle In the 19th century Hans Grimm cited Bede when he proclaimed the existence of an Old High German equivalent named ōstarūn, plural, "Easter" (modern German language Ostern). The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The Old English term Ēastre ultimately derives from ēast - meaning the direction of east. The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST internal designation HT-7U is an experimental Superconducting Tokamak Magnetic fusion energy This suggests it originally referred to a goddess associated with dawn. Corresponding traditions occur with the Roman goddess Aurora and the Greek goddess Eos. This article is about the Roman goddess of dawn for the asteroid see 94 Aurora. For other uses of the name Eos see Eos (disambiguation. For the Slavic goddesses called the Auroras see The Zorya. [3]
Eostre is sometimes[4] derived from the Proto-Germanic root *aew-s, "illuminate, especially of daybreak" and closely related to (a)wes-ter- "dawn servant", the dawn star Venus and *austrōn-, meaning "dawn, east" (compare Ostarrîchi "Eastern Realm, Austria"), cognate to the names of Greek Eos, Roman Aurora and Indian Ushas, all continuing Proto-Indo-European *Hausos. Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, is the hypothetical common ancestor ( Proto-language) of all the Germanic languages such as modern English The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University Ostarrîchi is an Old High German name first found in the famous Ostarrîchi document of 996, where it refers to the Margraviate ruled by the Babenberg Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich For other uses of the name Eos see Eos (disambiguation. For the Slavic goddesses called the Auroras see The Zorya. Ushas (sa उषस् uṣas) Sanskrit for " Dawn " is a Vedic deity, and consequently a Hindu deity as well * Hausos ( h2aus-os-) is the reconstructed name of a theoretic Proto-Indo-European Goddess associated with Dawn. [5]
There is no certain parallel to Ēostre in North Germanic languages though Grimm speculates that the east wind, "a spirit of light" named Austri found in the 13th century Icelandic Prose Edda book Gylfaginning, might be related. The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages In Norse mythology, Norðri Suðri Austri and Vestri ("Northern Southern Eastern and Western" are four dwarves in the Prose Edda The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda ( Snorra Edda) or simply Edda, is an Gylfaginning, or the Tricking of Gylfi (c 20000 words is the first part of Snorri Sturluson 's Prose Edda after
Bede's account of Eostre
According to Bede (c. 672 - 735), writing in De temporum ratione ("On the Reckoning of Time"), Ch. Events By Place Europe Wamba succeeds Reccaswinth as king of the Visigoths. Events A Smallpox epidemic starts in Ancient Japan, which reduces the population by 30% De temporum ratione ( English: On The Reckoning Of Time) is a treatise written in Latin by the Northumbrian Anglo-Saxon xv, De mensibus Anglorum ("The English months")[6] the word "Easter" is derived from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, to whom Eostur-monath, corresponding to our month of April (Latin: Aprilis), was dedicated:
15. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south The Germanic calendars were the regional agricultural Almanacs used amongst the Germanic peoples prior to the adoption of the Julian and later the Gregorian The English Months.
In olden time the English people – for it did not seem fitting to me that I should speak of other nations' observance of the year and yet be silent about my own nation's – calculated their months according to the course of the moon. Hence after the manner of the Hebrews and the Greeks, [the months] take their name from the moon, for the moon is called mona and the month monath.
The first month, which the Latins call January, is Giuli; February is called Sol-monath; March Hreth-monath; April, Eostur-monath; May Thrimilchi. . .
Eostur-monath has a name which is now translated Paschal month, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance. [7]
What is secure in Bede's passage is that the lunar month around the month of April in the Julian calendar was called Eostur or similar; In Vita Karoli Magni Einhard tells, that Charlemagne (c. The Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 Ab urbe condita Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart) (c 775 &ndash March 14, 840 in Seligenstadt, Germany) was a Frankish Charlemagne (ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus meaning Charles the Great) (747 – 28 January 814 was King of the Franks from 768 to his 742 or 747 - 814) gave the months names in his own language and used 'Ostar-manoth' for April. [8] Some critics who question Bede's account of a goddess suggest that "the Anglo-Saxon Eostur-monath meant simply 'the month of opening' or 'the month of beginnings'. "[9] This argument is perhaps bolstered by the fact that April is the first full month of the year in English calendars before the Gregorian system was adopted. "April", q. v. , is of obscure etymology itself, but one of its origins is speculatively related to the Latin for "openings; beginnings", though it is also tied to Apur/Aphrodite, goddesses identified with the planet Venus. It should be noted that Old High German ōstarūn is plural, as it is in Aelfric's Hexameron: "And ne beoð næfre Eastron ær se dæg cume ðæt ðæt leoht hæbbe ða ðeostre oferswiðeð"[10]
Grimm's Ostara
In 1835, Jacob Grimm (1785–1863) published Deutsche Mythologie, a collection of German myths and oral histories, including a two-and-a-half page commentary on a goddess Ostara. Ælfric may refer to Ælfric Cild, late 10th century Anglo-Saxon Ealdorman from Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire Ælfric of Abingdon Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm ( Hanau, January 4, 1785 &ndash September 20, 1863 in Berlin) German Philologist Continental Germanic mythology is a subset of Germanic mythology, going back to South Germanic polytheism as practiced in parts of Central Europe before Oral history can be defined as the recording preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker [11]
Grimm recalls Bede's account of Eostre and states that it was unlikely that the man of the church would simply have invented a pagan goddess. From the Anglo-Saxon month name, he then reconstructs an Old High German equivalent, *Ostara:
"This Ostarâ [sic], like the AS Eástre [sic], must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries. "
Grimm also notes various accounts of the name of the Easter festival in Old High German, like ôstertagâ or aostortagâ. According to Grimm, these were plural forms of Ostara, since the festival would have been celebrated on two days.
Grimm's commentary does not mention any Easter Eggs or Easter Bunny customs, the only Easter custom he mentions being Easter Bonfires (Osterfeuer), a long-standing German tradition, attested since 1559. The Easter Bunny is the Ghost of a Rabbit who carries eggs and Candy to Children in a Basket on the Easter See also Campfire. bonfire is a large controlled outdoor Fire.
Deutsche Mythologie had a strong impact in German Romanticism, and "Ostara" achieved high publicity with those people that were interested in the field, e. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Ostara is a modern pagan festival Etymology The name Ostara goes back to Jacob Grimm, who in his Deutsche Mythologie g. within Germanic mysticism. Armanism and Ariosophy are the names of ideological systems of an Esoteric nature pioneered by Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels An instance of this is the magazine Ostara, that appeared in Vienna between 1905 and 1920. The magazine Ostara or Ostara Briefbücherei der Blonden und Mannesrechtler, (in English: Ostara newsletter of the blonde and Masculists Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. The editor and later exclusive contributor was Lanz von Liebenfels. Adolf Josef Lanz (aka Jörg Lanz) who called himself Lanz von Liebenfels ( July 19 1874 - April 22, 1954) was an Austrian Ostara is also one of the names of the mother-archetype in the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung. An archetype ( pronounced: /ˈɑːkɪtaɪp/ (Brit or /ˈɑrkɪtaɪp/ (Amer
See also
References
- ^ Bede, De temporum ratione, Ch. xv, De mensibus Anglorum ("The English months")
- ^ Joseph Bosworth and T. The Old Norse term Aurvandil, Old English Ēarendel, the Lombardic Auriwandalo, the German Orentil (or Hretha is a goddess in Anglo-Saxon paganism. Hretha is attested solely by Bede in his 8th century work De temporum ratione, chapter XV Northcote Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, "Eástre, the goddess of the rising sun, whose festivities were in April. Hence used by Teutonic Christians for the rising of the sun of righteousness, the feast of the resurrection," noting Bede, Grimm 1855 (on-line text)
- ^ Barnhart, Robert K. The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology (1995) ISBN 0062700847
- ^ aus- The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000
- ^ Alexander Hislop speculated in his book The Two Babylons that the invading Germanic tribes borrowed the Greek goddess Eos, who eventually became their Eostre; Ronald Hutton states that: "Modern scholarship finds her name cognate with many Indo-European words for dawn, which presents a high possibility that she was a dawn-goddess, and so April as the Eostre-month was the month of opening and new beginning, which makes sense in a North German climate. Robert K Barnhart (1933 &ndash April 2007 was an American Lexicographer and editor of various specialized Dictionaries. Alexander Hislop (Born at Duns, Berwickshire, 1807 died Arbroath, 13 March, 1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister The Two Babylons was an Anti-Catholic religious Pamphlet produced initially by the Scottish theologian and Protestant Presbyterian The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic For other uses of the name Eos see Eos (disambiguation. For the Slavic goddesses called the Auroras see The Zorya. Professor Ronald Hutton (born 1954 is a professor of History at the University of Bristol, author and occasional commentator on British Television " (Cited after Adrian Bott, "Eostre: The Goddess Who Never Was?", White Dragon, Spring 2006); however, Hutton dismisses Eostre as a shadowy pre-Christian "Easter" festival in The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain (Oxford University Press) 1996.
- ^ Bede, Caput XV: De mensibus Anglorum
- ^ Bede, Caput XV: De mensibus Anglorum
- ^ Vita Karoli Magni (Latin); English translation: Life of Charlemagne
- ^ Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun. A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, Oxford University Press, p. 180.
- ^ Noted as "a variant of Eastra, plural of the weak Eastre" by O. F. Emerson, "Notes on Old English" Modern Language Notes 38. 5 (May 1923:pp. 266-272), p. p. 268.
- ^ For this section see: Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, Volume 1, Olms-Weidemann, 2003, p. 239-241 (German)
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