Armenon, a Divine Ancestor of the Germanic Peoples

There is a great deal of fascinating information about the ancient Indo-European and Germanic peoples contained in what Professor L.A. Waddell termed the British Chronicles. Examples of the writers who would fall under this catergory are Bede, Gildas, Nennius, William of Malmesbury, Gerald of Wales, Geoffrey of Monmouth etc. It is my intention to make a thorough study of these writings in the near future.

The following is an extract from Nennius' Historia Brittonum (Giles translation):

"17.  I have learned another account of this Brutus from the ancient books of our ancestors.  After the deluge, the three sons of Noah severally occupied three different part of the earth: Shem extended his borders into Asia, Ham into Africa, and Japheth into Europe.
 
The first man that dwelt in Europe was Alanus, with his three sons, Hisicion, Armenon, and Neugio.  Hisicion had four sons, Froncus, Romanus, Alamanus, and Brutus.  Armenon had five sons, Gothus, Valaothus, Cibidus, Burgundus, and Longobardus.  Neugio had three sons, Valdalus, Saxo, and Boganus.  From Hisicion arose four nations--the Franks, the Latins, the Germans, and Britons: from Armenon, the Gothi, Valagothi, Cibidi, Burgundi, and Longobardi: from Neugio, the Bagari, Vandali, Saxones, and Tarinegi.  The whole of Europe was subdivided into these tribes.

 Alanus is said to have been the son of Fethuir; Fethuir the son of Ogomuin, who was the son of Thoi; Thoi was the son of Boibus, Boibus of Semion, Semion of Mair, Mair of Ecthactur, Ecthactur of Aurthack, Aurthack of Ethec, Ethec of Ooth, Ooth of Aber, Aber of Ra, Ra of Esraa, Esraa of Hisrau, Hisrau of Bath, Bath of Jobath, Jobath of Joham, Joham of Japheth, Japheth of Noah, Noah of Lamech, Lamech of Mathusalem, Mathusalem of Enoch, Enoch of Jared, Jared of Malalehel, Malalehel of Cainan, Cainan o Enos, Enos of Seth, Seth of Adam, and Adam was formed by the living God.  We have obtained this information respecting the original inhabitants of Britain from ancient tradition.

 18.  The Britons were thus called from Brutus: Brutus was the son of Hisicion, Hisicion was the son of Alanus, Alanus was the son of Rhea Silvia, Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numa Pompilius, Numa was the son of Ascanius, Ascanius of Eneas, Eneas of Anchises, Anchises of Troius, Troius of Dardanus, Dardanus of Flisa, Flisa of Juuin, Juuin of Japheth; but Japheth had seven sons; from the first, named Gomer, descended the Galli; from the second, Magog, the Scythi and Gothi; from the third, Madian, the Medi; from the fourth, Juuan, the Greeks; from the fifth, Tubal, arose the Hebrei, Hispani, and Itali; from the sixth, Mosoch, sprung the Cappadoces; and from the seventh, named Tiras, descended the Thraces: these are the sons of Japheth, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech."

 As was typical of the era in which Nennius wrote biblical personages were mixed in with historical and mythological characters, not only in the ancestry of kings but in the origins of entire peoples. If one disregards the biblical corruption evident in these chronicles then there is a great deal of information which is of both interest and of use to us. In this article I wish to focus specifically on the  paragraph which I have underlined. My readers will note the reference to a person called  Armenon who is credited with being the father of the Goths, the Burgundians and Langobards. I am unsure as to the identity of the tribe known as the Cibidi. As with Tacitus' Germania we have a founding father of the Germanic peoples Alanus who equates to Mannus, the son of the earthborn God Tuisto. Let us read again the relevant passage from Tacitus:

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 Ingaevones; those of the interior, Herminones; all the rest, Istaevones. 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. (Germania 2, translated by Church and Brodribb)

I suggest that the formula that we have in Nennius: Alanus > Hiscion + Armenon + Negio = Mannus > Istio + Irmin + Ing. Armenon and Hiscio very clearly are derived from Irmin and Istio respectively. Negio contains within it the name Ing. Clearly Armenon is not just an earthly ancestor but the divine ancestor of the Germanic and other Aryan peoples. Thus Armenon = Irmin = Aryaman = Airyaman = Eremon = Ariomanus.

Gauts, the Ancestral God of the Goths

Very little information is available in book form regarding the spiritual beliefs and practices of the Gothic tribes, certainly not in the English language although I have seen a number of publications which have been published recently. As I have not had a chance to obtain and read the aforementioned books I will not comment on them at this stage. From an esoteric point of view I can recommend two excellent books which cover various aspects of their beliefs which were published some years ago. These are Nigel Pennick's The Inner Mysteries of the Goths (1995, Cappall Bann Publishing) and Edred Thorsson's The Mysteries of the Goths (2007, Limited First Edition, Runa Raven Press).

What gave me the impetus to write this article were a series of recent meditations that I had on the ancestral aspect of the Gods and this ancestral aspect is particularly pronounced in the beliefs of the Goths. According to Rudolf Simek  in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology the term Anses was a term used for the Gods by the Gothic East Roman bureaucrat Jordanes. According to Jordanes they were a mythical dynasty of heroes or demi-gods. Simek recognises the etymological connection between Anses and Aesir. He also states that the prefix in found in many personal names during Migration Age.

My readers will surely note the similarity between Anses and ancestors. However I would point out that this word has French and Latin roots, being absorbed into Middle English as ancessour. (See Concise Dictionary of English Etymology (Walter W. Skeat) Whilst Anses has a similar meaning to Aesir to me it reminds me far more of our ancestral connection to the Gods. This short article is not the place for me to discuss the various ways in which we can claim kinship with the Gods. I intend to explore this concept more fully on this blog in the near future. 

Edred Thorsson refers to four principal deities in his book: Gauts, *Teiws, *Fairguneis and *Iggws. My readers will note that only Gauts does not have an asterisk before the name. This is because Gauts is historically attested whilst the latter three are reconstructed deities using the disciplines of comparative linguistics and comparative mythology.

Gauts is said to be the original ancestor of the Goths and He has the alternative appellation of Gapt. Edred makes the interesting observation that Gauts is identical with the Gautr of the Eddas, one of the many heiti, or bynames of Odin. He also informs us that the Old Norse Gautr has the connotation of being a 'progenitor' which he argues fits in with Odin's role as the 'All-Father'. Both Woden and Gauts feature at the head of the lineages of Anglo-Saxon kings.

 Rudolf Simek makes the additional observation that Gautr as Gapt/Gaut is the mythical ancestor of the Langobards. In the Langobadian Edictus Rothari he appears as Gausus. He concludes that he thus should be considered to be the ancestor of the Goths. Regarding the alternative form of the name Gapt he states he was the ancestor of the Amales and likewise was worshiped as a God. This is of course a typical feature of ancient Germanic society where the eponymous ancestor was regarded as their primary deity, the source of their race. According to an early 14th century saga Bosa saga ok Herraud King Hring of Ostergotland is the son of King Gauti, the son of Odin of Sweden. Some versions of the lineage of the House of Wessex place Geat above Woden but scholars view this as a later interpolation.

As I have made clear in the preceding paragraph the Gothic version of Odin places great emphasis on the chief deity being the ancestor not only of the royal house but the entire tribe or nation. We see an aspect of this in Eddic mythology in the Lay of Rig in the Elder Edda. Although Rig is generally identified with the God Heimdall I believe this to be an error and have argued this point before on my blogs when discussing the Germanic caste system. I believe that Rig (King) is none other than the ALL-FATHER Himself, Odin. As such he implanted His divine DNA in all the castes of Germanic society, making Him our divine progenitor in the same way that the Goths viewed Gauts.

Regarding the other principal Gods, Edred comments that the Gothic *Teiws is the same deity as Tiwaz/Tyr and points out that the Gothic letter tyz is reconstructed by scholars as *teiws which corresponds with the Elder Futharc *tiwaz Rune. The God *Fairguneis is the reconstructed Gothic Thunder God and my readers will remember I discussed the possibility of a 'lost' alternative term for the Proto-Germanic Thunder God *Thunaraz in an earlier article. I pointed out how this early name acted as a linguistical 'bridge' for similar deities in other Indo-European cultures. Edred states the name is etymologically connected with the word for oak. He argues that this would have translated as 'oak-god'. This name would then have been related to the weapon the god carried (an oak club, perhaps)." *Iggws is linked by Edred to the Germanic Ingwaz, known as Yngvi-Freyr in Sweden. Edred makes the claim that there is real evidence for the existence of this deity in the Gothic family of Gods and "that he was consciously syncretised with the new Christian cult. Iggws is the Gothic letter which corresponds to the Greek letter X (Chi).

In this short introductory article I have attempted to give my readers a taster of Gothic mythology and I maintain that we need to engage in further exploration of this fascinating Germanic culture as part of our general efforts in reviving the exoteric outer religion of Germanic heathenism amongst our peoples.

The Temple of Woden at Goodmanham

Many of my readers will be familiar with the account in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People of the desecration and destruction of the heathen temple in Goodmanham in the East Riding of Yorkshire, part of the ancient Anglian kingdom of Northumbria. There are some aspects of this account which I wish to reflect upon in this article. I am indebted to the author of A Pagan Place blog. His article on Goodmanham is most interesting: http://pagan-place.blogspot.com/2011/09/pagan-sites-of-europe-remembered-13.html

The original name of this ancient village is Godmunddingaham, meaning "Homestead of the family or followers of a man called Godmund." (A Dictionary of English Place-Names by A.D. Mills, 1991) The first question which springs to mind is who was Godmund and what was his position? One explanation is that Godmund is derived from the Old Norse name Gudmund, meaning 'protected by god'. However a Norse origin does not make any sense. Bede was writing in the 8th century about an event which occurred in the year 627 CE, well before any Danish colonisation. However it should be remembered that the Angles did come from the same area as the Danes. Also we must ponder whether the 'god' referred to is the name if the Christian god or the heathen English one, probably Woden? If Goodmanham was an important temple site which it appears to have been then it may very well be a reference to Woden. However we do not know for certain what the name of this village was in 627 CE, only what it was called at the time of Bede writing his account in about 731 CE. It is quite possible, maybe even probable that the name of the village was changed after the destruction of the temple.


King Edwin (c. 586-632/633 CE) was king of the sub-kingdoms of Bernicia and Deira which later became unified into the kingdom of Northumbria. It was at this very time-627 CE that Edwin converted to Christianity and was baptised. What a coincidence therefore that at this time the High Priest Coifi decides to renounce his ancestral Gods and adopt the Christian religion. His real motive had nothing to do with a true spiritual revelation but was solely due to his realisation that a heathen High Priest would not fare well under a Christian king. So we see here the treason not only of Edwin, the secular ruler but Coifi, the religious reader. Like all conversions of the Germanic peoples they were from the top down, not genuine and subsequently enforced by violence. One can only speculate but it is highly probably that Coifi entered the Christian priesthood after his renunciation of the true Gods. Bede seeks to imply that Edwin's counsellors, his Witan of which Coifi was a member persuaded him to adopt the Christian religion but it is clear to me from the opening sentence that Edwin already had this as his intention and Coifi knowing 'which way the wind was blowing' took advantage of this. Bede being a Christian propagandist obviously has put his own 'spin' on the account which after 100 years became distorted anyway! Even Bede's own words make it clear what Coifi's motivation was-material gain!

It is more than likely that the church in Goodmanham, All Hallows was built upon the site of the heathen temple but contrary to what some allege it was not built from the materials of the temple. As most of my readers will be aware the Anglo-Saxons did not build temples of stone. All their structures were built of wood. The only part of the temple which would have been of stone is the altar. To the best of my knowledge no archaeological excavations have been conducted in the precincts of the church.

Bede makes it clear that Coifi was a High Priest and this implies that there was an organised priesthood. Some commentators claim that the Germanic peoples did not have an organised priesthood but this thinking is based on the faulty claims of Caesar in his De Bello Gallico:

"
The Germans differ much from these usages, for they have neither Druids to preside over sacred offices, nor do they pay great regard to sacrifices. They rank in the number of the gods those alone whom they behold, and by whose instrumentality they are obviously benefited, namely, the sun, fire, and the moon; they have not heard of the other deities even by report. Their whole life is occupied in hunting and in the pursuits of the military art; from childhood they devote themselves to fatigue and hardships. Those who have remained chaste for the longest time, receive the greatest commendation among their people; they think that by this the growth is promoted, by this the physical powers are increased and the sinews are strengthened. And to have had knowledge of a woman before the twentieth year they reckon among the most disgraceful acts; of which matter there is no concealment, because they bathe promiscuously in the rivers and [only] use skins or small cloaks of deer's hides, a large portion of the body being in consequence naked. " (Book 6, Chapter 21, translated by W.A. DeMcvitte and W.S. Bohn)

 We know that this was not the case as Tacitus writing in the following century makes reference to a Germanic priesthood. Both animal and human sacrifices were carried out by the Germans. It may be that Caesar intended to say that the priesthood of the Germans was not as structured as that of the Druids of Gaul but a priesthood it never the less was.

It is generally considered that the temple at Goodmanham was devoted to Woden but this is mere guesswork as Bede does not mention Woden or the name of any other Germanic God in the quoted passage above and generally Germanic temples were devoted to more than one deity. It is significant though that Coifi cast a spear into the temple in order to desecrate it. Weapons were forbidden in the sacred gatherings of the Teutons and Coifi through his actions makes this clear just as the priesthood was forbidden to bear arms and I note, to ride a stallion although permitted to ride a mare. By riding a stallion and bearing arms he soiled his office and by casting the spear into the temple he committed an act of blasphemy. The spear is of course the sacred weapon of Woden and the horse one of his totemic beasts so by riding a stallion and by using this type of weapon to commit his act of sacrilege it is assumed by some that this temple was devoted to Woden which may of course have been the case but we cannot be sure.

Another thing that we can glean from Bede's words is that the temple contained sacred images or 'idols' to use Bede's terminology and this is something which we should therefore encourage in our own rites and to use on our own altars. The temple appeared to have more than one altar and as this was the location of the High Priest it may have had a similar status and significance as the temple at Old Uppsala in Sweden. The next time that Goodmanham is mentioned is in the Domesday Book, commissioned by William the Conqueror. A sacred well is situated near the church and is dedicated to St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine the Great. It is more than likely that this well like so many others in England was in itself once a sacred heathen shrine.