Hludana

Hludana (inscribed Dea Hludana ) is the name of a Germanic goddess who is evidenced by five dedicatory inscriptions from the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Reinhard Wenskus and Maurits Gysseling connect the Belgian Lanaken , where one of the oldest Merovingian row grave cultures is located, both ethnographically and etymologically with Hludana's sphere of activity or cult site. Gysseling recognizes the original form of tradition * Hludiniacas in the place north-west of Maastricht, which was notarized as Lodenaken in 1106 . Wenskus sees the Old Norse name Hlǫðyn for this deity as a transfer option to the name and sphere of activity of the Frankish king Chlodio , in Old Norse Hlǫðr . For the Dispargum castrum handed down by the Franconian historian Gregor von Tours as the seat of Chlodio , Wenskus also makes the Doesberg in the Lanakens district interpretable, which was recorded in 1145 in monte Dusenberg .

Inscriptions

The majority of the inscriptions come from the Lower Rhine area of ​​the Roman province of Germania inferior .

• Birten near Xanten (CIL 13, 8611)
• Holdoorn near Nijmegen (CIL 13, 8723)
• Monterberg near Kalkar (CIL 13, 8661)
• Iversheim near Münstereifel (CIL 13, 7944)
• Beetgum in Friesland (CIL 13, 8830)

literature

• Heinrich Beck :  Hludana-Hlǫðyn. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 14, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1999, ISBN 3-11-016423-X , pp. 644-645.
• Siegfried Gutenbrunner : Germanic god names of the ancient inscriptions . Niemeyer, Halle / S. 1936, pp. 83-87.
• Johann Baptist Keune : Hludana. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume VIII, 2, Stuttgart 1913, column 2128 ( digitized version ).
• Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , pp. 196-197.
• Jan de Vries : Old Germanic history of religion. Volume 2, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 3. unchanged. Edition (photomechanical reprint of the 2nd completely revised edition 1957), Reprint 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-002807-2 , pp. 321–322.

Web links

• Entries in the FERCAN project: "Celtic god names in the inscriptions of the Roman province Germania Inferior"

Remarks

1. ↑ Maurits Gysseling: Toponymisch Woordenboek van België, Nederland, Luxemburg, Noord-Frankrijk en West-Duitsland (vóór 1226) , Brussels 1960, p. 590.
2. ↑ Reinhard Wenskus: Religion arbâtardi. Materials on syncretism in the pre-Christian political theology of the Franks . In: Iconologia Sacra (ed. Hagen Keller, Nikolaus Staubach), Vol. 23, Walter de Gruyter 1994, pp. 182f.
3. ↑ CIL 13, 8611
4. ↑ CIL 13, 8723
5. ↑ CIL 13, 8661
6. ↑ CIL 13, 7944
7. ↑ CIL 13, 8830