Lollus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lollus or Lullus is the name of an alleged Germanic god of the Franks who is said to be mentioned in a lost passage in Gaius Iulius Caesar .

The doctor Johann Laurentius describes in the chronologica Swinfurtensia the discovery of an ancient image of the god. He is depicted as a naked young man with a loincloth and curly hair, with a wreath of poppy seed heads hanging around his neck and with his right hand with his thumb and forefinger grasping his tongue out, while in his left he holds a wine cup with ears of corn . Together with the goddess Diana , he is said to have been worshiped in a sacred grove on the banks of the Main , where grapes and ears of wheat were sacrificed to him at certain times. According to Laurentius, this place was known as "Das Löhle" or "Lölle" during his lifetime. It was not until the Franconian Apostle Kilian that the cult of the lollus and Diana was supposed to have abolished and his portrait sunk in the Main.

Many researchers like the German German scholar Karl Helm, however, consider the god Lollus to be a modern forgery from the time of humanism , since the chronologica Swinfurtensia and a letter from the 16th century in which the alleged Caesar passage is quoted, endures alongside a number of legendary figures the only mentions of the god lollus remain according to custom .

Lollus as a figure of folklore

In Hesse and Westphalia , the "Lollus" - also called "Lollekerl", "Lollemann" or "Lollekater" - or the female version - called "Loila", "Lulla" or "Lolla" - is a figure from superstition , which nourishes on the greed of the people, stays in dark places or screeches loudly and causes damage with magic with his tongue out . As such she appears in the fairy tale The Fat Lollus and the Skinny Lollus . German humanists probably developed the idea of ​​a Germanic idol lollus as a fruit god or god of sleep and a death goddess "Lolla" from these legendary figures.

Another possible source for the legendary figure Lollus is the Lullus Festival , which is celebrated on October 16 each year in Bad Hersfeld , but which goes back to the Archbishop Lullus of Mainz († 786).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). Kröner, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-520-36801-3 .
  2. ^ Ludwig Bechstein: German book of legends . Meersburg and Leipzig 1930, p. 534
  3. ^ Karl Helm, in: Contributions to the history of German language and literature 43, 1918, pp. 158–163.
  4. ^ Ludwig Bechstein, German fairy tale book , 1845, Georg Olms Verlag, Reprint 2003, ISBN 3-487-11991-9
  5. ^ Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer and Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli: Concise Dictionary of German Superstition , Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1927–1942
  6. ^ Karl Lyncker: German sagas and customs in Hessian districts . Kassel 1854

literature

  • S. Bechstein: Franconian saga treasure vol. IS 25.
  • Stefan Benz: Julius Caesar in Schweinfurt? To the sources of the local god Lollus . ML 1995 / II, pp. 12-22
  • Anton Hirsch: On the origin of the lollus legend . ML 1995 / IV, pp. 22-27
  • Stefan Benz: Back to the lollus legend . ML 1996 / II, pp. 26-27
  • Anton Hirsch: From the "pre-Christian idol Lollus". Further search for traces of a Schweinfurt legend . ML 2007 / III, pp. 4-23