Nerthus

For the group of Austrian metal, to see Nerthus (group).

Nethus is a divinity of the fertility evoked by Tacite in its Germanie . She was venerated in the following way by people living in the peninsula of the Jutland:

Then comes the Reudignes and the Avions and the Angles and the Varins and the Eudoses and the Suardones and others Nuitons, which is protected by rivers and forests. There is nothing good particular to announce for each one of them, except the worship which they jointly return in Nerthus, in other words with the Ground Mother. They believe that it intervenes in the human businesses and that it is made lead near their people.

In an island of the Ocean extends a holy forest. It shelters a devoted tank, which a veil dissimulates. Only one priest is authorized to touch it. He becomes aware of the presence of the goddess in the sanctuary, makes harness the tank by heifers and follows it with great veneration. Come the days of jubilation then. It is the festival in the places which the goddess judges worthy to accommodate and to lodge it. One does not start wars, one does not take the weapons. Any iron is locked up. It is only whereas calm peace is known, it is only whereas it is appreciated. It is thus until the same priest returns to his temple the goddess filled by his stay in the mortals.

Then the tank and cloth and, if it is found credible, the divinity itself are immersed in a lake with the shelter of the glances. This rite is achieved by slaves that this same lake immediately absorbs. From there, fear of the mystery and the inviolable ignorance of what only see of the beings which will die.

- Tacit, Germanic the (XL) , translation of Danielle De Clercq

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