Roman Era Nordic/Germanic Culture

(October 6, 2023) When the Indo-European invaders settled down in Europe around 2000 BCE five major mixed cultures emerged from different mixings of the native Druidic with the Indo-European cultures. The purely Druid cultures (Minoan, Etruscan, Phoenician, Israelite) survived temporarily on the periphery. These new mixed cultures were:

Celtic (red)
Nordic (blue)
Slavonic (yellow)
Mycenean (orange).
Latin (green)

The mixed cultures (except for the Latins) developed along major riverine trading networks. The Celts originated around the Danube/Rhine corridor and the English and Irish channels, The Nordic (Norse/Germans) originated around the Scandinavian coastline and rivers of the Elbe, Oder, and Vistula. The Slavonic people originated along the Dnieper and Don rivers and the Black Sea coastline. The Myceneans (Hellenes/Greeks) originated along the Greek rivers and the Aegean sea. The language of these mixed people were various mixes of Indo-European and Druidic Akkadian although their priestly class (the Druids of classical times) continued to speak and write in Akkadian.

A good video by The Historian Craft on the subject. Hoby is apparently pronounced "hooboo" by Danish speakers. The description of the ritual and burial site having ponds representing Hekate near the end is especially interesting.

Early Danish Religious and Political Culture During Roman Times

(July 5, 2023) An important item to remember is that the tribe called the Cibri lived at the northern tip of Denmark. After being repulsed from Germany by the battle of Teutonberg forest in 9 CE and making the decision that Germany was just not worth conquering, Rome set up defensive forts and made defensive diplomatic relations along its border. One such alliance was with a tribe on the Danish island of Lolland centered near the town of Hoby where the grave goods of a young chief were discovered at a ritual site having small ponds. This burial dates to between (1 and -200 CE).

References

Frei, Karin; and Klingenberg, Susanne (2021) Re-visiting the Roman Iron Age Hoby chieftain burial after 100 years of its discovery - adding the strontium isotopic perspective. Danish Journal of Archaeology. Vol 10. Online at: https://doi.org/10.7146/dja.v10i0.122601

Klingenberg; Blankenfeldt; Søsted; Nielsen; Jensen (2018) HOBY — AN EXCEPTIONAL EARLY ROMAN IRON AGE SITE IN THE WESTERN BALTIC REGION. Online at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0390.2017.12179.x

Germany as described by Roman historian Tacitus in 98 CE. Tacitus was quick to disrespect their culture but he still has some good information although his attempt to connect their deities with Roman ones is completely wrong.

Quotes on Germanic Religious Culture By Roman Historian Tacitus (98 CE)

(July 2, 2023) Tacitus gave Roman or Egyptian names to various deities he describes because he did not know their actual Germanic names. Their priestly class would be the Akkadian speaking and writing Druid class. Tacitus writes:

They choose their kings by birth, their generals for merit. These kings have not unlimited or arbitrary power, and the generals do more by example than by authority. If they are energetic, if they are conspicuous, if they fight in the front, they lead because they are admired. But to reprimand, to imprison, even to flog, is permitted to the priests alone, and that not as a punishment, or at the general's bidding, but, as it were, by the mandate of the god whom they believe to inspire the warrior.
Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human victims. Hercules and Mars they appease with more lawful offerings. Some of the Suevi also sacrifice to Isis. Of the occasion and origin of this foreign rite I have discovered nothing, but that the image, which is fashioned like a light galley, indicates an imported worship. The Germans, however, do not consider it consistent with the grandeur of celestial beings to confine the gods within walls, or to liken them to the form of any human countenance. They consecrate woods and groves, and they apply the names of deities to the abstraction which they see only in spiritual worship. ...
Augury and divination by lot no people practice more diligently. The use of the lots is simple. A little bough is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree, and cut into small pieces; these are distinguished by certain marks, and thrown carelessly and at random over a white garment. In public questions the priest of the particular state, in private the father of the family, invokes the gods, and, with his eyes towards heaven, takes up each piece three times, and finds in them a meaning according to the mark previously impressed on them. If they prove unfavourable, there is no further consultation that day about the matter; if they sanction it, the confirmation of augury is still required. For they are also familiar with the practice of consulting the notes and the flight of birds. It is peculiar to this people to seek omens and monitions from horses. Kept at the public expense, in these same woods and groves, are white horses, pure from the taint of earthly labour; these are yoked to a sacred car, and accompanied by the priest and the king, or chief of the tribe, who note their neighings and snortings. No species of augury is more trusted, not only by the people and by the nobility, but also by the priests, who regard themselves as the ministers of the gods, and the horses as acquainted with their will.
About minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more important the whole tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests with the people, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of business. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by nights, and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal appointments....

Reference

Complete Works of Tacitus. Tacitus. Alfred John Church. William Jackson Brodribb. Lisa Cerrato. edited for Perseus. New York. : Random House, Inc. Random House, Inc. reprinted 1942. . Online at Perseus Classical library at: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0083%3Achapter%3D9

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