Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/309

 The Ancient Teiitonic Priesthood. 297

the cult here took the same form. Probably the cult of Irmin was known to all the Irminones, but its associa- tion with the sacred pillar may have been peculiar to the Saxons.

In the same way it seems to me not unlikely that the cult of Fro was originally only a local form of a far more widely spread religion. It has often been remarked that Fro bears a strong resemblance to Frodi, the mythical peace-king of the Danes. Again the cult has features in common with that of Nerthus, attributed by Tacitus (Germ., 40) to certain tribes on the south-west shores of the Baltic. The word Nerthus is identical with Niordr, the name of Fro's father, while Fro itself seems to be an abbreviation for Ynguifreyr or Ingunar-Freyr, which recall the In- guaeones of the Roman age. It seems likely therefore that a similar cult was once common to all the maritime tribes.

Note II. — Priestesses and Prophetesses in the North.

In Icelandic historical works the word gydia occasionally occurs. It seems to be applied to women who belonged to the magisterial families. In Kristni s. 2 we hear of a certain Fridgerdr, who is represented as offering sacrifice, and who is called gyctia in a verse immediately following. Her husband was absent when the sacrifice was offered, but whether she was acting as his representative or not is not stated. In Vdpnfirdinga s. 10 mention is made of a woman called Steinvor, who possessed a public temple {hdfmt-hof) and claimed the temple dues from merchants. When these were withheld by a Christian merchant, she applied to her relative Brodd-Helgi for assistance. The case is not alto- gether clear. It seems probable, however, that Steinvor had inherited the temple, but that the magisterial rights appertaining thereto, which could not be held by a woman, ^ had passed to Brodd-Helgi (perhaps as the nearest male relative). A Thuridr (hof-)gydia is mentioned in Landn.,

' According to Gragas (ed. Finsen, i., a., p. 142) a goioxi, which had come into the possession of a widow, on the death of her husband, had to be sold. This, however, applies to the Christian period, when the priestly duties of the godi had come to an end.