From: ggrieve@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (greig.grieve)
Subject: Re: Eagles Reaches Church of Asatru
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:50:48 GMT
Summary: Lindow,Dublin,Blackpool

In article <SRV6HEJ@mailgzrz.tu-berlin.de>, winkler@zrzsp12tu-berlin.de (Barbara Maren Winkler) writes:
> In article <1992Sep7.091337.13949@cbnewsi.cb.att.com>, ggrieve@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (greig.grieve) writes:
> 
> |>      ...  in 60AD after the Romans had defeated Boudicca and devastated Mona
> |> (Anglesey). Also, that the signifcance of Mona to the Druids lay in the fact
> |> that it was close to Dublin in the sacred island of Ireland. ...
> 
> Dublin was a Viking settlement, 900 A.D. What a pity ...
> 
> --
> bmw


The Vikings arrived at an existing settlement. Encyclopaedia Brittanica's
entry for Dublin states that Ptolemy's Geography mentions it in ca 150AD.

"Dublin" is derived from Dubh + Linn, Gaelic for dark/black lake/pool. Lindow
may also have this meaning. Votive offerings and sacrificial victims were
thrown into pools. The Gundestrup cauldron depicts something similar.

The book may contain an anachronism. Beltane is celebrated on Mayday now, but
it is unlikely that May 1 meant anything to the Celts at the time, and more
likely the feastday was determined by the lunar calendar. Pliny may provide
some clues in his History.

" .... I must not omit the veneration shown to mistletoe by the provinces of
  Gaul. The Druids (the name they give to their priestly caste) hold nothing
  more sacred than mistletoe and the tree on which it grows,  provided it is
  a hard-oak. They also choose groves of hard-oak for its own qualities, nor
  do they perform any sacred rites without leaves from these trees,  so that
  from this practice they are called Druids after the Greek word for oak.[drys].
  For they believe  that anything growing on oak trees is sent by heaven and
  is a sign that the tree has been chosen by God himself. Mistletoe, however,
  is rarely found on hard-oaks, but when it is discovered, it is collected
  with great respect on the sixth day of the moon. Then, greeting the moon
  with the phrase that in their own language means `healing all things', the
  Druids with due religious observance prepare a sacrifice and banquet beneath
  a tree, and bring two white bulls whose horns are bound for the first time.
  A priest in a white robe climbs the tree and with a golden sickle cuts the
  mistletoe, which is caught in a white cloak. Then they sacrifice the victims
  praying that God may make his gift propitious for those to whom he has given
  it. They think that mistletoe given in a drink renders any barren animal
  fertile and is an antidote for all poisons. So great is the power of
  superstition among most peoples in regard to relatively unimportant matters.

  []XVI 249 - 251

Lindow Man had traces of mistletoe in his stomach. The British Museum book
on the body in the bog gives a detailed account of the forensic analysis.

(This passage seems to imply monotheism - the "Life and Death of a Druid
Prince" book proposed that three gods were honoured (Taranis, Esus, Teutates)).

In Uley, Gloucestershire, excavations have revealed the remains of ancient
shrines on a hilltop site. There is an inscription on an alter to Mercury:
"Lovernius son of ... willingly and deservedly paid his vow to Mercury".

There was some conjecture that Lindow Man may have had the name Lovernios,
meaning fox. This from his foxfur armband.  (No-one suggests that a connection
is proved).

A development from the Levitical priesthood is described in I Kings 12 -13.
Jeroboam set up a golden calf in each of Bethel and Dan. He opened the priest-
hood to non-Levites and inaugurated a feastday on the 15th day of the 8th
month. (The classical writers tell us that druidism was not hereditary).

Curiously, the oak tree is mentioned in the passage from Kings .......