Mannus, according to the Roman writer

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

, was a figure in the creation myths of the Germanic tribes. Tacitus is the only source of these myths. This is a university textbook and exists in several variants printed for different major institutions. Reprinted 2007, . Tacitus wrote that Mannus was the son of Tuisto and the progenitor of the three Germanic tribes

Ingaevones The Ingaevones () or Ingvaeones () were a Germanic peoples, Germanic cultural group living in the Northern Germania along the North Sea coast in the areas of Jutland, Holstein, and Lower Saxony in classical antiquity. Tribes in this area include ...

, Herminones and Istvaeones. In discussing the German tribes, Tacitus wrote: Several authors consider the name ''Mannus'' in Tacitus's work to stem from an Indo-European root. The Latinized name is evidently of some relation to

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the linguistic reconstruction, reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic languages, Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from ...

, 'man'. Mannus again became popular in literature in the 16th century, after works published by Annius de Viterbo and Johannes Aventinus purported to list him as a primeval king over Germany and Sarmatia. In the 19th century, F. Nork wrote that the names of the three sons of Mannus can be extrapolated as Ingui, Irmin, and Istaev or Iscio. A few scholars like Ralph T. H. Griffith have expressed a connection between Mannus and the names of other ancient founder-kings, such as

Minos Main injector neutrino oscillation search (MINOS) was a particle physics experiment designed to study the phenomena of neutrino oscillations, first discovered by a Super-Kamiokande (Super-K) experiment in 1998. Neutrinos produced by the NuMI ...

of Greek mythology, and Manu of Hindu tradition.

Guido von List Guido Karl Anton List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), better known as Guido von List, was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed w ...

incorporated the myth of Mannus and his sons into his

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

practice, which were later adopted into Nazi occult beliefs.

References

* * Tacitus. ''

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

'' (1st century AD; in Latin). {{Legendary progenitors Germanic mythology Legendary progenitors

See also

References