Germanic mythology Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon paganism#Mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism. O ...

, Seaxnēat (pronounced ) or Saxnôt was the national god of the Saxons. He is sometimes identified with either Tīwaz or Fraujaz (Old Norse Týr and Freyr).

Attestations

The

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

form ''Seaxnēat'' is recorded in the genealogies of the kings of Essex (as ''Seaxnēt'', ''Saxnēat'', ''Saxnat''). Trans. from ''Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie'' (1984) . Originally he was the first ancestor listed, with the first king of Essex, Æscwine, seven generations later. A later version of the genealogy, preserved in the 12th-century '' Chronicon ex chronicis'', makes Seaxnēat a son of Wōden (Odin). The

Old Saxon Old Saxon (), also known as Old Low German (), was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Eur ...

form ''Saxnôt'' is attested in the renunciation portion of the '' Old Saxon Baptismal Vow'' along with the gods '' Uuôden'' (Odin) and '' Thunaer'' (Thor).

Etymology

The name is usually derived from '' seax'', the eponymous long knife or short sword of the Saxons, and ''(ge)-not'', ''(ge)-nēat'' as "companion" (cognate with German ''Genosse'' "comrade"), resulting in a translation of either "sword-companion" (''gladii consors'', '' ensifer'') . Trans. from the 4th ed. (1875–78) by James Steven Stallybrass, ''Teutonic Mythology'', Volume 1, London: Bell, 1882, pp. 203–04. or "companion of the Saxons", which Jan de Vries further argued was the original name of the Saxons as a people. . Repr. as 3rd ed., 1970. The suggestion that the second element means "need", cognate with the Anglo-Saxon verb ''nēotan'', is less widely accepted.

Analysis

Wōden is the divine progenitor in the other surviving Anglo-Saxon royal genealogies, so presumably the earlier form of the Essex genealogy preserves a specifically Saxon tradition of a national god. Wōden may have displaced national or regional deities in the other genealogies as part of his rising influence, or use of his name by churchmen. Since the ''Old Saxon Baptismal Vow'' lists three gods, usually interpreted as a Germanic divine triad,

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He formulated Grimm's law of linguistics, and was the co-author of the ''Deutsch ...

argued that Saxnôt must have been a major deity, comparable in stature to UUoden and Thunaer. In 1828, he proposed that Saxnôt was another name for Freyr (Old Saxon ''Froho''), whose sword is prominently mentioned in the Eddic poem '' Skírnismál''. In '' Deutsche Mythologie'', he later made the same argument in favour of identifying Saxnôt with Týr ("who else but ''Zio'' or '' Eor'' or the Greek ''Ares''?"), who in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

has the sword as his characteristic weapon until he loses his right hand as a pledge in the binding of Fenrir. Seaxnēat/Saxnôt was also identified with Týr by Ernst Alfred Philippson and de Vries. As pointed out by Gabriel Turville-Petre, Georges Dumézil's trifunctional hypothesis would suggest he is Freyr (as a representative of the third "function" alongside Odin, representing the first, and Thor, representing the second); for this reason Rudolf Simek identified him with Freyr. Through the alternative etymology of the second element of his name, deriving it from a root meaning 'to get, make use of', Seaxnēat/Saxnôt has also been related to the British deity Nodens and the Irish deity Nuada, by Rudolf Much and more recently by Swiss linguist , who sees parallels in Nuada's role in

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths indigenous to the island of Ireland. It was originally Oral tradition, passed down orally in the Prehistoric Ireland, prehistoric era. In the History of Ireland (795–1169), early medieval era, myths were ...

as progenitor, and his possession of a flashing sword. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seaxneat Anglo-Saxon gods Germanic gods

Attestations

Etymology

Analysis

See also

References