The
Nordendorf fibula is an early 7th century
AlammanicThe Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–17 and claimed thereby to be their...
fibula found in
NordendorfNordendorf is a municipality in the district of Augsburg in Bavaria in Germany....
near
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
(
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
).
Containing the names of
WodanOdin , is considered the chief god in Norse paganism and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon Wōden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz.The name Odin is generally accepted as the modern translation; although, in some cases, older...
, the chief god of the Alamanni, and
DonarThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
, the thunder god, the fibula bears the following
Elder FutharkThe Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription:
- logaþorewodanwigiþonar
Which is usually interpreted as:
- Logaþore Wodan Wigiþonar
It would seem plausible for
logaþore to be the name of another god, yielding a divine triad, but there is no obvious identification in surviving sources regarding
Germanic paganismGermanic paganism, or Germanic mythology includes the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples preceding their Christianization. The best documented version of the Germanic pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Odinism, though other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and...
as we know it.
The
Nordendorf fibula is an early 7th century
AlammanicThe Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211–17 and claimed thereby to be their...
fibula found in
NordendorfNordendorf is a municipality in the district of Augsburg in Bavaria in Germany....
near
AugsburgAugsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria in Germany. It is a College town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...
(
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
).
Inscription
Containing the names of
WodanOdin , is considered the chief god in Norse paganism and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon Wōden and the Old High German Wotan, it is descended from Proto-Germanic *Wōđinaz or *Wōđanaz.The name Odin is generally accepted as the modern translation; although, in some cases, older...
, the chief god of the Alamanni, and
DonarThor is the red-haired and bearded god of thunder in Germanic mythology and Germanic paganism, and its subsets: Norse paganism, Anglo-Saxon paganism and Continental Germanic paganism....
, the thunder god, the fibula bears the following
Elder FutharkThe Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscription:
- logaþorewodanwigiþonar
Which is usually interpreted as:
- Logaþore Wodan Wigiþonar
Logaþore
It would seem plausible for
logaþore to be the name of another god, yielding a divine triad, but there is no obvious identification in surviving sources regarding
Germanic paganismGermanic paganism, or Germanic mythology includes the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples preceding their Christianization. The best documented version of the Germanic pagan religions is 10th and 11th century Odinism, though other information can be found from Anglo-Saxon and...
as we know it. Both
LóðurrLóðurr is a god in Norse mythology. In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. Scholars have variously identified him with Loki, Vé, Vili and Freyr, but consensus has not been reached on...
and
LokiIn Norse mythology, Loki is a god or jötunn . Loki's relation with the gods varies by source. Loki assists the gods, and sometimes causes problems for them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon and a mare. Loki's positive relations with the gods ends...
have been proposed but the etymological reasoning is tenuous.
K. Düwel interprets
logaþore as "magician, sorcerer", and translates "Wodan and Donar are magicians/sorcerers", which could indicate either an early Christian protective charm against the old gods, or, on the other hand, an invocation of the gods' beneficial or healing power by an adherent of the old faith.
The fibula's date falling precisely in the period of gradual
ChristianizationThe Germanic peoples underwent gradual Christianization in the course of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. By the 8th century, most of England and the Frankish Empire was, in principle, Christian, and by AD 1100, Germanic paganism had also ceased to have political influence in...
of the Alamanni (the bishopric of
KonstanzKonstanz is a university town of around 80,000 inhabitants at the western end of Lake Constance in the south-west corner of Germany, bordering Switzerland.-Location:...
was established around AD 600), both possibilities are equally probable.