Verbeia
Encyclopedia
In ancient Celtic polytheism
, Verbeia was a goddess worshipped in Roman Britain
. She is known from a single altar-stone dedicated to her at Ilkley
(RIB 635). She is considered to have been a deification of the River Wharfe
.
An image of a woman (also from Ilkley) may represent the goddess: she is depicted with an overlarge head and schematic features; she wears a long, pleated robe and she has two large snakes, represented as geometric zig-zags, which she grasps, one in each hand.
troops http://www.roman-britain.org/military/coh2lin.htm stationed here during the second century AD who inscribed the above mentioned altar-stone http://www.roman-britain.org/places/verbeia.htm#rib635.
Anne Ross compares this image with one of a goddess found in Mavilly-Mandelot
, France, portrayed with a similar pleated garment, holding two snakes in one hand, on an altar associated with aquatic cults. Ross fails to mention that this region of France is where the Lingones, a Gaulish tribe from which the Roman troops were recruited, originated. It seems possible that the Mavilly altar is a precursor of the Verbeia altar.
Some sources http://www.roman-britain.org/places/verbeia.htm#rib635 state, however, that the Ilkley troops were recruited from the Lingones in northeast Italy; some of the tribe migrated across the Alps in around 400 BC Lingones
.
is a petroglyph on the northern edge of Ilkley Moor
, overlooking the Wharfe valley, which is unique in British rock art. It uses cup-marks, but is otherwise distinct from the cup-and-ring art
found across the moor. It is identical in form to certain of the Camunian rose
motifs found in Val Camonica
, northern Italy. It seems possible that the Lingones troops who worshipped Verbeia may have encountered the Camunian rose on migrating across the Alps, and adopted the symbol, carving it on Ilkley Moor while stationed there.
Ross repeatedly associates Verbeia with the goddesses Brigid
and Brigantia
. Given that Brigid's cross
is a prevalent swastika-like image in Ireland, there may be further links here between Verbeia, imported Gaulish cults, and the swastika image.
is reconstructed as having *werbā- 'blister' in its lexicon http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/PCl-MoE.pdf and the name may be a suffixed form of this lexeme
meaning “blistered one.” On the other hand, the root of the name may represent a Celtic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European
root *wer-bhe- ‘bend, turn,’ cognate
with Modern English
warp, http://www.ieed.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?flags=eygtnrl&single=1&basename=/data/ie/pokorny&text_recno=2152&root=leiden followed by the durative suffix
*-j- and the feminine
suffix
*-ā- and so might have meant “she who is constantly bending and turning.” Another possibility is that the name is a compound of Romano-British
reflexes of the Proto-Celtic elements **Uφer-bej-ā- (upper-strike-F
) “the upper striker.”
Celtic polytheism
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism, refers to the religious beliefs and practices adhered to by the Iron Age peoples of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tène period and the Roman era, and in the case of the Insular Celts...
, Verbeia was a goddess worshipped in Roman Britain
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
. She is known from a single altar-stone dedicated to her at Ilkley
Ilkley
Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in West Yorkshire, in the north of England. Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the metropolitan borough of Bradford. Approximately north of Bradford, the town lies mainly on the south bank of the River Wharfe...
(RIB 635). She is considered to have been a deification of the River Wharfe
River Wharfe
The River Wharfe is a river in Yorkshire, England. For much of its length it is the county boundary between West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire. The name Wharfe is Celtic and means "twisting, winding".The valley of the River Wharfe is known as Wharfedale...
.
An image of a woman (also from Ilkley) may represent the goddess: she is depicted with an overlarge head and schematic features; she wears a long, pleated robe and she has two large snakes, represented as geometric zig-zags, which she grasps, one in each hand.
Origins
The stone bearing the image thought to represent Verbeia now stands inside the All Saints Parish Church in Ilkley. The church is situated on the site of the Roman fort, which was itself thought to be named 'Verbeia' (not Olicana, as was previously thought) http://www.roman-britain.org/places/verbeia.htm. It was the Second Cohort of LingonesLingones
Lingones were a Celtic tribe that originally lived in Gaul in the area of the headwaters of the Seine and Marne rivers. Some of the Lingones migrated across the Alps and settled near the mouth of the Po River in Cisalpine Gaul of northern Italy around 400 BCE. These Lingones were part of a wave of...
troops http://www.roman-britain.org/military/coh2lin.htm stationed here during the second century AD who inscribed the above mentioned altar-stone http://www.roman-britain.org/places/verbeia.htm#rib635.
Anne Ross compares this image with one of a goddess found in Mavilly-Mandelot
Mavilly-Mandelot
Mavilly-Mandelot is a commune in the Côte-d'Or department in eastern France.-Population:-References:*...
, France, portrayed with a similar pleated garment, holding two snakes in one hand, on an altar associated with aquatic cults. Ross fails to mention that this region of France is where the Lingones, a Gaulish tribe from which the Roman troops were recruited, originated. It seems possible that the Mavilly altar is a precursor of the Verbeia altar.
Some sources http://www.roman-britain.org/places/verbeia.htm#rib635 state, however, that the Ilkley troops were recruited from the Lingones in northeast Italy; some of the tribe migrated across the Alps in around 400 BC Lingones
Lingones
Lingones were a Celtic tribe that originally lived in Gaul in the area of the headwaters of the Seine and Marne rivers. Some of the Lingones migrated across the Alps and settled near the mouth of the Po River in Cisalpine Gaul of northern Italy around 400 BCE. These Lingones were part of a wave of...
.
The Swastika Stone
The Swastika StoneSwastika Stone
The Swastika Stone is a stone adorned with a Swastika located on the Woodhouse Crag, on the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire. The design has a double outline with five curved arms enclosing several so-called 'cup' marks, the like of which can be found on other stones nearby.The design...
is a petroglyph on the northern edge of Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor
Ilkley Moor is part of Rombalds Moor, the moorland between Ilkley and Keighley in West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. The peat bogs rise to 402 m above sea level...
, overlooking the Wharfe valley, which is unique in British rock art. It uses cup-marks, but is otherwise distinct from the cup-and-ring art
Cup and ring mark
Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found mainly in Atlantic Europe and Mediterranean Europe although similar forms are also found throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, and India, where...
found across the moor. It is identical in form to certain of the Camunian rose
Camunian rose
The Camunian rose is the name given to a particular symbol represented among the rock carvings of Val Camonica. It consists of a meandering closed line that winds around nine cup marks...
motifs found in Val Camonica
Val Camonica
Val Camonica is one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, about 90 km long. It starts from the Tonale Pass, at 1883 metres above sea level and ends at Corna Trentapassi, in the comune of Pisogne, near Lake Iseo...
, northern Italy. It seems possible that the Lingones troops who worshipped Verbeia may have encountered the Camunian rose on migrating across the Alps, and adopted the symbol, carving it on Ilkley Moor while stationed there.
Ross repeatedly associates Verbeia with the goddesses Brigid
Brigid
In Irish mythology, Brigit or Brighid was the daughter of the Dagda and one of the Tuatha Dé Danann. She was the wife of Bres of the Fomorians, with whom she had a son, Ruadán....
and Brigantia
Brigantia (goddess)
Brigantia was a goddess in Celtic religion of Late Antiquity.In the interpretatio Romana, she was equated with Victoria...
. Given that Brigid's cross
Brigid's cross
Brigid's cross, Brighid's cross, or Brigit's cross, often with the "Saint" prefix, or Cros Bríde, Crosóg Bríde or Bogha Bríde, though not recorded before the seventeenth century, is an Irish symbol. Though a Christian symbol, it possibly derives from the pagan sunwheel. It is usually made from...
is a prevalent swastika-like image in Ireland, there may be further links here between Verbeia, imported Gaulish cults, and the swastika image.
Etymology
Proto-CelticProto-Celtic language
The Proto-Celtic language, also called Common Celtic, is the reconstructed ancestor language of all the known Celtic languages. Its lexis can be confidently reconstructed on the basis of the comparative method of historical linguistics...
is reconstructed as having *werbā- 'blister' in its lexicon http://www.wales.ac.uk/documents/external/cawcs/PCl-MoE.pdf and the name may be a suffixed form of this lexeme
Lexeme
A lexeme is an abstract unit of morphological analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word. For example, in the English language, run, runs, ran and running are forms of the same lexeme, conventionally written as RUN...
meaning “blistered one.” On the other hand, the root of the name may represent a Celtic reflex of the Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
root *wer-bhe- ‘bend, turn,’ cognate
Cognate
In linguistics, cognates are words that have a common etymological origin. This learned term derives from the Latin cognatus . Cognates within the same language are called doublets. Strictly speaking, loanwords from another language are usually not meant by the term, e.g...
with Modern English
Modern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...
warp, http://www.ieed.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?flags=eygtnrl&single=1&basename=/data/ie/pokorny&text_recno=2152&root=leiden followed by the durative suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
*-j- and the feminine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
*-ā- and so might have meant “she who is constantly bending and turning.” Another possibility is that the name is a compound of Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
reflexes of the Proto-Celtic elements **Uφer-bej-ā- (upper-strike-F
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
) “the upper striker.”
Sources
- Manor House Museum, IlkleyIlkleyIlkley is a spa town and civil parish in West Yorkshire, in the north of England. Ilkley civil parish includes the adjacent village of Ben Rhydding and is a ward within the metropolitan borough of Bradford. Approximately north of Bradford, the town lies mainly on the south bank of the River Wharfe...
, YorkshireYorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England. - Dictionary of Celtic Myth and Legend, Miranda J. Green, Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1997
External links
- Verbeia knol
- The Goddess in Wharfedale - a speculative essay on Verbeia