Irmin and Krodo, Saxon Gods

In previous articles I have discussed the Saxon God Irmin and His cognates to be found in other Aryan mythologies, ie Aryaman[Indo-Aryan], Airyaman[Iranian], Eremon[Irish] and Ariomanus[Gallic] and how an original Aryan God is postulated, called *aryomn. I have demonstrated that there is a further link with the Germanic Mannus, the Indo-Aryan Manu and a Celtic `Mon`. I have also discussed the connection between Irmin and the Herminones.

Whilst some scholars such as Rudolf Simek question the existence of Irmin as a deity[Dictionary of Northern Mythology] there are others such as Jaan Puhvel[Comparative Mythology] that do not and have identified that Irmin and His other cognates hark back to a Proto-Indo-European God who was the very essence of Aryanness.

I have recently also discussed my intial research regarding the more obscure Saxon God Krodo. Very few have heard of this deity and yet His memory lives on in my ancestral Harz mountains, not only in the form of place names and myths but also He has now become almost a `mascot` or tourist attraction! Whatever way He is remembered it is important that He is remembered and honoured by those of us who follow the Northern Gods. Like Irmin, I discovered that He is not only a Saxon deity but that He has cognates in other Indo-European mythologies: Sativrat and Kirt[Slavic], Saturn[Roman] and Satyavrata[Indo-Aryan]. Like Irmin, Krodo is a solar deity who is associated with the solar wheel[Kolovrat].

I started to ponder what connection there could be between Irmin and Krodo. Obviously they are both Saxon deities and some would say that their existence was disputed. I believe that I have presented enough evidence on my blogs to substantiate the existence of Irmin and there is also sufficient evidence to accept Krodo`s existence. My recent article about Krodo sets out all the available evidence that I have collected thus far.

Apart from being Saxon both Gods were subject to acts of sacrilege by Charlemagne. In 772CE Charlemagne or Karl der Grosse as he is known in Germany  destroyed the Irminsul, a sacred pillar erected for the worship of this God. Shortly after in 780 Karl also destroyed the temple and idol of Krodo. There is evidence for more than one Irminsul but they all appear to have been located in the Saxon lands.

I have to ask myself why was Karl`s hatred towards Irmin and Krodo so intense? We know that the continental Saxons were amongst the last of the West Germanic peoples to accept xtianity. They did so only after appalling persecution and the extermination of their bravest nobles. 4,500 Saxons were beheaded by this monster in Verden after they were caught worshiping the old Saxon Gods. The Saxon Wars from 772 to 804 were in reality religious wars where our Saxon ancestors fought against the forced imposition of xtianity upon their people. They resisted the xtian invader to the very last drop of their blood. For this reason we should be proud of them and remember their holy sacrifice.

Irmin and Krodo must therefore have symbolised to Karl the stubbornness of the Saxon people. For this reason he tried to eradicate all memory of these Gods from our ancestors` memory. He did not succeed!
Whether it be xtianity[now a spent force] or islam we will never bow the knee to an alien and brutal, semitic, psychotic desert tribal `god` who delights in and whose supporters delight in[see recent events in Syria] the torture and beheading of those who think differently to them.

Jacob Grimm in his Teutonic Mythology Volume 1 refers to lingering traces of the worship of Irmin in Lower Saxony. He cites an old rhyme which was still in existence at the time of writing[1882] and he says:

"Here there seems unconcealed a slight longing for the mild rule of the old heathen god, in contrast to the strictly judging and punishing christian God."

"Hermen, sla dermen,

sla pipen, sla trummen,

de kaiser wil kummen

met hamer un stangen,

wil Hermen uphangen."

 

Krodo, a Lost Saxon God Traceable to Aryan Times

Recently whilst reading Legends and Tales of the Harz Mountains, North Germany by Maria Elise Turner Lauder[1885] I encountered a tale called The Steinkirche and the Hermit which refers to both Ostera and a God called Krodo:

"In the grey days long ago, when paganism ruled the land, there stood on the hills near the cave called the Steinkirche-altars to the gods.

Bright were the fires to Krodo in the darkness of the night, and on the opposite cliffs rose the fire pillar in honour of the goddess Ostera.

The crackling flames illuminated the country and the mountains, and invited the inhabitants of the nearlying vales and heights to the wild customs, the bloody sacrifices, and the raving dance of heathenism."

Poetically Lauder goes on to tell us how a xtian holy man converted the heathen Saxons by a supposed miracle and:

"And the hearts of the wild Sassen were opened.....

"They vowed to a man henceforth to forsake the worship of Krodo, to remain true to the new faith....."

Despite having a mother who came from the Harz mountains I had never heard or read this story before and neither had I heard of this God called Krodo. After carrying out some research I have found that He is one of the Saxons` ancestral Gods and thus my ancestral God.

Jacob Grimm refers to Krodo in his Teutonic Mythology Volume 1 and relates Him to the Roman God Saturn.

"But that AS. Saeteresbyrig from the middle of the 11th century irresistibly reveals the `burg` on the Harz mts, built (according to our hitherto despised accounts of the 15th century in Bothe`s Sachsenchronik) to the idol Saturn, which Saturn, it is added, the common people called Krodo; to this we may add the name touched upon in p. 206 (Hrethe, Hrethemonath), for which an older Hruodo, Chrodo was conjectured. We are told of an image of this Saturn or Krodo, which represented the idol as a man standing on a great fish, holding a pot of flowers in his right hand, and a wheel erect in his left; the Roman Saturn was furnished with the sickle, not a wheel."

Grimm tells us that Hrodo may be related to Baldag/Balder and he derives from this that the seventh day of the week[Saturday] may have been called Roydag and thus sacred to Krodo[see supplement 3 on page 248]. Hrethemonath, the Anglo-Saxon month of March is the month heathens normally associate with the Goddess Hrethe.

Grimm draws further connections to the Slavic Gods Sitivrat and Kirt:

"...but beside Sitivrat we have learnt another name for Saturn, namely Kirt, which certainly seems to be our Krodo and Hrudo."

Interestingly he interprets Sitivrat as being:

 "sieve-turner" and that this "would be almost the same as kolo-vrat, wheel-turner, and afford a solution of that wheel in Krodo`s hand; both wheel (kolo) and sieve (sito) move round, and an ancient spell rested on sieve-turning. Slav mythologists have identified Sitivrat with the Hindu Satyavrata, who in a great deluge is saved by Vishnu in the form of a fish. Krodo stands on a fish; and Vishnu is represented wearing wreaths of flowers about his neck, and holding a wheel (chakra) in his fourth hand. All these coincidences are still meagre and insecure; but they suffice to establish the high antiquity of a Slavo-Teutonic myth, which starts up thus from one quarter."

Thus far we have established that not only is Krodo a Saxon and thus a Teutonic deity but His antiquity goes right back to Aryan times with his association with similar Slavic, Hindu and Roman deities. Indeed Krodo`s name is so ancient that Grimm states that it "is rather too ancient, and I can find no support for it in the Saxon speech." Clearly this deity was still remembered by the Saxons and other Aryan peoples long after their dispersion out of the Ur-heimat.

Elsewhere in Teutonic Mythology Grimm states:

"Bothe`s Sassenchronik relates under the year 780, that King Charles, during his conquest of the East Saxons, overthrew on the Hartesburg an idol similar to Saturn, which the people called Krodo."

One is reminded of Charlemagne`s[King Charles/Karl der Grosse] similar overthrow of the Irminsul also in the land of the Saxons in 772 CE.

In Goslar Cathedral there was stored the bronze Krodo Altar, dating back to the year 1040 CE, which is an indication that this God was still remembered with affection several hundred years after Karl`s sacrilege. It can now be found in Goslar`s town museum. A rebuilt statue of Krodo now stands at Harzburg Castle.

Even today there are a number of locations in the Harz that bear His name such as Crodenbeke [Krodo Valley]- now called Kroedlippen, Krotenpful, Crodenleide, Crothensee and Goetzenthal [Valley of the idols]. Ground Ivy is also called Crodokraut which affords protection against witches.

After Karl destroyed Krodo`s temple he erected in its place a chapel and the site of this today is Harzburg Castle. Tradition has it that when Karl asked the East Saxons who was the God they worshipped they replied: "Krodo is our god", to which the emperor replied "Krodo is all the same as kroten-duevel!" Thus "toad-devil" became a German curse. Such curses often involve the names of our ancient deities.