File:The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain (1887) (14779171254).jpg

Identifier: gothsfromearlies00brad (find matches)
Title: The Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Bradley, Henry, 1845-1923
Subjects: Goths
Publisher: London, T. Fisher Unwin
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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lingsbecame the royal line of the Ostrogoths, while theVisigoths chose their kings from the Balthings. Of the religion of the Goths in their heathen dayswe know but little. Their native historian tellsus that they worshipped certain beings called Anses,and this word is plainly the same as -^sir (plural ofAss or Ans), the name which the Scandinaviansapplied to the greater gods of their mythology. Noancient writer has mentioned the name of a singleGothic deity, but there is reason to believe thatamongst their chief gods were the Great TwinBrethren, corresponding to Castor and Pollux, andwe may feel sure that, like all their Teutonic kindred,they worshipped Wodan, the spirit of wind and storm,the inspirer of poetry and wisdom. Another of theirgods, no doubt, was Tiw, whose name shows that hewas once the same with Dyaus, Zeus, Jupiter, theancient sky-god of the Indians, Greeks, and Romansand whom the Teutonic warriors invoked as their godof battles. Probably, also, they worshipped—under
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o f o o RUNIC WRITING, 15 what names we know not—the Sun-god and theThunder-god, whom the Scandinavians called Baldrand Thorr. And there is proof that Halya, which inthe Gothic Bible is the word for hell, must originallyhave been the name of the goddess of the lower world.But which of these divinities were regarded as higherthan the rest, and what other gods and goddesseswere reverenced besides them, are questions thatcannot be answered. Images of the gods (not com-plete statues, but pillars surmounted with the likenessof a human head), raised aloft on chariots, were carriedfrom place to place to receive the adoration of thepeople. The sodden flesh of animals was offered insacrifice, and sometimes we read that human victimswere laid upon the altars, but whether this is fact orfable we cannot tell. The Gothic temples were servedboth by male and female priests, and during the war-like journeyings of the nation the place of a templewas supplied by a sacred tent. These few particularsar

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