Sunday, 9 September 2012
The Sacred Spears of the Germanic Priest-Kings
During the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century a number of sacred spears belonging to the pre-christian Germanic tribes were located in modern day Germany, Sweden and Poland, being the Kovel spear, the Dahmsdorf spear, the Rozwadow spear and the Moos spear.
What these spears have in common is their construction-Iron with silver inlay and their runic inscriptions.
The one from Dahmsdorf has the inscription Ansuz-Jera-Nauthiz-Ansuz-Raitho. The inscription reading from right to left says ranja, ie the "runner". Edred Thorsson in his The Mysteries of the Goths speculates that this has the meaning of "the one which causes[them] to flee". The owner of the spear may have been a Burgundian, originally an East Germanic tribe.
It dates from around 250CE and it also contains solar and lunar symbols and was discovered in 1865 during the construction of a train station at Dahmsdorf-Muecheberg.
This and the other spears were never used in combat and clearly were of ceremonial purpose. Either these spears belonged to tribal priests or were symbolic totems of regal power belonging to chieftains.
The spear was the original and favoured weapon of the Germanic peoples and every Germanic freeman, every warrior possessed one as a mark of his status. In the case of chieftains and priests these were obviously more elaborate as these spears clearly have a mystical purpose.
We are of course reminded of Gungnir, the spear of Wotan/Wodan/Woden/Odin which likewise was according to Sigdrifumal 17 insricribed with 17 runes on its tip. It would of course be tempting to speculate what they are. It is of course possible that this may be a version of the normally 16 runes Younger Futhark.
It contains a Triskelion and a Swastika, both of which are solar symbols. These spears also contain tamgas which are Sarmatian or Scythian tribal symbols and thus show a connection with the steppe dwelling Iranian tribes who lived close to the East Germanic peoples.
The Germanic peoples considered themselves to be the offspring of their Gods and nobles in particular often reckoned their descent from Wodan. Therefore it is natural for a Germanic chieftain or king to possess a sacred spear as a symbol of the Wodan given regal power.
Later in the post-conversion times and the arising of the Parsifal myth the sacred spear or lance features as the symbolic weapon of the Grail king.
We know that the Holy Lance or spear of Longinus which allegedly currently resides in the Hofburg Museum in Wien has been dated to no earlier than the 7th century CE and therefore is not contemporary with the times of the so-called Christ.
No doubt this spear falls into a similar category as the four runic spears referred to in this article.
My readers may wish to also study my article from 12/5/12 on Die Armanschaft Der Ario-Germanen blog-Gungnir, Symbol of All-Father Woden and its Significance and also from 5/10/08 on my Celto-Germanic blog: Gungnir, the Spear of Odin.