![Bonifacius by Emil Doepler](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Bonifacius_by_Emil_Doepler.jpg)
Donar's Oak (also Thor's Oak or, via ''
interpretatio romana'', Jove's Oak) was a
sacred tree of the Germanic pagans located in an unclear location around what is now the region of
Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. According to the 8th century ''Vita Bonifatii auctore Willibaldi'', the
Anglo-Saxon missionary
Saint Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...
and his retinue cut down the tree earlier in the same century. Wood from the oak was then reportedly used to build a church at the site dedicated to
Saint Peter
Saint Peter; he, שמעון בר יונה, Šimʿōn bar Yōnāh; ar, سِمعَان بُطرُس, translit=Simʿa̅n Buṭrus; grc-gre, Πέτρος, Petros; cop, Ⲡⲉⲧⲣⲟⲥ, Petros; lat, Petrus; ar, شمعون الصفـا, Sham'un ...
.
Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
.
Willibald's ''Life of Saint Boniface''
![St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/St._Boniface_cuts_down_Thor%27s_Oak_by_Charles_Robinson.jpg)
According to
Willibald
Willibald (; c. 700 – c.787) was an 8th-century bishop of Eichstätt in Bavaria.
Information about his life is largely drawn from the Hodoeporicon (itinerary) of Willibald, a text written in the 8th century by Huneberc, an Anglo-Saxon nun fro ...
's 8th century ''Life of Saint Boniface'', the felling of the tree occurred during Boniface's life earlier the same century at a location at the time known as ''Gaesmere'' (for details, see discussion below).
[Robinson 63.]
Although no date is provided, the felling may have occurred around 723 or 724.
[Emerton xiv.] Willibald's account is as follows (note that Robinson has translated ''robor Iobis'', "tree of
Jove
Jupiter ( la, Iūpiter or , from Proto-Italic "day, sky" + "father", thus " sky father" Greek: Δίας or Ζεύς), also known as Jove (gen. ''Iovis'' ), is the god of the sky and thunder, and king of the gods in ancient Roman religion a ...
", as "oak of Jupiter"):
Germanic tree and grove veneration
Sacred grove
Sacred groves or sacred woods are groves of trees and have special religious importance within a particular culture. Sacred groves feature in various cultures throughout the world. They were important features of the mythological landscape and ...
s and
sacred trees were venerated throughout the history of the
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...
and were targeted for destruction by Christian missionaries during the
Christianization of the Germanic peoples. Ken Dowden notes that behind this great oak dedicated to Donar, the
Irminsul
An Irminsul (Old Saxon 'great pillar') was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A ...
(also felled by Christian missionaries in the 8th century), and the
Sacred tree at Uppsala
The sacred tree at Uppsala was a sacred tree located at the Temple at Uppsala, Sweden, in the second half of the 11th century. It is not known what species it was. Older sources have described it as an ash tree, but have suggested that it was a ye ...
(described by
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen ( la, Adamus Bremensis; german: Adam von Bremen) (before 1050 – 12 October 1081/1085) was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. Adam is most famous for his chronicle ''Gesta ...
in the 11th century), stands a mythic prototype of an immense world tree, described in
Norse mythology
Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...
as
Yggdrasil
Yggdrasil (from Old Norse ), in Norse cosmology, is an immense and central sacred tree. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds.
Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional s ...
.
[Dowden 72.]
Location of ''Gaesmere''
By the nineteenth century ''Gaesmere'' was identified as in the
Schwalm-Eder
Schwalm-Eder is an electoral constituency (German: ''Wahlkreis'') represented in the Bundestag. It elects one member via first-past-the-post voting. Under the current constituency numbering system, it is designated as constituency 170. It is locate ...
district, for instance by
August Neander. There are a few dissenting voices: in his 1916 translation of Willibald's ''Vita Bonifacii'', George W. Robinson says "The location
f the tree
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
is uncertain. There are in Hesse several places named Geismar."
[Robinson 63.] Historian Thomas F. X. Noble (2000) describes the location of the tree felling as "still unidentified".
In the late 19th century, folklorist and philologist
Francis Barton Gummere identifies the ''Gaesemere'' of the attestation as Geismar, a district of
Frankenberg located in Hesse.
[Gummere 388.]
However, most scholars agree that the site mentioned by Willibald is Geismar near Fritzlar. In 1897 historian C. Neuber placed the Donar Oak "im Kreise Fritzlar".
[Neuber 253-55.] While Gregor Richter, in 1906, noted that one scholar considered
Hofgeismar
Hofgeismar () is a town in the Kassel (district), district of Kassel, in northern Hesse, Germany. It is located 25 km north of Kassel on the German Timber-Frame Road. In 1978 and in 2015, the town hosted the 18th ''Hessentag'' state festival. ...
as a possible location, he himself comments that most people consider Geismar near Fritzlar as the right place.
[Richter 52.] Unequivocal identification of Geismar near Fritzlar as the location of the Donar Oak is found in the
Catholic Encyclopedia
The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...
, in teaching materials for religious studies classes in Germany, in the work of
Alexander Demandt, in histories of the Carolingians, and in the work of
Lutz von Padberg
Lutz E. von Padberg (born 22 February 1950) is a German historian whose specialty is medieval history and in particular the Christianization of the Germanic peoples. He is an expert on Saint Boniface, having written biographies of the saint and s ...
.
[Von Padberg, ''Bonifatius'' 41.] The ''
Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde
''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them.
The first ...
'' notes that for Willibald it was probably not necessary to specify the location any further because he presumed it widely known. This Geismar was close to
Büraburg
The Büraburg was a prominent hill castle with historic significance, on the Büraberg hill overlooking the Eder river near the town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse (Germany). Only foundation walls remain, and a church dedicated to St. Brigida.
...
, then a hill castle and a Frankish stronghold.
Role in Bonifatian hagiography and imagery
One of the focal points of Boniface's life, the scene is frequently repeated, illustrated, and reimagined. Roberto Muller, for instance, in a retelling of Boniface's biography for young adults, has the four parts of the tree fall down to the ground and form a cross. In Hubertus Lutterbach's fictional expansion of the Boniface correspondence, Boniface relates the entire event in a long letter to
Pope Gregory II, commenting that it took hours to cut the tree down, and that any account that says the tree fell down miraculously is a falsification of history.
[Lutterbach 47-58.]
See also
*
List of individual trees
The following is a list of notable trees. Trees listed here are regarded as important or specific by their historical, national, locational, natural or mythological context. The list includes actual trees located throughout the world, as well as ...
* ''
Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae ''Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae'' (Latin, variously translated as 'Ordinances concerning Saxony' or the 'Saxon Capitularies' or 'Capitulary of Paderborn')For example, Pierre Riché (1993:105) renders the Latin as 'Ordinances concerning Saxony', w ...
'', a law code imposed by Charlemagne in 785 that prescribes death for Saxon pagans refusing to convert to Christianity
*
Massacre of Verden, a massacre of 4,500 captive pagan Saxons ordered by Charlemagne in 782
*
Caill Tomair, a grove dedicated to Thor destroyed by the forces of Brian Boru in early 1000
Notes
References
*
*
* Dowden, Ken (2000). ''European Paganism: The Reality of Cult from Antiquity to the Middle Ages''.
Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
.
* Emerton, Ephraim (2000). ''The Letters of Saint Boniface''.
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
.
* Gummere, Francis B. (1892). ''Germanic Origins: A Study in Primitive Culture''. Charles Scribner's Sons.
* Levison, Wilhelm (1905).
Vitae Sancti Bonifatii archiepiscopi moguntini'.
Monumenta Germaniæ historica: Scriptores rerum germanicorum in usum scholarum separatim editi. Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn. (Latin)
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* Robinson, George W. (trans.) (1916). ''The Life of Saint Boniface by Willibald''.
Harvard University Press
Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...
.
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External links
{{Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology
Individual oak trees
History of Catholicism in Germany
History of Hesse
Saint Boniface
Thor
Trees in Germanic paganism
Iconoclasm
Destroyed individual trees