Note 639 — Chapter XII · HEATHENDOM.
Reading edition
The ancient Germans sacrificed human victims to him. “Deorum maxime Mercurium colunt, cui certis diebus humanis quoque hostiis litare fas habent.” Tac. Germ. xxxix. “Victores diversam aciem Marti ac Mercurio sacravere, quo voto equi, viri, cuncta victa occidioni dantur.” Tac. Annal. xiii. 57. King Ane or Avn the old, offered up in succession nine of his sons to Oþinn, to increase the length of his own life. Yngling. Sag. cap. xxix.; Geijer, Gesch. Schwed. i. 416. “Sunt etenim inibi vicinae nationes Suevorum; quo cum moraretur et inter habitatores illius loci progrederetur, reperit eos sacrificium profanum litare velle, vasque magnum, quod vulgo cupam vocant, quod viginti et sex modios amplius minusve capiebat, cerevisia plenum in medio habebant positum. Ad quod vir dei accessit et sciscitatur, quid de illo fieri vellent? Illi aiunt: deo suo Wodano, quem Mercurium vocant alii, se velle litare.” Ion. Bobbiensis Vita Columbani. Compare also what Saxo Grammaticus says of the immense tub of beer which Hunding prepared to celebrate the obsequies of Hadding. Hist. Dan. p. 19. On festal occasions it was usual to drink to the health, love or minne of the gods. Oþinn was generally thus honoured: the custom was preserved among Christians, who drank minne to St. John, St. Martin, St. Gertrude and other saints. Grimm, Myth. p. 53 seq.