Thor's Oak

Thor's Oak was an ancient tree sacred to the Germanic tribe of the Chatti, ancestors of the Hessians, and one of the most important sacred sites of the pagan Germanic peoples.

The tree stood at a location near the village of Geismar, today part of the town of Fritzlar in northern Hesse, and was the main point of veneration of the Germanic deity Thor (known among the West Germanic tribes as "Donar") by the Chatti and most other Germanic tribes. Its felling in 723 marked the beginning of the Christianization of the non-Frankish tribes of northern Germany.

History

In 723, the Anglo-Saxon missionary Winfrid -- later called St Boniface, Apostle of the Germans -- arrived in the area in his quest to convert the northern Germanic tribes to Christianity, using as his base the Frankish fortified settlement of Büraburg on the opposite side of the Eder river. He had the oak felled in an attempt to convey the superiority of the Christian God over Thor and the native Germanic religion. According to surviving texts, when Thor did not respond by hurling a lightning bolt at him, the assembled local people agreed to be baptized.

Boniface used the wood of the oak to build a chapel in Fritzlar, founded a Benedictine monastery, and established the first bishopric in Germany outside the boundaries of the old Roman Empire at Büraburg, with his disciple, Witta, as bishop. The first abbot of the monastery, St. Wigbert, built a stone basilica at the site of the wooden chapel which was, after its destruction by Saxons in 1079, replaced in 1180-1200 by the large Romanesque-Gothic cathedral of St. Peter that today dominates the town. The bishopric of Büraburg was abolished after Witta's death by Lullus and incorporated into that of Mainz.

ee also

*Sacred tree at Uppsala
*Irminsul
*Maypole
*Sacred grove
*Yggdrasil

Literature

*Talbot, C. H., ed., "The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany: Being the Lives of S.S. Willibrord, Boniface, Sturm, Leoba and Lebuin, together with the Hodoeporicon of St. Willibald and a Selection from the Correspondence of St. Boniface", NY: Sheed and Ward, 1954.
* Lutz E. von Padberg: "Bonifatius. Missionar und Reformer". Beck, München 2003. ISBN 3-406-48019-5 (in German)

External links

* http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9027821/Crediton
* [http://www.bistum-fulda.de/bonifatiusjahr2004/index.shtml Website of Fulda Bishopric for the Year of Boniface 2004]