Ostara: Grimm no longer



Ostara (Johannes Gehrts, 1884)

Ostara (Eostre) might have remained completely mysterious had Saint Bede the Venerable (673 – 735 CE) not referenced her in his famed history of chronology, De Temporum Ratione (The Reckoning of Time).

However, Bede did not give much detail about her.  According to A. E. Hunt-Anschutz, this is all Bede wrote:  Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated ‘Paschal month’ and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month.  End of story. 

Enter Grimm.  Brother Grimm.  Not a monk like Bede, but half of the Brothers Grimm.

It seems that when Jacob Grimm (1785 – 1863) was not poring over tales such as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince, and Rumpelstiltskin with his brother Wilhelm, he was avidly studying the evolution of Germanic languages.  Grimm was particularly fascinated by the way that phonics changed over time, and some of his findings have been instrumental in linguistics ever since.

It’s no wonder, then, that Jacob Grimm also made mention of Eostre.  However, it is now thought that his descriptions of her were more fairy tale than historical fact.  It is Grimm that linked her ancient name to the Old High German adverb “ostar.”  Hunt-Anschutz tells us that “ostar” expressed “movement toward the rising sun.”

Assuming that this linkage to this verb “ostar” was correct, it still doesn’t necessarily account for these romantic-sounding conclusions that Grimm comes to in his work, Teutonic Mythology:  Ostara, Eostre seems therefore to have been a divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted to the resurrection day of the Christian’s god.

Grimm’s was not the only imaginative view of Eostre.  Over the years, she has morphed from being Grimm’s

regal goddess to being the Easter Bunny’s buddy.

Maybe not the perfect fairy-tale ending, but Ostara’s story is far from over…  

Resources

http://www.manygods.org.uk/articles/essays/Eostre.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Grimm

http://tribes.tribe.net/darkgoddesses/thread/f89feab5-dcb7-4527-9615-63ee726ea305

Copyright March 27, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved