| Alternate Names: | Ing, Ingui, Yngvi |
| Iconography: | Stag antlers, Phallus, A boar? |
| Domains: | Fertility, Sex, Peace, Harvest |
Table of Contents
Historical Attestation
One of the most widely worshiped gods in all of Germanic Heathendom, Ingui-Frea, (‘The Lord Ing’) is the eponymous god-ancestor of the West-Germanic tribes, the Ingwine.
He is known to followers of Norse traditional religions as Yngvi-Freyr, or sometimes simply as Freyr (anglicized to ‘Frey’), meaning The Lord. The exact meaning of Ing/Ingui, is less certain, but most translate it loosely as ‘progenitor’, though in some dialects this word is connected with meadows. According to Edward Petit in 2020, the name might also be related to Latin inguen ‘groin’, ‘private parts’ and Greek énkhos ‘spear’. This would seem an agreeable etymology as well, given some of Ingui’s characteristics, as discussed further below. Ingui appears in the royal genealogy of Bernicia, and in the OE Rune Poem, where his name is rendered simply as Ing:
Ing was first among the Eastern Danes
– The Old English Rune Poem, Holman trans.1Holman, R. (2024, January 11). The old english rune poem: A translation. Ingwina Ferræden. https://ingwine.org/kayla/the-old-english-rune-poem-a-translation/
seen by men, until he soon afterwards
departed over the ways, a wain followed after.
Thus bold men named this hero.
The suffix -ing, is used in West Germanic languages to denote the diminutive, which is to say something derived from or stemming from, a parent source. One example of this would be the clan known as the Scyldings, the “people of Scyld”. This may be relevant in the sense that Ing is one of three sons of the primordial god Mannus, the father of the Germanic nations2Tacitus, C., & Robinson, R. P. (1991). The germania of tacitus. Verlag.:
In ancient lays, their only type of historical tradition, they celebrate Tuisto, a god brought forth from the earth. They attribute to him a son, Mannus, the source and founder of their people, and to Mannus three sons, from whose names those nearest the Ocean are called Ingvaeones, those in the middle Herminones, and the rest Istvaeones. Some people, inasmuch as antiquity gives free rein to speculation, maintain that there were more sons born from the god and hence more tribal designations—Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi, and Vandilii—and that those names are genuine and ancient.
The historian Tacitus here relates how the ancient Germanic peoples traced the origins of their tribes to these three brothers, and in an echo of this same mythology, it is commonly alleged on the Internet that a “Danish chronicler” traces the origins of the Danish nation to three brothers, of which Yngvi was one. I should note, that this author has been unable to substantiate this claim. It may be that is stems from fragments attributed to the lost Skjǫldunga saga, in which Yngvi is said to be a brother to Skjǫldr, the legendary founder of the of the Skjöldunga dynasty, in a series of confusing and contradictory (not to mention thoroughly euhemerized) myths and genealogies. By the time of the Viking Age, variations on the names “Freyr” and “Yngvi” had been attached to a number of figures such as pre-historic Kings in largely mythological “historical” accounts originating in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Several themes however, remain consistent throughout these fragmentary records and accounts, and we shall identify those themes here, as we explore the authentic origins and nature of the “Friendly God” of the Ingvaeones.
Firstly, Ingui is in virtually every recounting, a god of fertility. Linked with male sexual potency as well as material prosperity, he is invoked in Norse tradition with the formula til árs ok friðar, roughly meaning ‘for a good harvest and peace’. He is often attributed with the power to grant favorable weather and growing conditions. Adam of Bremen associates him with peace and pleasure, and asserts that he was represented with a phallic idol in the Temple at Uppsala. He is identified as being a divine ancestor, not only in the testimony of Tacitus, but in North Germanic mythology as well, where he is often viewed as the progenitor of the royal house of Sweden. Snorri, who often euhemerized the Norse gods in his works and can hardly be considered uncritically, nonetheless alludes to this in his Ynglinga Saga, where he says3Sturluson, S., Laing, S., & Bridle, E. M. (1998). Ynglinga Saga. Midgard Books.:
Frey was called by another name, Yngve; and this name Yngve was considered long after in his race as a name of honour, so that his descendants have since been called Ynglinger. -Ynglinga Saga by Snorri Sturluson
How then does Ingui fit into the mythology and cult practices of the West Germanic peoples? Much of our evidence comes from Beowulf. While the subjects of the tale are mostly Scandinavians, the epic is composed in Old English, and for an English speaking audience. This audience would have had common frames of reference for the events depicted, and the lexicon used. For example the Danish King Hroðgar is called eodor Ingwina, (‘shelter of the Ing Friends’). As noted by Edward Petit in 20204Pettit, E. (1970, January 1). Conversion imagery and celestial myth in Beowulf. The Waning Sword. https://books.openedition.org/obp/12469:
One modern edition of Beowulf observes of Ingwine, a term for the Danes, that it ‘bears weighty testimony to the ancient worship of Ing’. It adds that the word ‘has the appearance of having been changed, by folk etymology, from (the equivalent of) *Ingvaeones (the worshipers of Ing), the name by which Tacitus designates the Germanic North Sea ethnic groups … If so, it may be supposed that from Jutland and Zealand, the cult of Ing spread to other Danish islands, to Skåne, and then to Sweden and perhaps A[nglo-]S[axon] England.’
This assessment seems astute. It follows that members of a North Sea ethnicity (such as the English Saxons) would perfectly understand what is meant by eodor Ingwina, even when applied to non-English persons. The term itself in interesting, in that it denotes a relationship of friendship rather than one of simple subservience between a mortal and the god in question. This pattern is repeated in several places outside of Beowulf; we see the term Freys vinar used in the Poetic Edda to refer to Sigurðr. Likewise, in Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða, a man calls Freyr ‘his friend’.5Hrafnkels Saga Freysgoda. (1952). . M. Niemeyer.
Exploring the titles of Hrothgar further, it seems likely that titles such as frea Ingwina and eodor Ingwina are a subtle means for the poet to communicate to the listener or reader of Beowulf6Alexander, M. (2013). Beowulf. Penguin Classics. , that Hrothgar (a protagonist and honored king) is in fact a Heathen, without having to outright use the term which was at the time, generally considered pejorative in the company of Christians. It wouldn’t do to outright accuse Hrothgar of being a “devil worshiper”, but at the same time, there would have been a tacit expectation by many in the poet’s audience that he keep the rites and beliefs of Heathens at arms length. Still, there is much here that is alluded to, even when it cannot be said outright. From the inclusion of Hroðgar’s Ing titles, I infer two things:
Firstly, that the poet understood Ingui (Yngvi) was likely revered by Hroðgar’s people as a god or divine ancestor. While it is not safe to assume that the poet himself knew all the mythical context around Ingui, it would seem strange on second thought that they would have chosen to include these titles in the text of the poem in complete ignorance of their meaning, when seeking to describe something of the character of Hroðgar, a pivotal character.
Secondly, that they included these titles in the text, in the clear hope that the Anglo-Saxon audience would themselves infer some meaning from them. A poet’s role is to evoke and illuminate, the author(s) would doubtless hope that their choices in epithets and poetic metaphors would be understood. Given the above cited stanza from the Old English Rune Poem, it seems fair to assert that the English knew of a highly esteemed personage named Ing, and that this being had associations with (among others) the Danes by the time of the 8th or 9th Century. It seems moreover, that the term Ingwine itself is a comfortable one to native speakers of Old English during much the same period of time.
Hroðgar is implied to have sought the aid of his Heathen god(s) during his time of crisis through sacrifices, a request for intercession the poet glosses over without naming Ing directly, and which s/he of course, trivializes as ineffective, seemingly oblivious to the underlying narrative– that following these sacrifices, Beowulf (himself almost certainly a heathen) appears to help rid him of the monster Grendel. It is with a a sort of blindness to the irony of it all that the Poet claims Hroðgar is thanking the Christian “Lord” for deliverance after Grendel is slain, when in fact it was to “old stone gods” that Hroðgar had prayed for help in the first place!
Another theme in Beowulf that bears upon the discussion; the references to the hart or stag, a beast with considerable significance in Germanic Mythology, and one that carries connotations of male virility, nobility, and even perhaps, kingliness. Many Heathens as well as mythologists connect the Norse Freyr with the boar, due to his having been gifted with Gullinbursti, a magical boar with golden bristles that glowed like the sun. While there may or may not have been a West Germanic equivalent to this myth, if this is so it has been lost. However, even in Scandinavian sources we see Freyr connected with the hart, or stag. For example, when deprived of his magical sword, he uses the antler of a stag to defeat the jötunn, Beli. In Beowulf, we see that Hroðgar, the ( frea ingwina ‘Lord of Ing’s Friends’), rules a hall named Heorot, meaning ‘hart’. Petit touches on this in 2020 as well, when he says:
Hroðgar is associated with a stag not only because he rules the hall called Heorot, but also because, as we have seen, he is implicitly identified with Heorot: he is the eodor Ingwina ‘shelter of the Ing-friends’ (1044). Furthermore, it is not only the hall’s name that suggests an antlered stag. The hall is also described as horngeap ‘horn-curved’ (Beowulf 82) and a hornreced ‘horn-house’ (704)—terms usually assumed to refer to gables. Additionally, the hall has a muþa ‘mouth’ (i.e., door) (724). It is easy to imagine Heorot decorated by tapestries or carvings representing deer, like the carvings which adorn the twelfth-century Urnes stave church in Norway.– The Waning Sword, By Edward Petit
This connection of Ing with stags and with antlers, may be further reinforced by the discovery of the artifact designated Wijnaldum A, piece of antler, found in Friesland in 1914. The artifact is inscribed with runes that have been interpreted as Inguz. If this interpretation is accurate, it would not only be a further link between Ing and the Hart, but would also provide evidence for a cult of Ing in Frisian territory.
In Britain, we find several items of material culture that possibly hint at the cult of Ing among the Anglo-Saxons. At the now famous Sutton Hoo site, archaeologists uncovered a smooth, expertly carved whetstone “sceptre” of unknown function, crowned with a beautifully wrought bronze stag. It was discovered in a high-status ship burial, and may in fact have been part of the funeral trove of King Raedwald of East Anglia, though scholars continue to debate this identification. While Ing is nowhere named on the artifact, the imagery of a sceptre or ceremonial weapon decorated with a stag being carried as a symbol of the divine rulership and masculine potency of Ing, is consistent with the stag/hart theme previously explored above. Certainly, it resonates with the hart imagery and epithets connected with Hroðgar in Beowulf. Moreover, it harmonizes with a picture of Ing as a deity not only of fruitfulness, peace, and male ardor, but also of heroism and one exercising a peace-keeping function. In the Old English Rune Poem, Ing is characterized as a hæle, a hero. It seems clear from the literary sources both in West and North Germanic traditions, that he is not only representative of (friþ , ‘peace’ ) but in fact safeguards it, with martial prowess if necessary.
The shape of the sceptre also calls to mind the so-called “stag-poles” that were said to have been erected by English Heathens, and which were condemned by Saint Aldhelm, who once wrote to a friend that he was pleased that churches were currently being built “Where once the crude pillars of the same foul snake and the stag were worshiped with coarse stupidity in profane shrines.”
Another valuable find that likely depicts Ing himself, is a gilt silver amulet, depicting a bearded, ithyphallic, warrior figure very reminiscent of other finds from Scandinavia depicting Yngvi-Freyr, depicted below.
Amuletic Figure from Carlton Colville, Suffolk
Ingwine Heathen Guidance
Given the evidence presented above, this author would adduce that Ingui-Frea, (‘The Lord Ing’) is a god of masculine potency, fair weather, peace, and bountiful harvest. He is associated with kingship and with the defense of the peace. He is well disposed toward most mortals and is approachable by his worshipers. It would be appropriate to venerate Ingui as one the divine ancestors of the West Germanic peoples, and to seek his aid in matters of romantic love, harvest, and the obtainment of peace and domestic tranquility.
