Nehalennia

Historical Attestation

Nehalennia is a a goddess of mysterious origins. Attestations of this goddess in the Frisian and Dutch lowlands are quite numerous, and some have postulated her worship spread to the British Islands via the chalk trade in Kent, where a figurine resembling the Goddess was unearthed near Canterbury (Jenkins 1956). Another connection of Nehalennia to the Anglo-Saxons of the British Isles is postulated by David Wilson, in his 1992 volume, Anglo-Saxon Paganism, regarding necklaces found in the graves of Anglo-Saxon females which seem to have been made of pierced hounds’ teeth. He speculates that this may be an indication of fairly widespread Nehalennia worship in Anglo-Saxon England, though this is of course, somewhat tenuous evidence on its own. Nevertheless, this beloved Goddess has a place in our pantheon if for no other reason, than her prominence in the mythology of the Frisian coast.

Her name is of uncertain provenance, with some scholars postulating it is Celtic, others Germanic, and some Indo-European. One proposed Germanic etymology has her name meaning something along the lines of ” She who vanishes in the fog”. Celtic alternatives have also been proposed. None of the proposed etymologies are entirely convincing, but it is clear her cult was widespread and well-established. Shrines and votive altars to Nehalennia have been discovered throughout the province of Zeeland in the modern day Netherlands, including the remains of two temple complexes at Domburg and Colijnsplaat. Rudolf Simek in his Dictionary of Northern Mythology, alleges two more temples have been discovered in the area of what is now Cologne, Germany (Simek 2007). Of some interest perhaps to the modern Heathen, the temple at Colinsplaat has been reconstructed, and is apparently open to pilgrims! Votive altars consecrated to Nehalennia often bear inscriptions such as:To the goddess Nehalennia, on account of goods duly kept safe, Marcus Secundinius Silvanus, trader in pottery with Britain, fulfilled his vow willingly and deservedly.

In this example, we see the goddess being thanked for her protection on sea voyages, a common motif in such inscriptions. This gives a picture of a goddess of protection, and seafaring. Nehalennia seems to have been widely revered by not only Germanic folk, but Celtic Belgae and Romans, throughout the Roman Iron Age, and even into the 3rd Century AD. It has been claimed that may small votive stones with inscriptions dedicated to this Goddess have been found in the Ocean off the coast of the Netherlands, and can be seen in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden.

Nehalennia is almost always pictured with a large dog at her feet or in her lap, and often with maritime motifs, such as a ship. She is also pictured frequently with loaves of bread, and/or baskets of produce. Due to the common ship motif in representations of this goddess, HR Ellis Davidson, in 1998, associated Nehalennia with the goddess Nerthus, as described in Germania, as well as observing that she has attributes in common with the so-called Matres (‘Mothers’) what we refer to in OE as Idese (a subject I shall cover in another article). Simek as well as other researchers into the topic, have also connected the goddess with death and the afterlife. It may be that she is a Psychopomp, protecting and guiding the spirits of the departed. Procopius of Caesarea Recounts a legend, wherein the spirits of the dead are invisibly loaded into boats on the Frisian coast, where they set sail for a blessed island after life. This story has been connected to Nehalennia on the grounds of geography, and the maritime imagery of the boats. The scholar H Wagenvoort seems to concur, and says as much in his article “Nehalennia and the Souls of the Dead” in 1971. He makes an informed, and at some points technical argument for this, supporting the thesis with evidence from votive altars, which this author will not try to reproduce here. Instead I refer you to the original article which is available online. However, Wagenvoort makes another excellent observation we shall touch on, which is that in addition to being a goddess of fertility in the realm of horticulture, she is likewise a goddess of hunting:

I should like to mention two other functions and to one of these I
shall only devote a few words.
Nehalennia was also a fertility goddess. Very seldom are the
baskets of fruit, which are often accompanied by cornucopiae,
absent from her representations. If we review this combination of
seafaring with trade and fertility, it is no wonder that the goddess
was often identified with Isis in people’s minds. Together with
Jan de Vries I reject the idea of her identification with Isis, but
also the hypothesis that she may be closely related to Nerthus, my
argument being the consideration that Nehalennia was also a
goddess of hunting. This, in my opinion, is proved by altar Ho. 21,
which no longer exists and is only known to us from old drawings.
On the right hand side we see a hunter with a walking-stick in his
right hand, while in his left hand he holds a cudgel, from which a hare
is hanging.

This ‘hare-catcher’ was therefore not only his carrying-pole, but also his
weapon. This is not our only piece of evidence, for the hare was not
the only game that was sacrificed to the goddess. On the mensa of
altar Ho. 6 lies a boar’s head with loaves and fruit on either side.
Mrs. Hondius-Crone thinks it ‘too fine’ for this, but I am inclined
to ascribe this to the erosion it was exposed to. The same applies to
an altar from Colijnsplaat with on the mensa “two recumbent
animals”, “goats or swine ?” asks the writer. I am not in a position
to express an opinion, but if both possibilities exist, the latter seems
to me to be most likely. On the same page she mentions the altar
Ho. 6 with an animal’s head, difficult to recognize, between two
loaves. As is well-known, it was a general custom to sacrifice heads
of animals to the gods.–Mnemosyne , 1971, Fourth Series, Vol. 24, Fasc. 3 (1971), pp. 273-292, H Wagenvoort

Ingwine Heathen Guidance

It seems clear from the evidence, that Nehalennia is a goddess of commerce, travel, the sea, protection, and possibly horticulture and fertility. It would seem reasonable to assume that hounds and domestic dogs generally are in some way connected to the goddess, possibly under her protection. She would seem to be an ideal Goddess to worship for her auspices in matters of business travel, gardening, fishing, sailing, or general commerce. Given the evidence available from (now destroyed) votive altars, it would seem appropriate to venerate Nehalennia in matters of hunting as well.