'Erce, Erc, Erce, Mother Earth, Hail to thee, Earth, mother of men, Be fruitful in Gods embrace, Filled with food for the use of men'. These few lines from an ancient Anglo-Saxon land fertility charm is all we know of a possible Anglo-Saxon earth goddess called Erce. Much has been said and written about what the word or name Erce could m |
Erce |
'Erce, Erc, Erce, Mother Earth, Hail to thee, Earth, mother of men, Be fruitful in Gods embrace, Filled with food for the use of men'. These few lines from an ancient Anglo-Saxon land fertility charm is all we know of a possible Anglo-Saxon earth goddess called Erce. Much has been said and written about what the word or name Erce could m |
This page was last
updated on: July 22,
2003
mean or not mean. To some Erce is nothing more than a cry of invocation to the earth itself, to others it is the calling aloud of the name of an earth goddess. But whatever Erce does mean, it seems much more than likely that this invocation to the earth is of a pre-Christian origin, and so also Erce. The title Mother of Earth translated into Old |
English is Eorthan Modor, which bears a striking resemblance to the title Terra Mater (Mother Earth), which is how the Roman historian Tacitus referred to the continental Anglian goddess Nerthus. And as Nerthus was seen to be an earth goddesses, its very possible that the Anglo-Saxon Erce could be one and the same as the Anglian Nerthus. Others have compared Erce to another Anglo-Saxon goddess, Hretha, whereas others have made a connection between Erce and the Saxon spectre Frau Herke. |
