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Sinthgunt [needs IPA] is a figure in Germanic mythology, attested solely in the Old High German 9th- or 10th-century "horse cure" Merseburg Incantation. In the incantation, Sinthgunt is referred to as the sister of the personified sun, Sunna (whose name is alliterative to Sinthgunt ), [ 1 ] and the two sisters are cited as both producing charms ...
The Merseburg charms are the only known surviving relics of pre-Christian, pagan poetry in Old High German literature. [3]The charms were recorded in the 10th century by a cleric, possibly in the abbey of Fulda, on a blank page of a liturgical book, which later passed to the library at Merseburg.
A scene from one of the Merseburg Incantations: gods Wodan and Balder stand before the goddesses Sunna, Sinthgunt, Volla, and Friia (Emil Doepler, 1905). In Germanic paganism, the indigenous religion of the ancient Germanic peoples who inhabit Germanic Europe, there were a number of different gods and goddesses.
Sculpture of the Germanic seeress Veleda, by Hippolyte Maindron, 1844, in Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris.. Aside from the names of individuals, Roman era accounts do not contain information about how the early Germanic peoples referred to them, but sixth century Goth scholar Jordanes reported in his Getica that the early Goths had called their seeresses haliurunnae (Goth-Latin). [2]
Old Norse: galdr and Old English: ġealdor or galdor are derived from the reconstructed Proto-Germanic *galdraz, meaning a song or incantation. [2] [3] The terms are also related by the removal of an Indo-European-tro suffix to the verbs Old Norse: gala and Old English: galan, both derived from Proto-Germanic *galaną, meaning to sing or cast a spell.
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] It was a key element of Germanic paganism .
Nine and three, numbers significant in Germanic paganism and later Germanic folklore, are mentioned frequently throughout the charm. [2]Scholars have proposed that this passage describes Woden coming to the assistance of the herbs through his use of nine twigs, each twig inscribed with the runic first-letter initial of a plant.
It shares many characteristics with Nordic folklore and English folklore due to their origins in a common Germanic mythology.It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian pantheon and other beings equivalent to those of Norse mythology; magical characters (sometimes recognizably pre-Christian) associated with Christian festivals, and various regional 'character' stories.