Alamannic Rivers

The Alamanni were the inheritors of the Suevi or Suavi (or, in West Flemish, Sueevn or Sueeven, in German also Sueben, Sueven or Suawen) and the relationship between the two peoples has been a source of debate and contention.  What is interesting, however, is that they are described as being “nature” worshippers – much like the Sclavi (Sclaveni/Suovianie/Slavianie).  Here is an excerpt from Agathias and the better known one from Procopius writing about the same time.

Agathias: The Histories (1.6.3, 1.7.1)

“The Alamanni, if we are to take the word of Asinius Quadratus, an Italian who wrote an accurate account of German affairs, are a mixed and mongrel people, and their name signifies this…They have their own traditional way of life too, but in matters of government and public administration they follow the Frankish system, religious observance being the only exception.  They worship certain trees, the waters of rivers, hills and mountain valleys, in whose honour they sacrifice horses, cattle and countless other animals by beheading them, and imagine that they are performing an act of piety thereby.”

Procopius, History of Wars Book 7, 14

“They reverence, however, both rivers and nymphs and some other spirits, and they sacrifice to all these also, and they make their divinations in connection with these sacrifices.”