Irminsul
Sign in to savethumb|The Destruction of Irminsul by Charlemagne by Heinrich Leutemann (1882).
Article
13 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Attestations
- Royal Frankish Annals
- ''De miraculis sancti Alexandri''
- Widukind of Corvey
- Hildesheim
- ''Kaiserchronik''
- Hypotheses
- ''Germania'', Pillars of Hercules, and Jupiter Columns
- Wilhelm Teudt, the Externsteine, and symbol
- See also
- Footnotes
- References
thumb|The Destruction of Irminsul by Charlemagne by Heinrich Leutemann (1882).
An Irminsul (Old Saxon 'great pillar') was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III. Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples (including Donar's Oak), and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.