15,526
回編集
差分
ナビゲーションに移動
検索に移動
ページの作成:「'''{{lang|ang|Ēostre}}''' ({{Lang-gem-x-proto|Austrō(n)}}) is a West Germanic spring goddess. The name is reflected in {{lang-ang|Asteris…」
'''{{lang|ang|Ēostre}}''' ({{Lang-gem-x-proto|Austrō(n)}}) is a [[List of Germanic deities|West Germanic]] spring goddess. The name is reflected in {{lang-ang|[[Asterisk#Historical linguistics|*]]Ēastre}} ({{IPA-ang|ˈæːɑstre|}}; [[Northumbrian Old English|Northumbrian dialect]]: ''{{lang|ang|Ēastro}}'', [[Mercian dialect|Mercian]] and [[West Saxon dialect (Old English)|West Saxon]] dialects: ''{{lang|ang|Ēostre}}'' {{IPA-ang|ˈeːostre|}}),<ref name="Sievers">Sievers 1901 p. 98</ref><ref>Wright, 85, §208</ref><ref name="EASTETYM">[[Robert Barnhart|Barnhart, Robert K.]] ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology'' (1995) {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}}.</ref> {{lang-goh|*Ôstara}}, and {{Lang-osx|*Āsteron}}.{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} By way of the [[Germanic calendar|Germanic month]] bearing her name (Northumbrian: ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'', West Saxon: ''{{lang|ang|Ēastermōnaþ}}''; {{lang-goh|Ôstarmânoth|links=no}}), she is the namesake of the festival of [[Easter]] in some languages. The Old English deity Ēostre is attested solely by [[Bede]] in his 8th-century work ''[[The Reckoning of Time]]'', where Bede states that during ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'' (the equivalent of April), [[Anglo-Saxon paganism|pagan Anglo-Saxons]] had held feasts in {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}'s honour, but that this tradition had died out by his time, replaced by the Christian [[Easter#Theological significance|Paschal month]], a celebration of the [[resurrection of Jesus]].
By way of [[linguistic reconstruction]], the matter of a goddess called {{lang|gem-x-proto|Austrō(n)}} in the [[Proto-Germanic language]] has been examined in detail since the foundation of [[Germanic philology]] in the 19th century by scholar [[Jacob Grimm]] and others. As the [[Germanic languages]] descend from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE), [[historical linguistics|historical linguists]] have traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *''{{PIE|[[Hausos|H₂ewsṓs]]}}'', from which may descend the Common Germanic divinity at the origin of the Old English {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and the Old High German {{lang|goh|Ôstara|italic=no}}. Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names ([[toponymy|toponyms]]) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the ''{{lang|la|[[matres and Matronae|matronae]] Austriahenae}}''.
Theories connecting {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with records of Germanic [[Easter customs]], including [[hare#Folklore and mythology|hares]] and [[easter egg|eggs]], have been proposed. Whether or not the goddess was an invention of Bede has been a debate among some scholars, particularly prior to the discovery of the ''{{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}'' and further developments in [[Indo-European studies]]. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Germanic neopaganism]].
==Name==
=== Etymology ===
The [[theonym]]s {{lang|ang|*Ēastre}} ([[Old English]]) and *''Ôstara'' ([[Old High German]]) are [[cognates]] – linguistic siblings stemming from a common origin. They derive from the [[Proto-Germanic]] theonym {{lang|gem-x-proto|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/Austrǭ|Austrō(n)]]}},{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} itself a descendant of [[Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) *''h₂ews-reh₂''- (cf. [[Proto-Baltic|Baltic]] *''auš(t)ra'' 'dawn, morning'), extended from the PIE root *''{{PIE|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂ews-|h₂ews-]]}}'', meaning 'to shine, glow (red)'.<ref name="WATKINS-2021">Watkins 2006 [2000]: 2021.</ref>{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} The modern English ''east'' also derives from this root, via the Proto-Germanic [[adverb]] *''aust(e)raz'' ('east, eastwards'), from an earlier PIE *''h₂ews-tero-'' ('east, towards the dawn').{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}}
According to linguist Guus Kroonen, the Germanic and Baltic languages replaced the old formation *''[[H₂éwsōs|h₂éws-os]]'', the name of the PIE [[Dawn goddess|dawn-goddess]], with a form in ''-reh₂''-, likewise found in the Lithuanian deity ''[[Aušrinė]]''.{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} In [[Anglo-Saxon England]], her springtime festival gave its name to a month (Northumbrian: ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'', West Saxon: ''Eastermonað''),{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=333}} the equivalent of April, then to the Christian feast of ''[[Easter]]'' that eventually displaced it.{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}{{Sfn|West|2007|pp=217–218}} In southern Medieval Germany, the festival ''Ôstarûn'' similarly gave its name to the month ''Ôstarmânôth'', and to the modern feast of ''Ostern'' ('Easter'), suggesting that a goddess named *''Ôstara'' was also worshipped there.{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=255}}{{Sfn|West|2007|pp=217–218}} The name of the month survived into 18th-century German as ''Ostermonat''.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=335}} An [[Old Saxon]] equivalent of the spring goddess named *''Āsteron'' may also be reconstructed from the term ''asteronhus'', which is translated by most scholars as 'Easter-house' (cf. [[Middle Dutch|Medieval Flemish]] ''Paeshuys'' 'Easter-house').{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|ps=: "The term ''asteronhus'' could mean either 'Eastern-house' or 'Easterhouse', although current research tends to favor the latter of these two readings (Hessmann 2000). This interpretation is paralleled in the Flemish place-name and surname ''Paashuis'' or ''Paeschhuis'', also meaning 'Easter-house', of which the earliest known example is ''Paeshuys'' recorded at Antwerp in 1386 (Debrabandere 1993: 1073)."|pp=337–338}} Frankish historian [[Einhard]] also writes in his ''[[Vita Karoli Magni]]'' (early 9th c. AD) that after [[Charlemagne]] defeated and converted the continental Saxons to Christianity, he gave Germanic names to the Latin months of the year, which included the Easter-month ''Ostarmanoth''.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=334}}
The Old English {{lang|ang|Ēostre}} is therefore a distant cognate of numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European-speaking peoples, including [[Ushas|Uṣás]], [[Eos|Ēṓs]], and [[Aurora (mythology)|Aurōra]]. In the words of the ''[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]]'', "a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] groups. [...] All of this evidence permits us to posit a Proto-Indo-European *''{{PIE|[[hausos|h<sub>a</sub>éusōs]]}}'' 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a 'reluctant' bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the Indo-European stocks, [[Baltic languages|Baltic]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]], the existence of a Proto-Indo-European 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'."{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=148–149}}
===Related names===
Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names ([[toponymy|toponyms]]) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the ''{{lang|la|[[matres and Matronae|matronae]] Austriahenae}}''.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=52–53}}
A cluster of place names in England contain and a variety of English and continental Germanic names include the element *{{lang|ang|ēoster}}, an early Old English word reconstructed by [[historical linguistics|linguists]] and potentially an earlier form of the goddess name {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}. The [[Council of Austerfield]] called by King [[Aldfrith of Northumbria]] shortly before 704 convened at a place described in contemporary records both as {{lang|la|in campo qui {{lang|ang|Eostrefeld}} dicitur}} and {{lang|la|in campo qui dicitur {{lang|ang|Oustraefelda}}}}, which have led to the site's being identified with [[Austerfield]] near [[Bawtry]] in [[South Yorkshire]].<ref>Cubitt, Catherine (1995). ''Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c.650–c.850''. London: Leicester University Press, pp 302f. {{ISBN|0-7185-1436-X}}</ref> Such locations also include [[Eastry]] ({{lang|ang|Eastrgena}}, 788 CE) in [[Kent]], [[Eastrea]] ({{lang|ang|Estrey}}, 966 CE) in [[Cambridgeshire]], and [[Eastrington]] ({{lang|ang|Eastringatun}}, 959 CE) in the [[East Riding of Yorkshire]].{{sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=59—60}}
The element *{{lang|ang|ēoster}} also appears in the Old English name {{lang|ang|Easterwine}}, a name borne by Bede's monastery abbot in [[Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey|Wearmouth–Jarrow]] and which appears an additional three times in the [[Durham Liber Vitae|Durham {{lang|la|Liber Vitae|italic=y|nocat=y}}]]. The name {{lang|ang|Aestorhild}} also appears in the {{lang|la|Liber Vitae|italic=yes}}, and is likely the ancestor of the Middle English name {{lang|enm|Estrild}}. Various continental Germanic names include the element, including ''[[Austrechild]]'', ''Austrighysel'', ''Austrovald'', and ''Ostrulf''.{{sfn|Shaw|2011|p=60}}
In 1958, over 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to the {{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}, a triad of goddesses, were discovered near [[Morken-Harff]], Germany. Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet many are at least reasonably legible. Some of these inscriptions refer to the {{lang|la|Austriates}}, evidently the name of a social group.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=52, 63}} The name of these goddesses certainly derives from the root ''austri''-, which, if Germanic, would be cognate with the Old English ''Eostre''.
But the goddesses might equally be entirely independent.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=340}}
==Description by Saint Bede, 8th century==
In chapter 15 ({{lang|la|De mensibus Anglorum|italic=yes}}, "The English months") of his 8th-century work {{lang|la|De temporum ratione|italic=yes}} ("''[[The Reckoning of Time]]''"), [[Bede]] describes the indigenous month names of the English people. After describing the worship of the goddess [[Rheda (mythology)|Rheda]] during the Anglo-Saxon month of {{lang|ang|Hrēþ-mōnaþ}}, Bede writes about ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'', the month of the goddess Ēostre:
{{Verse translation |lang=la
|{{lang|ang|Eostur-monath}}, qui nunc Paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a Dea illorum quæ {{lang|ang|Eostre}} vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit: a cujus nomine nunc Paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquæ observationis vocabulo gaudia novæ solemnitatis vocantes.<ref name="GILES179">Giles (1843:179).</ref>
|{{lang|ang|Eosturmonath}} has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named {{lang|ang|Eostre}}, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.<ref name="WALLIS54">Wallis (1999:54).</ref>}}
Before the discovery of the ''matronae Austriahenae'' in 1958, scholarship on this topic frequently raised the question of whether Bede invented the deity.
In 1892, [[Charles J. Billson]] noted that scholars before his writing were divided about the existence of Bede's account of Ēostre, stating that "among authorities who have no doubt as to her existence are [[Wilhelm Grimm|W. Grimm]], [[Wilhelm Wackernagel|Wackernagel]], [[Karl Joseph Simrock|Sinrock]] {{sic}}, and Wolf. On the other hand, Weinhold rejects the idea on philological grounds, and so do Heinrich Leo and Hermann Oesre. Kuhn says, 'The Anglo-Saxon {{lang|ang|Eostre|italic=no}} looks like an invention of Bede;' and [[Wilhelm Mannhardt|Mannhardt]] also dismisses her as an etymological {{lang|la|[[deus ex machina|dea ex machina]]}}." Billson wrote that "the whole question turns ... upon Bede's credibility", and that "one is inclined to agree with Grimm, that it would be uncritical to saddle this eminent Father of the Church, who keeps Heathendom at arms' length and tells us less of than he knows, with the invention of this goddess." Billson pointed out that the [[Christianization]] of England started at the end of the 6th century, and, by the 7th, was completed. Billson argued that, as Bede was born in 672, Bede must have had opportunities to learn the names of the native goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons, "who were hardly extinct in his lifetime."<ref name="BILLSON448">Billson (1892:448).</ref>
According to philologist [[Rudolf Simek]] in 1984, despite expressions of doubts, Bede's account of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} should not be disregarded. Simek opined that a "spring-like fertility goddess" must be assumed rather than a "goddess of sunrise" regardless of the name, reasoning that "otherwise the Germanic goddesses (and [[matres and Matronae|matrons]]) are mostly connected with prosperity and growth". Simek pointed to a comparison with the goddess [[Rheda (mythology)|Rheda]], also attested by Bede.{{sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}
In 2011 Philip A. Shaw wrote that the subject has seen "a lengthy history of arguments for and against Bede's goddess {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, with some scholars taking fairly extreme positions on either side" and that some theories against the goddess have gained popular cultural prominence. Shaw noted that "much of this debate, however, was conducted in ignorance of a key piece of evidence, as it was not discovered until 1958. This evidence is furnished by over 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to deities named the {{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}, found near Morken-Harff and datable to around 150–250 AD". Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet most are complete enough for reasonable clarity of the inscriptions. As early as 1966 scholars have linked these names etymologically with {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and an element found in Germanic personal names.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|p=52}} Shaw argued against a functional interpretation of the available evidence and concluded that "the etymological connections of her name suggests that her worshippers saw her geographical and social relationship with them as more central than any functions she may have had".{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=70–71}}
==Theories and interpretations==
===Jacob Grimm===
In his 1835 {{lang|de|[[Deutsche Mythologie]]|italic=yes}}, [[Jacob Grimm]] cites comparative evidence to reconstruct a potential [[continental Germanic mythology|continental Germanic goddess]] whose name would have been preserved in the [[Old High German]] name of Easter, *{{lang|goh|Ostara}}. Addressing skepticism towards goddesses mentioned by Bede, Grimm comments that "there is nothing improbable in them, nay the first of them is justified by clear traces in the vocabularies of Germanic tribes."<ref name=GRIMM289>Grimm (1882:289).</ref> Specifically regarding {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, Grimm continues that:
<blockquote>
We Germans to this day call April {{lang|gmh|ostermonat}}, and {{lang|goh|ôstarmânoth}} is found as early as [[Einhard|Eginhart]] ({{lang|la|temp. [[Vita Karoli Magni|Car. Mag.]]}}). The great Christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of OHG remains the name {{lang|goh|ôstarâ}} ... it is mostly found in the plural, because two days ... were kept at Easter. This {{lang|goh|Ostarâ|italic=yes}}, like the [Anglo-Saxon] {{lang|ang|Eástre}}, must in heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries.<ref name="GRIMM290">Grimm (1882:290).</ref>
</blockquote>
Grimm notes that "all of the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical {{lang|la|pascha}}; even [[Ulfilas|Ulphilas]] writes {{lang|got|𐍀𐌰𐍃𐌺𐌰}}, not {{lang|got|𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐍂𐍉}} ({{lang|got-Latn|paska}} not {{lang|got-Latn|áustrô}}), though he must have known the word". Grimm details that the Old High German adverb {{lang|goh|ôstar}} "expresses movement towards the rising sun", as did the [[Old Norse]] term {{lang|non|austr}}, and potentially also Anglo-Saxon {{lang|ang|ēastor}} and Gothic {{lang|got|[[Asterisk#Historical linguistics|*]]𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐍂}} ({{lang|got-Latn|[[Asterisk#Historical linguistics|*]]áustr}}). Grimm compares these terms to the identical Latin term {{lang|la|auster}}, and contends that the cult of the goddess may have been centred around an Old Norse form, {{lang|non|Austra}}, or that her cult may have already been extinct by the time of Christianization.<ref name=GRIMM290-291>Grimm (1882:290—291).</ref>
Grimm notes that the Old Norse ''[[Prose Edda]]'' book {{lang|non|[[Gylfaginning]]|italic=yes}} attests to a male being called {{lang|non|[[Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri|Austri]]}}, whom he describes as a "spirit of light." Grimm comments that a female version would have been {{lang|gem-x-proto|Austra}}, yet that the High German and Saxon peoples seem to have only formed {{lang|goh|Ostarâ}} and {{lang|osx|Eástre}}, feminine, and not {{lang|goh|Ostaro}} and {{lang|osx|Eástra}}, masculine. Grimm additionally speculates on the nature of the goddess and surviving folk customs that may have been associated with her in Germany:
<blockquote>
{{lang|goh|Ostara}}, {{lang|osx|Eástre}} seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian's God. ''Bonfires'' were lighted at Easter and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives ''three joyful leaps'', he dances for joy ... Water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing ... here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.<ref name="GRIMM291">Grimm (1882:291).</ref>
</blockquote>
In the second volume of {{lang|de|Deutsche Mythologie}}, Grimm picked up the subject of Ostara again, speculating on possible connections between the goddess and various German Easter customs, including Easter eggs:
<blockquote>
But if we admit, goddesses, then, in addition to [[Nerthus]], {{lang|goh|Ostara}} has the strongest claim to consideration. To what we said on p. 290 I can add some significant facts. The heathen Easter had much in common with May-feast and the reception of spring, particularly in the matter of bonfires. Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people ''Easter-games'' so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate : I allude especially to the custom of ''Easter eggs'', and to the ''Easter tale'' which preachers told from the pulpit for the people's amusement, connecting it with Christian reminiscences.<ref name="GRIMM780-781">Grimm (1883:780–781).</ref>
</blockquote>
Grimm commented on further Easter time customs, including unique sword dances and particular baked goods ("pastry of heathenish form"). In addition, Grimm weighed a potential connection to the [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] spring goddess {{lang|sla|[[Vesna]]}} and the Lithuanian {{lang|lt|[[Vasara (mythology)|Vasara]]}}.<ref name="GRIMM780-781"/>
According to anthropologist Krystal D'Costa, there is no evidence to connect the tradition of Easter eggs with Ostara. Eggs became a symbol in Christianity associated with rebirth as early as the 1st century AD, via the iconography of the [[Phoenix (mythology)|Phoenix]] egg. D'Costa theorizes that eggs became associated with Easter specifically in medieval Europe, when eating them was prohibited during the fast of [[Lent]]. D'Costa highlights that a common practice in England at that time was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast.<ref name="D'Costa"/>
===Connection to Easter Hares===
[[File:Easter Bunny Postcard 1907.jpg|thumb|An Easter postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit]]
In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves [[easter Bunny|hares and rabbits]].<ref name="Bott 2011">{{cite web | last=Bott | first=Adrian | title=The modern myth of the Easter bunny | website=The Guardian | date=2011-04-23 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots }}</ref> The first scholar to make a connection between the goddess Eostre and hares was Adolf Holtzmann in his book ''Deutsche Mythologie''. Holtzmann wrote of the tradition, "the Easter Hare is inexplicable to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara; just as there is a hare on the statue of [[Abnoba]]." Citing folk [[Easter customs]] in [[Leicestershire]], England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar [[Charles Isaac Elton]] speculated on a connection between these customs and the worship of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Elton, Charles Isaac |author-link=Charles Isaac Elton |title=Origins of English History |journal=Nature |date=1882 |volume=25 |issue=648 |page=391 |doi=10.1038/025501a0 |bibcode=1882Natur..25..501T |s2cid=4097604 |url=https://archive.org/stream/originsofenglis00elto#page/390/mode/2up/search/harecrop}}</ref> In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cited numerous incidents of folk customs involving hares around the Easter season in Northern Europe. Billson said that "whether there was a goddess named {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."<ref name="BILLSON448"/>
Adolf Holtzmann had also speculated that "the hare must once have been a bird, because it lays eggs" in modern German folklore. From this statement, numerous later sources built a modern legend in which the goddess Eostre transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare.<ref name=Winick2016>Winick, Stephen. [https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/ Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think]. ''Folklife Today'', 28 Apr 2016. Accessed 8 May 2019 at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/</ref> A response to a question about the origins of Easter hares in the 8 June 1889 issue of the journal ''American Notes and Queries'' stated: "In Germany and among the Pennsylvania Germans toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton are given as gifts on Easter morning. The children are told that this Osh’ter has laid the Easter eggs. This curious idea is thus explained: The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the goddess on her festal day."<ref>''American Notes and Queries'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=-g48AQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA64&ots=l0_sPgX_SR&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false June 8, 1889, pp. 64-65].</ref> According to folklorist Stephen Winick, by 1900, many popular sources had picked up the story of Eostre and the hare. One described the story as one of the oldest in mythology, "despite the fact that it was then less than twenty years old."<ref name=Winick2016/>
Some scholars have further linked customs and imagery involving hares to both {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and the Norse goddess {{lang|non|[[Freyja]]|italic=no}}. Writing in 1972, John Andrew Boyle cited commentary contained within an etymology dictionary by A. Ernout and [[Antoine Meillet|A. Meillet]], where the authors write that "Little else ... is known about [{{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}], but it has been suggested that her lights, as goddess of the dawn, were carried by hares. And she certainly represented spring [[fecundity]], and love and carnal pleasure that leads to fecundity." Boyle responded that nothing is known about {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} outside of Bede's single passage, that the authors had seemingly accepted the identification of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with the Norse goddess {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}}, yet that the hare is not associated with {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}} either. Boyle writes that "her carriage, we are told by [[Snorri Sturluson|Snorri]], was drawn by a pair of cats — animals, it is true, which like hares were the familiars of witches, with whom {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}} seems to have much in common." However, Boyle adds that "on the other hand, when the authors speak of the hare as the 'companion of [[Aphrodite]] and of [[satyr]]s and [[cupid]]s' and point out that 'in the [[Middle Ages]] it appears beside the figure of [[Luxuria (mythology)|Luxuria]]', they are on much surer ground and can adduce the evidence of their illustrations."{{sfn|Boyle||1973|pp=323—324}}
The earliest evidence for the Easter Hare (''Osterhase'') was recorded in south-west Germany in 1678 by the professor of medicine [[Georg Franck von Franckenau]], but it remained unknown in other parts of Germany until the 18th century. Scholar Richard Sermon writes that "hares were frequently seen in gardens in spring, and thus may have served as a convenient explanation for the origin of the colored eggs hidden there for children. Alternatively, there is a European tradition that hares laid eggs, since a hare's scratch or form and a [[lapwing]]'s nest look very similar, and both occur on grassland and are first seen in the spring. In the nineteenth century the influence of Easter cards, toys, and books was to make the Easter Hare/Rabbit popular throughout Europe. German immigrants then exported the custom to Britain and America where it evolved into the [[Easter Bunny]]."{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=341}}
==In modern culture==
The concept of *{{lang|goh|Ostara}} as reconstructed by Jacob Grimm and Adolf Holtzmann has had a strong influence on European culture since the 19th century, with many fanciful legends and associations growing up around the figure of the goddess in popular articles based on the speculation of these early folklorists.<ref name=Winick2016/>
A holiday named for the goddess is part of the neopagan [[Wicca]]n [[Wheel of the Year]] (Ostara, 21 March).<ref name="HUBBARD175">Hubbard (2007:175).</ref> In some forms of [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Germanic neopaganism]], {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} (or Ostara) is venerated. Regarding this veneration, Carole M. Cusack comments that, among adherents, {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} is "associated with the coming of spring and the dawn, and her festival is celebrated at the [[march equinox|spring equinox]]. Because she brings renewal, rebirth from the death of winter, some Heathens associate {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with {{lang|non|[[Iðunn]]|italic=no}}, keeper of the apples of youth in [[Norse mythology|Scandinavian mythology]]".<ref name="CUSACK354-355">Cusack (2008:354–355).</ref>
The name has been adopted for an [[asteroid]] ([[343 Ostara]], 1892 by [[Max Wolf]]),<ref name="SCHMADEL44">Schmadel (2003:44)</ref> In music, the name {{lang|goh|Ostara}} has been adopted as a name by the musical group [[Ostara (band)|Ostara]],<ref name="DIESEL-GERTEN136">Diesel, Gerten (2007:136).</ref> and as the names of albums by [[Zoviet France|:zoviet*france:]] (''Eostre'', 1984) and [[The Wishing Tree (band)|The Wishing Tree]] (''[[Ostara (album)|Ostara]]'', 2009).
Politically, the name of Ostara was in the early 20th century invoked as the name of a [[Pan-Germanism|German nationalist]] [[Ostara (magazine)|magazine]], book series and publishing house established in 1905 at {{lang|de|[[Mödling]]||italic=no}}, [[Austria]].{{sfn|Simek|1996|p=255}}
In the first season of the TV series ''[[American Gods (TV series)|American Gods]],'' based on the [[American Gods|novel of the same name]], Ostara is portrayed by [[Kristin Chenoweth]]. In the series, Ostara has survived into the modern age by forming an alliance with the Goddess of Media ([[Gillian Anderson]]) and capitalising on the Christian holiday. Odin ([[Ian McShane]]) forces her to accept that those who celebrate Easter are worshipping Jesus and not her, causing her to join his rebellion against the New Gods.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Griffiths |first1=Eleanor Blye |title=''American Gods'' mythology guide: Meet Germanic spring goddess Ostara |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-06-19/american-gods-mythology-guide-meet-germanic-spring-goddess-ostara |access-date=21 June 2017 |work=[[Radio Times]] |date=19 June 2017 }}</ref>
In 1853, Scottish protestant minister [[Alexander Hislop]] published ''[[The Two Babylons]]'', an anti-Catholic tract. In the tract, Hislop connects modern English ''Easter'' with the [[East Semitic]] theonym ''[[Ishtar]]'' by way of [[folk etymology]]. For example, from ''The Two Babylons'', third edition:
<blockquote>
What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than [[Astarte]], one of the titles of [[Beltis]], the [[Queen of Heaven (antiquity)|queen of heaven]], whose name, as pronounced by the people of [[Ninevah]], was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. This name as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar.<ref name="HISLOP-103">Hislop (1903:103).</ref>
</blockquote>
Because Hislop's claims have no linguistics foundation, his claims were rejected, but the ''Two Babylons'' would go on to have some influence in popular culture.<ref name="HISLOP-RESPONSE">See, for example, contemporary discussion in anonymous (1859:338-340).</ref> In the 2000s, a popular [[Internet meme]] similarly claimed an incorrect linguistic connection between English ''Easter'' and ''Ishtar''.<ref name="D'Costa">{{Cite web |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/ |title=Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter |last=D'Costa |first=Krystal |website=Scientific American |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328170422/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/ |archive-date=28 March 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=28 March 2018}}</ref>
The Danish TV series ''[[Equinox (2020 TV series)|Equinox]]'' has the concept of the Ostara and the Hare King as a central theme in the plot.<ref>https://signalhorizon.com/netflixs-equinox-ending-explained-ostara-eostre-and-the-hare-king-come-togeether-in-this-supernatural-twister/ {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
==See also==
* {{lang|non|[[Aurvandil]]}}, a Germanic being associated with stars, the first element of whose name is cognate to {{lang|ang|Ēostre}}
* [[Dellingr]], a potential personification of the dawn in Norse mythology
* {{lang|ang|[[Hengist and Horsa]]}}, [[euhemerism|euhemerised]] Old English deities, possibly extending from Proto-Indo-European religion
* {{lang|ang|[[Mōdraniht]]}}, the Old English "Mother's night," also attested by Bede
* [[Old High German lullaby]], a lullaby in Old High German that mentions {{lang|goh|Ostara|italic=no}}, generally held to be a literary forgery
* {{lang|ang|[[Týr|Tīw]]}}, the Old English extension of the Proto-Indo-European [[sky deity]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* Anonymous (1859). [https://books.google.com/books?id=KWpFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR6#v=onepage&q&f=false Review: ''The Two Babylons''] in ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|The Saturday Review]]'', Vol. VIII, pp. 338–340. John W. Parker and Son.
* [[Robert Barnhart|Barnhart, Robert K.]] (1995). ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: The Origins of American English Words''. [[HarperCollins]]. {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}}
* [[Charles J. Billson|Billson, Charles J.]] (1892). "[[:s:Folk-Lore/Volume 3/The Easter Hare|The Easter Hare]]" as published in ''[[Folk-Lore]]'', Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1892). Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises Ltd.
* {{Cite journal|last=Boyle|first=John Andrew|date=1973|title=The Hare in Myth and Reality: A Review Article|journal=Folklore|volume=84|issue=4|pages=313–326|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1973.9716525|issn=0015-587X|jstor=1259837}}
* Cusack, Carole M. (2008). "The Return of the Goddess: Mythology, Witchcraft and Feminist Spirituality" as published in Pizza, Murphy. Lewis, James R. (Editors). ''Handbook of Contemporary Paganism''. [[Brill Publishers]]. {{ISBN|9004163735}}
* Diesel, Andreas. Gerten, Dieter (2007). ''Looking for Europe: {{lang|de|Neofolk und Hintergründe|italic=unset}}''. Index Verlag. {{ISBN|3-936878-02-1}}
* Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1882). ''[[Deutsche Mythologie|Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix]]'' Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons.
* Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1883). ''[[Deutsche Mythologie|Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix]]'' Vol. II. London: George Bell and Sons.
* [[Alexander Hislop|Hislop, Alexander]] (1903). ''[[The Two Babylons]]''. Third edition. S.W. Partridge. Web.
* Hubbard, Benjamin Jerome. Hatfield, John T. Santucci, James A. (2007). ''An Educator's Classroom Guide to America's Religious Beliefs and Practices''. Libraries Unlimited. {{ISBN|1-59158-409-4}}
* [[John Allen Giles|Giles, John Allen]] (1843). ''The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede, in the Original Latin, Collated with the Manuscripts, and Various Print Editions, Accompanied by a New English Translation of the Historical Works, and a Life of the Author. Vol. VI: Scientific Tracts and Appendix.'' London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane.
* {{Cite book|last=Kroonen|first=Guus|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic|year=2013|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004183407}}
* {{cite book|last1=Mallory|first1=J. P.|author-link=J. P. Mallory|last2=Adams|first2=Douglas Q.|author2-link=Douglas Q. Adams|year=1997|title=[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]]|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=1-884964-98-2}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Sermon|first=Richard|date=2008|title=From Easter to Ostara: the Reinvention of a Pagan Goddess?|journal=Time and Mind|volume=1|issue=3|pages=331–343|doi=10.2752/175169708X329372|s2cid=161574008|issn=1751-696X}}
* {{Cite book|last=Shaw|first=Philip A.|title=Pagan goddesses in the early Germanic world : Eostre, Hreda and the cult of matrons|date=2011|publisher=Bristol Classical Press|isbn=978-0-7156-3797-5}}
* [[Lutz D. Schmadel|Schmadel, Lutz D.]] (2003). ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'', fifth edition, illustrated. Springer. {{ISBN|3-540-00238-3}}
* Sievers, Eduard (Albert S. Cook Ed. Trans.) (1903) ''An Old English grammar'' Third Edition. [[Ginn and Company]]
* {{Cite book|last=Simek|first=Rudolf|title=Dictionary of Northern Mythology|year=1996|publisher=D.S. Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-513-7|author-link=Rudolf Simek}}
* Wallis, Faith (Trans.) (1999). ''Bede: The Reckoning of Time''. [[Liverpool University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-85323-693-3}}
* [[Calvert Watkins|Watkins, Calvert]] (2006 [2000]). ''The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots''. [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]. {{ISBN|0-618-08250-6}}
* {{Cite book|last=West|first=Martin L.|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|author-link=Martin Litchfield West}}
* [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Wright, Joseph]] and Wright, Elisabeth Mary. (1914) ''Old English Grammar'' Second Edition. Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
* Murphy, Luke John and Ameen, Carly. "The Shifting Baselines of the British Hare Goddess". In: ''Open Archaeology'' 6, no. 1 (2020): 214-235. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0109
* Sermon, Richard (2022). "Eostre and the ''Matronae Austriahenae''". In: ''Folklore'', 133:2, 139-157. DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.2021.1959143
== 参照 ==
[[Category:ゲルマン神話]]
[[Category:兎]]
By way of [[linguistic reconstruction]], the matter of a goddess called {{lang|gem-x-proto|Austrō(n)}} in the [[Proto-Germanic language]] has been examined in detail since the foundation of [[Germanic philology]] in the 19th century by scholar [[Jacob Grimm]] and others. As the [[Germanic languages]] descend from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE), [[historical linguistics|historical linguists]] have traced the name to a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *''{{PIE|[[Hausos|H₂ewsṓs]]}}'', from which may descend the Common Germanic divinity at the origin of the Old English {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and the Old High German {{lang|goh|Ôstara|italic=no}}. Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names ([[toponymy|toponyms]]) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the ''{{lang|la|[[matres and Matronae|matronae]] Austriahenae}}''.
Theories connecting {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with records of Germanic [[Easter customs]], including [[hare#Folklore and mythology|hares]] and [[easter egg|eggs]], have been proposed. Whether or not the goddess was an invention of Bede has been a debate among some scholars, particularly prior to the discovery of the ''{{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}'' and further developments in [[Indo-European studies]]. Ēostre and Ostara are sometimes referenced in modern popular culture and are venerated in some forms of [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Germanic neopaganism]].
==Name==
=== Etymology ===
The [[theonym]]s {{lang|ang|*Ēastre}} ([[Old English]]) and *''Ôstara'' ([[Old High German]]) are [[cognates]] – linguistic siblings stemming from a common origin. They derive from the [[Proto-Germanic]] theonym {{lang|gem-x-proto|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic/Austrǭ|Austrō(n)]]}},{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} itself a descendant of [[Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) *''h₂ews-reh₂''- (cf. [[Proto-Baltic|Baltic]] *''auš(t)ra'' 'dawn, morning'), extended from the PIE root *''{{PIE|[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂ews-|h₂ews-]]}}'', meaning 'to shine, glow (red)'.<ref name="WATKINS-2021">Watkins 2006 [2000]: 2021.</ref>{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} The modern English ''east'' also derives from this root, via the Proto-Germanic [[adverb]] *''aust(e)raz'' ('east, eastwards'), from an earlier PIE *''h₂ews-tero-'' ('east, towards the dawn').{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}}
According to linguist Guus Kroonen, the Germanic and Baltic languages replaced the old formation *''[[H₂éwsōs|h₂éws-os]]'', the name of the PIE [[Dawn goddess|dawn-goddess]], with a form in ''-reh₂''-, likewise found in the Lithuanian deity ''[[Aušrinė]]''.{{sfn|Kroonen|2013|p=43}} In [[Anglo-Saxon England]], her springtime festival gave its name to a month (Northumbrian: ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'', West Saxon: ''Eastermonað''),{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=333}} the equivalent of April, then to the Christian feast of ''[[Easter]]'' that eventually displaced it.{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}{{Sfn|West|2007|pp=217–218}} In southern Medieval Germany, the festival ''Ôstarûn'' similarly gave its name to the month ''Ôstarmânôth'', and to the modern feast of ''Ostern'' ('Easter'), suggesting that a goddess named *''Ôstara'' was also worshipped there.{{Sfn|Simek|1996|p=255}}{{Sfn|West|2007|pp=217–218}} The name of the month survived into 18th-century German as ''Ostermonat''.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=335}} An [[Old Saxon]] equivalent of the spring goddess named *''Āsteron'' may also be reconstructed from the term ''asteronhus'', which is translated by most scholars as 'Easter-house' (cf. [[Middle Dutch|Medieval Flemish]] ''Paeshuys'' 'Easter-house').{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|ps=: "The term ''asteronhus'' could mean either 'Eastern-house' or 'Easterhouse', although current research tends to favor the latter of these two readings (Hessmann 2000). This interpretation is paralleled in the Flemish place-name and surname ''Paashuis'' or ''Paeschhuis'', also meaning 'Easter-house', of which the earliest known example is ''Paeshuys'' recorded at Antwerp in 1386 (Debrabandere 1993: 1073)."|pp=337–338}} Frankish historian [[Einhard]] also writes in his ''[[Vita Karoli Magni]]'' (early 9th c. AD) that after [[Charlemagne]] defeated and converted the continental Saxons to Christianity, he gave Germanic names to the Latin months of the year, which included the Easter-month ''Ostarmanoth''.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=334}}
The Old English {{lang|ang|Ēostre}} is therefore a distant cognate of numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European-speaking peoples, including [[Ushas|Uṣás]], [[Eos|Ēṓs]], and [[Aurora (mythology)|Aurōra]]. In the words of the ''[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]]'', "a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] groups. [...] All of this evidence permits us to posit a Proto-Indo-European *''{{PIE|[[hausos|h<sub>a</sub>éusōs]]}}'' 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a 'reluctant' bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the Indo-European stocks, [[Baltic languages|Baltic]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]], the existence of a Proto-Indo-European 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'."{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|pp=148–149}}
===Related names===
Additionally, scholars have linked the goddess's name to a variety of Germanic personal names, a series of location names ([[toponymy|toponyms]]) in England, and, discovered in 1958, over 150 inscriptions from the 2nd century CE referring to the ''{{lang|la|[[matres and Matronae|matronae]] Austriahenae}}''.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=52–53}}
A cluster of place names in England contain and a variety of English and continental Germanic names include the element *{{lang|ang|ēoster}}, an early Old English word reconstructed by [[historical linguistics|linguists]] and potentially an earlier form of the goddess name {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}. The [[Council of Austerfield]] called by King [[Aldfrith of Northumbria]] shortly before 704 convened at a place described in contemporary records both as {{lang|la|in campo qui {{lang|ang|Eostrefeld}} dicitur}} and {{lang|la|in campo qui dicitur {{lang|ang|Oustraefelda}}}}, which have led to the site's being identified with [[Austerfield]] near [[Bawtry]] in [[South Yorkshire]].<ref>Cubitt, Catherine (1995). ''Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c.650–c.850''. London: Leicester University Press, pp 302f. {{ISBN|0-7185-1436-X}}</ref> Such locations also include [[Eastry]] ({{lang|ang|Eastrgena}}, 788 CE) in [[Kent]], [[Eastrea]] ({{lang|ang|Estrey}}, 966 CE) in [[Cambridgeshire]], and [[Eastrington]] ({{lang|ang|Eastringatun}}, 959 CE) in the [[East Riding of Yorkshire]].{{sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=59—60}}
The element *{{lang|ang|ēoster}} also appears in the Old English name {{lang|ang|Easterwine}}, a name borne by Bede's monastery abbot in [[Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey|Wearmouth–Jarrow]] and which appears an additional three times in the [[Durham Liber Vitae|Durham {{lang|la|Liber Vitae|italic=y|nocat=y}}]]. The name {{lang|ang|Aestorhild}} also appears in the {{lang|la|Liber Vitae|italic=yes}}, and is likely the ancestor of the Middle English name {{lang|enm|Estrild}}. Various continental Germanic names include the element, including ''[[Austrechild]]'', ''Austrighysel'', ''Austrovald'', and ''Ostrulf''.{{sfn|Shaw|2011|p=60}}
In 1958, over 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to the {{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}, a triad of goddesses, were discovered near [[Morken-Harff]], Germany. Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet many are at least reasonably legible. Some of these inscriptions refer to the {{lang|la|Austriates}}, evidently the name of a social group.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=52, 63}} The name of these goddesses certainly derives from the root ''austri''-, which, if Germanic, would be cognate with the Old English ''Eostre''.
But the goddesses might equally be entirely independent.{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=340}}
==Description by Saint Bede, 8th century==
In chapter 15 ({{lang|la|De mensibus Anglorum|italic=yes}}, "The English months") of his 8th-century work {{lang|la|De temporum ratione|italic=yes}} ("''[[The Reckoning of Time]]''"), [[Bede]] describes the indigenous month names of the English people. After describing the worship of the goddess [[Rheda (mythology)|Rheda]] during the Anglo-Saxon month of {{lang|ang|Hrēþ-mōnaþ}}, Bede writes about ''{{lang|ang|Ēosturmōnaþ}}'', the month of the goddess Ēostre:
{{Verse translation |lang=la
|{{lang|ang|Eostur-monath}}, qui nunc Paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a Dea illorum quæ {{lang|ang|Eostre}} vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit: a cujus nomine nunc Paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquæ observationis vocabulo gaudia novæ solemnitatis vocantes.<ref name="GILES179">Giles (1843:179).</ref>
|{{lang|ang|Eosturmonath}} has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named {{lang|ang|Eostre}}, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.<ref name="WALLIS54">Wallis (1999:54).</ref>}}
Before the discovery of the ''matronae Austriahenae'' in 1958, scholarship on this topic frequently raised the question of whether Bede invented the deity.
In 1892, [[Charles J. Billson]] noted that scholars before his writing were divided about the existence of Bede's account of Ēostre, stating that "among authorities who have no doubt as to her existence are [[Wilhelm Grimm|W. Grimm]], [[Wilhelm Wackernagel|Wackernagel]], [[Karl Joseph Simrock|Sinrock]] {{sic}}, and Wolf. On the other hand, Weinhold rejects the idea on philological grounds, and so do Heinrich Leo and Hermann Oesre. Kuhn says, 'The Anglo-Saxon {{lang|ang|Eostre|italic=no}} looks like an invention of Bede;' and [[Wilhelm Mannhardt|Mannhardt]] also dismisses her as an etymological {{lang|la|[[deus ex machina|dea ex machina]]}}." Billson wrote that "the whole question turns ... upon Bede's credibility", and that "one is inclined to agree with Grimm, that it would be uncritical to saddle this eminent Father of the Church, who keeps Heathendom at arms' length and tells us less of than he knows, with the invention of this goddess." Billson pointed out that the [[Christianization]] of England started at the end of the 6th century, and, by the 7th, was completed. Billson argued that, as Bede was born in 672, Bede must have had opportunities to learn the names of the native goddesses of the Anglo-Saxons, "who were hardly extinct in his lifetime."<ref name="BILLSON448">Billson (1892:448).</ref>
According to philologist [[Rudolf Simek]] in 1984, despite expressions of doubts, Bede's account of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} should not be disregarded. Simek opined that a "spring-like fertility goddess" must be assumed rather than a "goddess of sunrise" regardless of the name, reasoning that "otherwise the Germanic goddesses (and [[matres and Matronae|matrons]]) are mostly connected with prosperity and growth". Simek pointed to a comparison with the goddess [[Rheda (mythology)|Rheda]], also attested by Bede.{{sfn|Simek|1996|p=74}}
In 2011 Philip A. Shaw wrote that the subject has seen "a lengthy history of arguments for and against Bede's goddess {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, with some scholars taking fairly extreme positions on either side" and that some theories against the goddess have gained popular cultural prominence. Shaw noted that "much of this debate, however, was conducted in ignorance of a key piece of evidence, as it was not discovered until 1958. This evidence is furnished by over 150 Romano-Germanic votive inscriptions to deities named the {{lang|la|matronae Austriahenae}}, found near Morken-Harff and datable to around 150–250 AD". Most of these inscriptions are in an incomplete state, yet most are complete enough for reasonable clarity of the inscriptions. As early as 1966 scholars have linked these names etymologically with {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and an element found in Germanic personal names.{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|p=52}} Shaw argued against a functional interpretation of the available evidence and concluded that "the etymological connections of her name suggests that her worshippers saw her geographical and social relationship with them as more central than any functions she may have had".{{Sfn|Shaw|2011|pp=70–71}}
==Theories and interpretations==
===Jacob Grimm===
In his 1835 {{lang|de|[[Deutsche Mythologie]]|italic=yes}}, [[Jacob Grimm]] cites comparative evidence to reconstruct a potential [[continental Germanic mythology|continental Germanic goddess]] whose name would have been preserved in the [[Old High German]] name of Easter, *{{lang|goh|Ostara}}. Addressing skepticism towards goddesses mentioned by Bede, Grimm comments that "there is nothing improbable in them, nay the first of them is justified by clear traces in the vocabularies of Germanic tribes."<ref name=GRIMM289>Grimm (1882:289).</ref> Specifically regarding {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, Grimm continues that:
<blockquote>
We Germans to this day call April {{lang|gmh|ostermonat}}, and {{lang|goh|ôstarmânoth}} is found as early as [[Einhard|Eginhart]] ({{lang|la|temp. [[Vita Karoli Magni|Car. Mag.]]}}). The great Christian festival, which usually falls in April or the end of March, bears in the oldest of OHG remains the name {{lang|goh|ôstarâ}} ... it is mostly found in the plural, because two days ... were kept at Easter. This {{lang|goh|Ostarâ|italic=yes}}, like the [Anglo-Saxon] {{lang|ang|Eástre}}, must in heathen religion have denoted a higher being, whose worship was so firmly rooted, that the Christian teachers tolerated the name, and applied it to one of their own grandest anniversaries.<ref name="GRIMM290">Grimm (1882:290).</ref>
</blockquote>
Grimm notes that "all of the nations bordering on us have retained the Biblical {{lang|la|pascha}}; even [[Ulfilas|Ulphilas]] writes {{lang|got|𐍀𐌰𐍃𐌺𐌰}}, not {{lang|got|𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐍂𐍉}} ({{lang|got-Latn|paska}} not {{lang|got-Latn|áustrô}}), though he must have known the word". Grimm details that the Old High German adverb {{lang|goh|ôstar}} "expresses movement towards the rising sun", as did the [[Old Norse]] term {{lang|non|austr}}, and potentially also Anglo-Saxon {{lang|ang|ēastor}} and Gothic {{lang|got|[[Asterisk#Historical linguistics|*]]𐌰𐌿𐍃𐍄𐍂}} ({{lang|got-Latn|[[Asterisk#Historical linguistics|*]]áustr}}). Grimm compares these terms to the identical Latin term {{lang|la|auster}}, and contends that the cult of the goddess may have been centred around an Old Norse form, {{lang|non|Austra}}, or that her cult may have already been extinct by the time of Christianization.<ref name=GRIMM290-291>Grimm (1882:290—291).</ref>
Grimm notes that the Old Norse ''[[Prose Edda]]'' book {{lang|non|[[Gylfaginning]]|italic=yes}} attests to a male being called {{lang|non|[[Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri|Austri]]}}, whom he describes as a "spirit of light." Grimm comments that a female version would have been {{lang|gem-x-proto|Austra}}, yet that the High German and Saxon peoples seem to have only formed {{lang|goh|Ostarâ}} and {{lang|osx|Eástre}}, feminine, and not {{lang|goh|Ostaro}} and {{lang|osx|Eástra}}, masculine. Grimm additionally speculates on the nature of the goddess and surviving folk customs that may have been associated with her in Germany:
<blockquote>
{{lang|goh|Ostara}}, {{lang|osx|Eástre}} seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian's God. ''Bonfires'' were lighted at Easter and according to popular belief of long standing, the moment the sun rises on Easter Sunday morning, he gives ''three joyful leaps'', he dances for joy ... Water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing ... here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.<ref name="GRIMM291">Grimm (1882:291).</ref>
</blockquote>
In the second volume of {{lang|de|Deutsche Mythologie}}, Grimm picked up the subject of Ostara again, speculating on possible connections between the goddess and various German Easter customs, including Easter eggs:
<blockquote>
But if we admit, goddesses, then, in addition to [[Nerthus]], {{lang|goh|Ostara}} has the strongest claim to consideration. To what we said on p. 290 I can add some significant facts. The heathen Easter had much in common with May-feast and the reception of spring, particularly in the matter of bonfires. Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people ''Easter-games'' so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate : I allude especially to the custom of ''Easter eggs'', and to the ''Easter tale'' which preachers told from the pulpit for the people's amusement, connecting it with Christian reminiscences.<ref name="GRIMM780-781">Grimm (1883:780–781).</ref>
</blockquote>
Grimm commented on further Easter time customs, including unique sword dances and particular baked goods ("pastry of heathenish form"). In addition, Grimm weighed a potential connection to the [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] spring goddess {{lang|sla|[[Vesna]]}} and the Lithuanian {{lang|lt|[[Vasara (mythology)|Vasara]]}}.<ref name="GRIMM780-781"/>
According to anthropologist Krystal D'Costa, there is no evidence to connect the tradition of Easter eggs with Ostara. Eggs became a symbol in Christianity associated with rebirth as early as the 1st century AD, via the iconography of the [[Phoenix (mythology)|Phoenix]] egg. D'Costa theorizes that eggs became associated with Easter specifically in medieval Europe, when eating them was prohibited during the fast of [[Lent]]. D'Costa highlights that a common practice in England at that time was for children to go door-to-door begging for eggs on the Saturday before Lent began. People handed out eggs as special treats for children prior to their fast.<ref name="D'Costa"/>
===Connection to Easter Hares===
[[File:Easter Bunny Postcard 1907.jpg|thumb|An Easter postcard from 1907 depicting a rabbit]]
In Northern Europe, Easter imagery often involves [[easter Bunny|hares and rabbits]].<ref name="Bott 2011">{{cite web | last=Bott | first=Adrian | title=The modern myth of the Easter bunny | website=The Guardian | date=2011-04-23 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots }}</ref> The first scholar to make a connection between the goddess Eostre and hares was Adolf Holtzmann in his book ''Deutsche Mythologie''. Holtzmann wrote of the tradition, "the Easter Hare is inexplicable to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara; just as there is a hare on the statue of [[Abnoba]]." Citing folk [[Easter customs]] in [[Leicestershire]], England, where "the profits of the land called Harecrop Leys were applied to providing a meal which was thrown on the ground at the 'Hare-pie Bank'", late 19th-century scholar [[Charles Isaac Elton]] speculated on a connection between these customs and the worship of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Elton, Charles Isaac |author-link=Charles Isaac Elton |title=Origins of English History |journal=Nature |date=1882 |volume=25 |issue=648 |page=391 |doi=10.1038/025501a0 |bibcode=1882Natur..25..501T |s2cid=4097604 |url=https://archive.org/stream/originsofenglis00elto#page/390/mode/2up/search/harecrop}}</ref> In his late 19th-century study of the hare in folk custom and mythology, Charles J. Billson cited numerous incidents of folk customs involving hares around the Easter season in Northern Europe. Billson said that "whether there was a goddess named {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}, or not, and whatever connection the hare may have had with the ritual of Saxon or British worship, there are good grounds for believing that the sacredness of this animal reaches back into an age still more remote, where it is probably a very important part of the great Spring Festival of the prehistoric inhabitants of this island."<ref name="BILLSON448"/>
Adolf Holtzmann had also speculated that "the hare must once have been a bird, because it lays eggs" in modern German folklore. From this statement, numerous later sources built a modern legend in which the goddess Eostre transformed a bird into an egg-laying hare.<ref name=Winick2016>Winick, Stephen. [https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/ Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think]. ''Folklife Today'', 28 Apr 2016. Accessed 8 May 2019 at https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2016/04/ostara-and-the-hare/</ref> A response to a question about the origins of Easter hares in the 8 June 1889 issue of the journal ''American Notes and Queries'' stated: "In Germany and among the Pennsylvania Germans toy rabbits or hares made of canton flannel stuffed with cotton are given as gifts on Easter morning. The children are told that this Osh’ter has laid the Easter eggs. This curious idea is thus explained: The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the goddess on her festal day."<ref>''American Notes and Queries'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=-g48AQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA64&ots=l0_sPgX_SR&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false June 8, 1889, pp. 64-65].</ref> According to folklorist Stephen Winick, by 1900, many popular sources had picked up the story of Eostre and the hare. One described the story as one of the oldest in mythology, "despite the fact that it was then less than twenty years old."<ref name=Winick2016/>
Some scholars have further linked customs and imagery involving hares to both {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} and the Norse goddess {{lang|non|[[Freyja]]|italic=no}}. Writing in 1972, John Andrew Boyle cited commentary contained within an etymology dictionary by A. Ernout and [[Antoine Meillet|A. Meillet]], where the authors write that "Little else ... is known about [{{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}}], but it has been suggested that her lights, as goddess of the dawn, were carried by hares. And she certainly represented spring [[fecundity]], and love and carnal pleasure that leads to fecundity." Boyle responded that nothing is known about {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} outside of Bede's single passage, that the authors had seemingly accepted the identification of {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with the Norse goddess {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}}, yet that the hare is not associated with {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}} either. Boyle writes that "her carriage, we are told by [[Snorri Sturluson|Snorri]], was drawn by a pair of cats — animals, it is true, which like hares were the familiars of witches, with whom {{lang|non|Freyja|italic=no}} seems to have much in common." However, Boyle adds that "on the other hand, when the authors speak of the hare as the 'companion of [[Aphrodite]] and of [[satyr]]s and [[cupid]]s' and point out that 'in the [[Middle Ages]] it appears beside the figure of [[Luxuria (mythology)|Luxuria]]', they are on much surer ground and can adduce the evidence of their illustrations."{{sfn|Boyle||1973|pp=323—324}}
The earliest evidence for the Easter Hare (''Osterhase'') was recorded in south-west Germany in 1678 by the professor of medicine [[Georg Franck von Franckenau]], but it remained unknown in other parts of Germany until the 18th century. Scholar Richard Sermon writes that "hares were frequently seen in gardens in spring, and thus may have served as a convenient explanation for the origin of the colored eggs hidden there for children. Alternatively, there is a European tradition that hares laid eggs, since a hare's scratch or form and a [[lapwing]]'s nest look very similar, and both occur on grassland and are first seen in the spring. In the nineteenth century the influence of Easter cards, toys, and books was to make the Easter Hare/Rabbit popular throughout Europe. German immigrants then exported the custom to Britain and America where it evolved into the [[Easter Bunny]]."{{Sfn|Sermon|2008|p=341}}
==In modern culture==
The concept of *{{lang|goh|Ostara}} as reconstructed by Jacob Grimm and Adolf Holtzmann has had a strong influence on European culture since the 19th century, with many fanciful legends and associations growing up around the figure of the goddess in popular articles based on the speculation of these early folklorists.<ref name=Winick2016/>
A holiday named for the goddess is part of the neopagan [[Wicca]]n [[Wheel of the Year]] (Ostara, 21 March).<ref name="HUBBARD175">Hubbard (2007:175).</ref> In some forms of [[Heathenry (new religious movement)|Germanic neopaganism]], {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} (or Ostara) is venerated. Regarding this veneration, Carole M. Cusack comments that, among adherents, {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} is "associated with the coming of spring and the dawn, and her festival is celebrated at the [[march equinox|spring equinox]]. Because she brings renewal, rebirth from the death of winter, some Heathens associate {{lang|ang|Ēostre|italic=no}} with {{lang|non|[[Iðunn]]|italic=no}}, keeper of the apples of youth in [[Norse mythology|Scandinavian mythology]]".<ref name="CUSACK354-355">Cusack (2008:354–355).</ref>
The name has been adopted for an [[asteroid]] ([[343 Ostara]], 1892 by [[Max Wolf]]),<ref name="SCHMADEL44">Schmadel (2003:44)</ref> In music, the name {{lang|goh|Ostara}} has been adopted as a name by the musical group [[Ostara (band)|Ostara]],<ref name="DIESEL-GERTEN136">Diesel, Gerten (2007:136).</ref> and as the names of albums by [[Zoviet France|:zoviet*france:]] (''Eostre'', 1984) and [[The Wishing Tree (band)|The Wishing Tree]] (''[[Ostara (album)|Ostara]]'', 2009).
Politically, the name of Ostara was in the early 20th century invoked as the name of a [[Pan-Germanism|German nationalist]] [[Ostara (magazine)|magazine]], book series and publishing house established in 1905 at {{lang|de|[[Mödling]]||italic=no}}, [[Austria]].{{sfn|Simek|1996|p=255}}
In the first season of the TV series ''[[American Gods (TV series)|American Gods]],'' based on the [[American Gods|novel of the same name]], Ostara is portrayed by [[Kristin Chenoweth]]. In the series, Ostara has survived into the modern age by forming an alliance with the Goddess of Media ([[Gillian Anderson]]) and capitalising on the Christian holiday. Odin ([[Ian McShane]]) forces her to accept that those who celebrate Easter are worshipping Jesus and not her, causing her to join his rebellion against the New Gods.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Griffiths |first1=Eleanor Blye |title=''American Gods'' mythology guide: Meet Germanic spring goddess Ostara |url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-06-19/american-gods-mythology-guide-meet-germanic-spring-goddess-ostara |access-date=21 June 2017 |work=[[Radio Times]] |date=19 June 2017 }}</ref>
In 1853, Scottish protestant minister [[Alexander Hislop]] published ''[[The Two Babylons]]'', an anti-Catholic tract. In the tract, Hislop connects modern English ''Easter'' with the [[East Semitic]] theonym ''[[Ishtar]]'' by way of [[folk etymology]]. For example, from ''The Two Babylons'', third edition:
<blockquote>
What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than [[Astarte]], one of the titles of [[Beltis]], the [[Queen of Heaven (antiquity)|queen of heaven]], whose name, as pronounced by the people of [[Ninevah]], was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. This name as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar.<ref name="HISLOP-103">Hislop (1903:103).</ref>
</blockquote>
Because Hislop's claims have no linguistics foundation, his claims were rejected, but the ''Two Babylons'' would go on to have some influence in popular culture.<ref name="HISLOP-RESPONSE">See, for example, contemporary discussion in anonymous (1859:338-340).</ref> In the 2000s, a popular [[Internet meme]] similarly claimed an incorrect linguistic connection between English ''Easter'' and ''Ishtar''.<ref name="D'Costa">{{Cite web |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/ |title=Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter |last=D'Costa |first=Krystal |website=Scientific American |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328170422/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/beyond-ishtar-the-tradition-of-eggs-at-easter/ |archive-date=28 March 2018 |url-status=live |access-date=28 March 2018}}</ref>
The Danish TV series ''[[Equinox (2020 TV series)|Equinox]]'' has the concept of the Ostara and the Hare King as a central theme in the plot.<ref>https://signalhorizon.com/netflixs-equinox-ending-explained-ostara-eostre-and-the-hare-king-come-togeether-in-this-supernatural-twister/ {{Dead link|date=February 2022}}</ref>
==See also==
* {{lang|non|[[Aurvandil]]}}, a Germanic being associated with stars, the first element of whose name is cognate to {{lang|ang|Ēostre}}
* [[Dellingr]], a potential personification of the dawn in Norse mythology
* {{lang|ang|[[Hengist and Horsa]]}}, [[euhemerism|euhemerised]] Old English deities, possibly extending from Proto-Indo-European religion
* {{lang|ang|[[Mōdraniht]]}}, the Old English "Mother's night," also attested by Bede
* [[Old High German lullaby]], a lullaby in Old High German that mentions {{lang|goh|Ostara|italic=no}}, generally held to be a literary forgery
* {{lang|ang|[[Týr|Tīw]]}}, the Old English extension of the Proto-Indo-European [[sky deity]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
{{refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* Anonymous (1859). [https://books.google.com/books?id=KWpFAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR6#v=onepage&q&f=false Review: ''The Two Babylons''] in ''[[Saturday Review (London newspaper)|The Saturday Review]]'', Vol. VIII, pp. 338–340. John W. Parker and Son.
* [[Robert Barnhart|Barnhart, Robert K.]] (1995). ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology: The Origins of American English Words''. [[HarperCollins]]. {{ISBN|0-06-270084-7}}
* [[Charles J. Billson|Billson, Charles J.]] (1892). "[[:s:Folk-Lore/Volume 3/The Easter Hare|The Easter Hare]]" as published in ''[[Folk-Lore]]'', Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1892). Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises Ltd.
* {{Cite journal|last=Boyle|first=John Andrew|date=1973|title=The Hare in Myth and Reality: A Review Article|journal=Folklore|volume=84|issue=4|pages=313–326|doi=10.1080/0015587X.1973.9716525|issn=0015-587X|jstor=1259837}}
* Cusack, Carole M. (2008). "The Return of the Goddess: Mythology, Witchcraft and Feminist Spirituality" as published in Pizza, Murphy. Lewis, James R. (Editors). ''Handbook of Contemporary Paganism''. [[Brill Publishers]]. {{ISBN|9004163735}}
* Diesel, Andreas. Gerten, Dieter (2007). ''Looking for Europe: {{lang|de|Neofolk und Hintergründe|italic=unset}}''. Index Verlag. {{ISBN|3-936878-02-1}}
* Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1882). ''[[Deutsche Mythologie|Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix]]'' Vol. I. London: George Bell and Sons.
* Grimm, Jacob (James Steven Stallybrass Trans.) (1883). ''[[Deutsche Mythologie|Teutonic Mythology: Translated from the Fourth Edition with Notes and Appendix]]'' Vol. II. London: George Bell and Sons.
* [[Alexander Hislop|Hislop, Alexander]] (1903). ''[[The Two Babylons]]''. Third edition. S.W. Partridge. Web.
* Hubbard, Benjamin Jerome. Hatfield, John T. Santucci, James A. (2007). ''An Educator's Classroom Guide to America's Religious Beliefs and Practices''. Libraries Unlimited. {{ISBN|1-59158-409-4}}
* [[John Allen Giles|Giles, John Allen]] (1843). ''The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede, in the Original Latin, Collated with the Manuscripts, and Various Print Editions, Accompanied by a New English Translation of the Historical Works, and a Life of the Author. Vol. VI: Scientific Tracts and Appendix.'' London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane.
* {{Cite book|last=Kroonen|first=Guus|title=Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic|year=2013|publisher=Brill|isbn=9789004183407}}
* {{cite book|last1=Mallory|first1=J. P.|author-link=J. P. Mallory|last2=Adams|first2=Douglas Q.|author2-link=Douglas Q. Adams|year=1997|title=[[Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture]]|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=1-884964-98-2}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Sermon|first=Richard|date=2008|title=From Easter to Ostara: the Reinvention of a Pagan Goddess?|journal=Time and Mind|volume=1|issue=3|pages=331–343|doi=10.2752/175169708X329372|s2cid=161574008|issn=1751-696X}}
* {{Cite book|last=Shaw|first=Philip A.|title=Pagan goddesses in the early Germanic world : Eostre, Hreda and the cult of matrons|date=2011|publisher=Bristol Classical Press|isbn=978-0-7156-3797-5}}
* [[Lutz D. Schmadel|Schmadel, Lutz D.]] (2003). ''Dictionary of Minor Planet Names'', fifth edition, illustrated. Springer. {{ISBN|3-540-00238-3}}
* Sievers, Eduard (Albert S. Cook Ed. Trans.) (1903) ''An Old English grammar'' Third Edition. [[Ginn and Company]]
* {{Cite book|last=Simek|first=Rudolf|title=Dictionary of Northern Mythology|year=1996|publisher=D.S. Brewer|isbn=978-0-85991-513-7|author-link=Rudolf Simek}}
* Wallis, Faith (Trans.) (1999). ''Bede: The Reckoning of Time''. [[Liverpool University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-85323-693-3}}
* [[Calvert Watkins|Watkins, Calvert]] (2006 [2000]). ''The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots''. [[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt]]. {{ISBN|0-618-08250-6}}
* {{Cite book|last=West|first=Martin L.|title=Indo-European Poetry and Myth|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928075-9|author-link=Martin Litchfield West}}
* [[Joseph Wright (linguist)|Wright, Joseph]] and Wright, Elisabeth Mary. (1914) ''Old English Grammar'' Second Edition. Humphrey Milford Oxford University Press
{{Refend}}
==Further reading==
* Murphy, Luke John and Ameen, Carly. "The Shifting Baselines of the British Hare Goddess". In: ''Open Archaeology'' 6, no. 1 (2020): 214-235. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0109
* Sermon, Richard (2022). "Eostre and the ''Matronae Austriahenae''". In: ''Folklore'', 133:2, 139-157. DOI: 10.1080/0015587X.2021.1959143
== 参照 ==
[[Category:ゲルマン神話]]
[[Category:兎]]
