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Germany, Worms: the strangest history!

Printed From: History Community ~ All Empires
Category: General History
Forum Name: General World History
Forum Discription: All aspects of world history, especially topics that span across many regions or periods
URL: http://www.allempires.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12362
Printed Date: 06-Jun-2024 at 00:04
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Topic: Germany, Worms: the strangest history!
Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Subject: Germany, Worms: the strangest history!
Date Posted: 31-May-2006 at 13:37

http://www.internationalliving.com/html/travel_secrets.html - http://www.internationalliving.com/html/travel_secrets.html :

Worms: the strangest history.
The city of Worms has a strange name and an even stranger history. It was named for a legendary giant worm with fangs and webbed feet that lived in the Rhine and demanded human sacrifices.

Isn't it the same famous story of "Haftvad and the Worm" in Shahnameh? Haftvad was the king of Kerman ("Germany" according to Herodotus' "History", bk. 1, § 125) near Rayn, it is interesting to know that Kerman means exactly "City of Worms" in Persian language.



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Replies:
Posted By: Temujin
Date Posted: 01-Jun-2006 at 14:12
but we call our realm Deutschland not Germany....

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Posted By: Komnenos
Date Posted: 01-Jun-2006 at 14:58
Unfortunately, the name "Worms" has nothing whatsoever to do with any worms or any other similar creatures, but is a Germanised form of the old Celtic  name for the town "Borbetomagus" , Land of the Borbets. (according to Wikipedia).
Nice story, but nothing more.


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Posted By: Northman
Date Posted: 01-Jun-2006 at 16:28
In my book it says:
 
Danish: orm
Old norse: ormr
English: Worm
German: Wurm
Latin: Vermis ----> Vermouth
Greek: rómos (woodworm)
 
I see a line here - not including a Celtic Town or "Kerman" - but then again, I cant speak Celtic nor translate the name of the town.
 
But isnt there a story about a giant worm in most myths?
Norse myth has its version too - the Midgard-serpent - or rather "Midgards-orm" in danish.
 


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Posted By: Cyrus Shahmiri
Date Posted: 02-Jun-2006 at 06:33

Do you know German epic poem "THE NIBELUNGENLIED"? (written about 1200 by an unknown Austrian)

http://gutenberg.teleglobe.net/etext05/niebn10h.htm - http://gutenberg.teleglobe.net/etext05/niebn10h.htm

All the Aryan peoples have had their heroic age, the achievements of which form the basis of later saga. For the Germans this was the period of the Migrations, as it is called, in round numbers the two hundred years from 400 to 600, at the close of which we find them settled in those regions which they have, generally speaking, occupied ever since. During these two centuries kaleidoscopic changes had been taking place in the position of the various Germanic tribes. ...

Starting at the middle of the fifth century from the territory about Worms on the Rhine where the Burgundians were overthrown, the saga soon spread from the Franks to the other Germanic peoples. ...

100

"Still know I more about him, / that has to me been told.
A dragon, wormlike monster, / slew once the hero bold.
Then in its blood he bathed him, / since when his skin hath been
So horn-hard, ne'er a weapon / can pierce it, as hath oft been seen.



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Posted By: Northman
Date Posted: 02-Jun-2006 at 07:38

Yes, I know it, and it is mainly based on norse legends and saga's.

Your last quotation can be inspired from one of 2 sources. The Beowulf Poem, also comprising a monster.... but I think its more likely from the story about the danish king Ragnar, with the nickname " Lodbrog".
Lodbrog means "furry pants" - in reference to the last two lines of your quotation.

The full story is here (Saxo, 9'th Book): http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book9.html - http://omacl.org/DanishHistory/book9.html
 
and the specific part about Regnar fighting the monsters here:
 
..... Ragnar, learning from men who travelled to and fro how the matter stood, asked his nurse for a woolen mantle, and for some thigh-pieces that were very hairy, with which he could repel the snake-bites. He thought that he ought to use a dress stuffed with hair to protect himself, and also took one that was not unwieldy, that he might move nimbly. And when he had landed in Sweden, he deliberately plunged his body in water, while there was a frost falling, and, wetting his dress, to make it the less penetrable, he let the cold freeze it. Thus attired, he took leave of his companions, exhorted them to remain loyal to Fridleif, and went on to the palace alone. When he saw it, he tied his sword to his side, and lashed a spear to his right hand with a thong. As he went on, an enormous snake glided up and met him. Another, equally huge, crawled up, following in the trail of the first. They strove now to buffet the young man with the coils of their tails, and now to spit and belch their venom stubbornly upon him. Meantime the courtiers, betaking themselves to safer hiding, watched the struggle from afar like affrighted little girls. The king was stricken with equal fear, and fled, with a few followers, to a narrow shelter. But Ragnar, trusting in the hardness of his frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not only with his arms, but with his attire, and, singlehanded, in unweariable combat, stood up against the two gaping creatures, who stubbornly poured forth their venom upon him. For their teeth he repelled with his shield, their poison with his dress. At last he cast his spear, and drove it against the bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard. He pierced both their hearts, and his battle ended in victory.
 


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Posted By: ulrich von hutten
Date Posted: 02-Jun-2006 at 08:20
Originally posted by Northman

Yes, I know it, and it is mainly based on norse legends and saga's.

Your last quotation can be inspired from one of 2 sources. The Beowulf Poem, also comprising a monster.... but I think its more likely from the story about the danish king Ragnar, with the nickname " Lodbrog".
Lodbrog means "furry pants" - in reference to the last two lines of your quotation.

 
 
 
and this story is the base for the libretto of the opera of Richard Wagner called the" The Ring of the Nibelungs".The story of the nibelungen is a primal german theme of betrayal and revenge.heroes and less or more lovely women, truth and friendship and cruel deeds and battles of gigantic dimensions.that 's what the german grandpa told his grandchild at the long and stormy winter-nights.and indeed as a boy i was fascinated as well. but at a half-mile long worms ,living down the river rhine , i can't remember...


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