Swabian Oath Sword Dances to Ziu

by Sean Jobst

Public domain image (originally from 
1822) of a Gothic warrior with helmet
and breastplate, and a Suebi warrior with
the customary topknot, holding a sword
(Source)

“As the God of courage and of war, Tyr [Tiwaz} was frequently invoked by the various nations of the North, who cried [invoked] to him, as well as to Odin [Wodanaz], to obtain victory. That he ranked next to Odin and Thor [Thunaraz] is proven by his name, Tiu, having been given to one of the days of the week, Tiu’s day, which in modern English has become Tuesday. Under the name of Ziu, Tyr was the principal divinity of the Suabians, who originally called their capital, the modern Augsburg, Ziusburg. This people, venerating the god as they did, were wont to worship him under the emblem of a sword, his distinctive attribute, and in his honour held great sword dances, where various figures were performed. Sometimes the participants forming two long lines, crossed their swords, point upward, and challenged the boldest among their number to take a flying leap over them. At other times the warriors joined their sword points closely together in the shape of a rose or wheel, and when this figure was complete invited their chief to stand on the navel thus formed of flat, shining steel blades, and then they bore him upon it through the camp in triumph. The sword point was further considered so sacred that it became customary to register oaths upon it.”(1)

In this passage, the American (but of Swiss parents) writer on mythological themes, Hélène Adeline Guerber (1859-1929), gives an incredible account of Suebi sword dances honoring Ziu. Her main source here appears to be Tacitus, who wrote in Germania (Chapter 24): “The type of spectacle is one and the same in every group. Naked youths, for whom it is a sport, leap between swords and invading spears” (Genus spectaculorum unum atque in omni coetu idem. Nudi iuvenes, quibus id ludicrum est, inter gladios se atque infestas frameas saltu iaciunt.).

Tacitus indicates something akin to the Greek Olympicos, prone to see it as exercise and entertainment. But knowing what we know about the Germanic warrior brotherhoods (Männerbunde), it seems very similar to initiation rituals going back to the Proto-Indo-European Koryos. These could also be seen as a prototype for the Wild Hunt, a favorite theme of mine (I’ve even devoted a five-part series on it, with possibly more in the future). We can cross reference this with a later passage from Tacitus, about a Suebi tribe further to the northeast called the Harii (Chapter 43). That passage seems to describe the Einherjar, warriors initiated to Wodan – so doesn’t directly concern our current topic.

It seems that Ziu was especially venerated in our Suebi heartland, especially around modern Augsburg – a city whose significance I previously described in relation to the Goddess Zisa. She was a fertility Goddess associated with the Earth, so we have this primordial theme of Mother Earth as the consort to the Sky Father. Aside from a warrior initiation ritual to Ziu, there is a deeper esoteric symbolism in the sword dance ritual: The two lines of initiates crossing their swords, with oaths being sworn upon them, and feats of strength and endurance performed. There is the common theme across various Mythologies that “Sword tells the truth,” and “never lies”, being an ultimate symbol of discernment and intention; and the esoteric properties of certain metals were second nature to folklore.(2)

The lands of Schwaben were renowned for metalworking going back to our Celtic tribes, part of the broader Alpine and Danube Celtic cultures who traded their metalworks with the Greeks and Romans. Then our Suebi/Alemanni tribes settled into the region with their warrior initiatory brotherhoods and rituals going back to our common Proto-Indo-European origins. That swords would be consecrated to Ziu is also natural given His association with oaths and contracts.

My dominant approach as a Heathen is deconstructing our ancestral lore surviving through folklore. Sometimes this was in plain sight, as we can see with the Guilds. Ostensibly devoted to the trades (and thus material endeavors), there is actually a deeper esoteric undercurrent throughout medieval Guilds.(3) Throughout the Southern Germanic regions, these Guilds developed their own folkloric rituals which accommodated themselves to the “Catholic” celebratory calendar, but given Guerber’s passage we have to ask: Are they a folkloric memory, even if unconscious, of the Suebi sword dances to Ziu? I conclude with these excerpts from an interesting webpage (with the introduction and relevant section about Schwaben, pictures and their captions included):

“There are various sword dances known to have existed in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. These dances are among the oldest: sword dances performed by the Guilds of Smiths and Cutlers in Nuremberg were first recorded in 1350, there are records of sword dances in Brunswick and Cologne prior to 1500, and records of dances all over Germany in the 16th century. There are paintings of sword dances in Zürich in 1578 and in Nuremberg in 1600. The side from Überlingen in Germany, first recorded in 1646, but possibly dating back to 1538, is the oldest sword dance side still in existence.

 

The Nuremberg Cutlers Guild dance from ca 1600

 

“The dances are generally similar to longsword dances, but generally with simpler figures and add elements such as elevating a captain on a lock of swords. The dances were usually performed by members of Guilds, who often had special dispensations from local authorities to allow them to perform the dance. In some parts of Germany and Austria, the sword dance was a special privilege permitted only to miners, as miners were uniquely permitted to carry swords for protection with many mines being in remote mountain areas.

“Sword dances in German-speaking countries often include flag waving routines, and in some cases the “leader” of the group is lifted up on a lock to wave the flag. In Austrian miners' dances, the leader may also give a traditional speech.

“The Germanic sword dance traditions, according to the Austrian ethnologist Richard Wolfram, almost always include the symbolic death and reawakening of one of the participants. There is some belief from the 8th century writings of the Venerable Bede and 19th century research by Jakob Grimm, but little explicit evidence, that sword dances were part of the springtime rites for the Teutonic pagan goddess of fertility Ostara (also known as Eostre) – after whom Easter is named – in which the death and reawakening sequences might have had ritual importance.

Überlingen sword dance

“Überlingen lies in the southwest of Germany and claims the oldest continuously performed sword dance, whose existence was first specifically recorded in 1646. It was the preserve of the Vintners' Guild, which is first mentioned in 1538, a date which has been claimed as the date of foundation of the team.

“The sword dance was originally performed by the Vintners as part of the town's Shrovetide celebrations, but was later moved to the Schweden Prozession, an annual celebration on the second Sunday of July of the town's successful defence against the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War. The Schweden Prozession starts with a Mass at the cathedral, followed by a two hour procession, another Mass, and the performance of the sword dance first in the main square then in front of the cathedral.

“Prior to the procession, the team meet for a breakfast of local sausages and water, and the team's fool, the Hänsele is symbolically thrown out. The Hänsele is masked, wears a black costume with rags of brightly coloured cloth and bells, and carries a whip; he is traditionally banned from speaking to the other dancers and does not attend Mass. Legend has it that in the past the town raised an army to defend its traditional freedoms against the Holy Roman Emperor, and all the troops attended a Mass before leaving, except one man (Hänsele) who went to the pub instead and was the only man killed in the battle. The Hänsele character also appears in other local customs associated with the Fasnacht carnival at Shrovetide.

“The tradition has been kept alive by the Überlinger Schwerttanzkompanie, which maintains its own records back to 1892, and was refounded in the early 1950s after permission was given to carry swords (otherwise prohibited by a general ban on carrying arms in post-War Germany). Membership is strictly controlled, in the spirit of the rules of the Vintner's Guild, and considered to be a great honour.

“The dancers wear costume based on formal attire from the eighteenth century, with triangular hat, dark blue frock coat, red waistcoat, white shirt with wing collar and bow-tie, black breeches and black shoes with large silver buckles. A sprig of rosemary is worn in the left lapel – reputedly so that its smell would wake any dancer who fell asleep during Mass!

 

“The dance itself is peformed by linking up in a chain, but not in a closed circle as in rapper or longsword. The chain then performs some figure-of-eight manoeuvres, then a figure where the dancers pass repeatly under an arch formed by a sword, with the last dancer adding his sword to the arch each time until all the dancers are included and the swords have formed a mesh. The Hänsele character then stands under the centre of the mesh and the dancers cheer while circling around him (possibly an evolved form of the mock execution found in other sword dances). There are then simple single-over and single-under type figures. At the end of the sword dance, the dancers take partners from the women in traditional dress who follow the procession and perform a sequence of couples dances.” {END}

 

Notes:

(1) H.A. Guerber, Myths of the Norsemen: From the Eddas and Sagas, London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1908, Chapter V: Tyr, pp. 85-86.

(2) For more on this broader topic, see the work of Sam “Bo” Thompson, an Appalachian master blacksmith and practicing Celtic Pagan of the Irish tradition: Metal Never Lies: An Introduction to Metal Magic (2022).

(3) A subject I first became interested in when I was a Muslim convert initiate to a Sufi order, with a spiritual lineage (silsila) from Morocco closely connected with that country's Guilds. This was simultaneous (and complementary, in many respects) to my Anarchism: Joseph-Pierre Proudhon wrote much about the Guilds as a model for a functioning Stateless society. Then later during my studies and travels in Turkiye, I came to know the historical intersection of the Guilds (Esnaf) and the mystical Ahi tradition of Anatolia. 

I was always drawn to the notion of medieval chivalry and the Grail Mythos, which I was able to see with a fresh perspective once awakened to the wellspring of my own European Indigeny. The Guilds were an outgrowth of these ancient esoteric traditions – the local expression of the broader Pagan Mysteries – and only later became wholly associated with their profit/labor motive. They harkened back to a time when there was no separation between the spiritual and material, but where every activity and function of society was imbued with conscious spiritual energy.