The Goddess Ertha

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Ertha, Earth.
6Ð1
[to Whom the eighth day of July, day 189, is dedicated]

Geography/Culture: Scandinavian.
Linguistic notes: {maybe the above form of Her name is pronounced =ð1, or =31}. Some English variants of the meaning: eorthe, horthe, irthe, urth(e), yerth(e), herthe, yorth. Old Saxon erthe. Middle Dutch aerde, erde. Cognate with Dutch aarde. Swedish, Danish jord. Gothic airtha. Greek epsilong-rho-alpha (era), 'ground'. English related words: earth; hearth (the ground on which a fire is made); aardvark. {And I would have thought: yard (somehow related to Swedish, Danish jord), area (somehow related to the Greek era).
Description: Goddess of earth and fertility.

Variant: Aertha.
Perhaps cognate with: Edda, Great-Grandmother, qv.
Transliteration variant: Erda.
Alternate name: Fjorgyn, see below.
Cognate with Jorth, see below.
Variant: Hretha, see below.
Cognate with Nerthus, see below.
Identified by some with Germanic Percha, Shining-One, qv.
Perhaps cognate with Urthr, qv Nornir.

Sources: MP.BGH/137; GN.BB/65, 118, 152, 158, 301.

Fjorgyn, Mountain.
FYØRGYN
Geography/Culture: West Gothonic tribes.
Linguistic note: Gothic {or Gothonic?} Fairguni, Old English fyrgen, 'mountain'.
Description: Hermaphroditic earth; earth Mother, earth father; SheHe Who is the ground, the land, the soil, the country.
Male associate: Odin, is Her male aspect.

Mother/father of, and/or Frigg, ,(qv), Herself.
Perhaps Mother/father of Fulla, (qv <Frigg), since Fulla is sometimes called the Sister of Frigg.
Variant: Fyorgyn.
Also called: Jorth, see below.
Daughtson of Nott, qv Sunna, Night.

Source: Branston GN 112, 152.

Hretha, Earth-Lady.
HR=Ð1
Geography/Culture: Anglo Saxon.
Linguistic notes: see Ertha.
Description: Eponym of the third month of the Anglo Saxon year.
To Whom is sacred: February to March (perhaps to the equinox).

Variant of Ertha.
See also Eostre, qv Ostara.
Variant Herta.
Variant Hertha.

Source: Branston LGE 51.

Jorth, Earth-Mother.
YØR3
Description: Goddess of earth and fertility.
Male associate: consort/father, Odin, ----, as sky father; son, Thor, ----.

Perhaps an earlier name for Frigg, ,qv.
Also called: Fjorgyn, above.
Transliteration variant: Jord.

Source: Branston GN 117-8.

Nerthus, Earth.
N63US
Geography/Culture: Anglian group of Gothonic tribes, and other tribes along the west coast of the Baltic. Denmark, especially the North Sea regions.
Description: Mother earth; Goddess of fertility; She Who interests Herself in the human affairs and rides among the tribes; She Who abhors iron.
To whom are sacred: grove; domestic animals (especially a white cow or ox); the number 7 (the number of German tribes who accompanied the journey of Her ship-wagon); Frothi's-peace (which comes upon the land when She rides among the people); ship-wagon (drawn by kine, or oxen, in which Her image was processed among the people); boar-masks; the Ingwaz rune.
Festival: in spring She processed among Her people and Her image was bathed.
Male associate: in some way (perhaps by a sex change) connected with Njordr, ----, god of fertility, for the Scandinavian Njord is a masculinization of Nerthus. Perhaps originally a divine Shehe. Her consort (and the name of Her priest) was Ingwaz, (possibly just Ing), {God-of-Heroes}, god of earth.

By Her processional wagon akin to Freya, qv, and Her cat-drawn carriage.
The first consort of Skadi, (qv), was Njordr.

Sources: Branston GN 131, 132, 134, 161, 301; Thorsson FHRM .

printed July 1990 -- worked on July 1990; August 1991; June 1995.
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