Copy of The Warrior of Hirschlanden (German: Krieger von Hirschlanden)
Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian and ethnographer who chronicled eye-witness accounts from other cultures. In his great work Germania, dated to 80-100 A.D., he described the neighboring Germanic tribes to the best of his ability, providing an excellent source to the Iron Age tribes of the north. This is something of what he wrote about how young men were raised and trained and initiated into the all-important matter of becoming a warrior in such an age.
• Young men and boys were not allowed to carry arms until they were officially recognized as capable of wielding them.
• When they had showed themselves worthy and capable, there was a rite of manhood at the Parliament where everybody gathered to watch the young man receive shield and spear from his father or another, older male relative.
• Not even princes or sons of very highborn noblemen were free from the demand of having to show themselves worthy. On their path towards full status as a leader, noble boys must still live as ordinary soldiers in service to a chief not their own father.
• As a boy, there is little that separates the life of a freeborn or noble born boy, from the life of a slave. It is completely unknown to pamper boys just because they are sons of chiefs and nobles or kings. They live with the servants and sleep on the same earthen floors and have no right to a sexual life until they have proven their abilities as warriors.
• When a boy reaches puberty, he covers his face with a mask and walks about with this mask until he has managed to kill an enemy on the battlefield.
• When he has finally killed an enemy, he stands above the bloodied corpse and takes his mask off ceremoniously while crying out that he has now paid back the debt he owes to his father and mother for bringing him into this world, and that he has now shown himself worthy for the tribe and for his parents.
• Among some tribes it was even common for boys at puberty to start wearing a slavering around his neck all the way until he has shown himself worthy. This was a sort of humiliation that was intended to remind the young warrior-to-be that he was no more worth than a slave until he had proven his courage and his skills as a warrior.
• Only then could he let his hair and beard grow or apply any of the other hairdos that were reserved for the warriors of a given tribe. Further to the north it was common to wear a manbun, it was illegal for men who were not free warriors who had proven themselves to wear a manbun.
• Cowards who did not fight had to keep shaving and keep their hair short, just like slaves.
Comments