MMario

Please accept my apologies for playing with you a little yesterday (there are, of course, no textual sources from the C7th). I may, also, be slightly out in identifying Erce with Eostre, as this one-off (from The Lacnuga) may be one of the names for Nerthus, the earth goddess. I'm inclined to wonder, though, if (in common with some other celtic groups) the germanic tribes didn't have a triple goddess.

The real clincher that Eostre is a goddess actually comes from the calendar. Before the use of the Julian calendar (which came with Christianity), the germanic tribes (and presumably other celtic tribes, though most of these were conquered too early by the Romans for the information to reliably exist) had their own calendar and, as with the days of the week, many of the months were named after gods or goddesses. The month most closely approximating April was named for Eostre (Old English) or Ostara (Old High German) in her honour as (OE) Eosturmonað, (OHG) Ostarmanoth.

I believe it was Grimm, in the C19th, who identified the meaning of the word as being similar to the word used for dawn and light. He was quite a good etymologist but it can be nothing more than an educated guess, even so (though he was most probably right). If he was right, she may well have been a sky goddes, though her identification with fertility would then be rather more difficult.

I wonder if the d-thorn comes out on Mudcat!!!

Cheers!
Ian