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Matrons and Disir:The Heathen Tribal Mothers

By Winifred Hodge

Matron Worship in Germanic Lands

A belief and trust in protective maternal deities seems to have been strong among our Heathen forebears for many centuries, at least as strong as their belief in the Aesir and Vanir more familiar to us today. The earliest written records of these beliefs begin during the first century C.E. and predominate in the lands of the continental Germans. The core areas of the Matron Cult were in ancient Germania, eastern Gaul, and northern Italy, but it reached as far as present day Scotland, Frisia, southern Spain and Rome. More than 1100 votive stones and altars to the "matrons" or mothers have been found to date, over half of which are dedicated to beings with clearly Germanic names; the others are of Celtic origin or are unclear whether Celtic or Germanic. The Germanic folk and the Celts apparently shared this belief, as with a number of other similarities between the beliefs of these peoples.

More than simple votive stones have been found, however: in some areas there were large cult centers, temples and monuments, especially along the Rhine. Some of the largest were in Pesch, Nettersheim, and Bonn. The temples, monuments and votive stones show that the following were important to the worship of the mothers:
-burning bowls of incense
-sacrifices of fruit, fish, and pigs,
-imagery of fruit baskets, plants, trees, babies, children, cloths for wrapping babies, and snakes.
Images of the mothers generally show them in a group of three, though occasionally two or one are found; usually at least one of them holds a basket of fruit, and often a baby is held. Often all of them have clothing and hairstyles or headdressing indicating their matron status, though sometimes the middle figure is shown dressed as a maiden, with her hair loose.