Day of Remembrance for Herman of the Cherusci

September (Shedding) 9th
Day of Remembrance for Herman of the Cherusci

Few mortals have served our ancestral Folk as did Herman, better known as Arminius (his Latinized name), was born in around 18 BCE to the Chieftain of the Cherusci. He was trained as a Roman military commander and achieved the Roman status of Equestrian as a citizen of Rome.

Around 4 CE Hermann assumed command of a Cheruscan detachment of Roman auxiliary forces and returned to the northern part of Germania in around 7 CE where the Roman Empire had hoped to extend its hegemony further to the east under the governorship of Publius Quinctilius Varus, who had been appointed by Caesar Augustus. Hermann began plotting to unite several Germanic tribes to thwart Roman efforts to incorporate their territories into their empire.

In the Fall of 9 CE, Hermann, then 25 years old, along with his alliance of Germanic tribes, launched an ambush and annihilated a Roman Army under the command of Varus. This Roman Army consisted of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Legions, three cavalry detachments, and six cohorts of auxiliaries, totaling around 20,000 men. Now known as the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, this battle took place near Kalkriese Hill, north of Osnabruck, Germany. When Roman defeat became apparent, Varus committed suicide by falling upon his own sword.

Today, Hermann is a great symbol of Germanic unity! He is a great Germanic hero because he not only preserved the freedom of northern Germany and Scandinavia, but also made possible the transmission of the common law to England, and eventually to America.

Herman was very aware of his duties not only as a member of his tribe but also as an Asatru man - indeed, I believe, that the two may have been inseparable with him. Shedding is the ideal time to give him praise, because the crucial battle for which he is remembered is generally believed to have been fought during this month.

Today I will raise a horn to all of those that have stood there ground against the armies of Rome that would take away the individual freedoms of our ancestors and to all of those today (both military and civilian) that look to keep our freedoms still.

Hail to Herman the German. SKAL!

Hail to the folk