Sater

Attestation: Sater, though coming from the Latin Saturn, is found within Frankish sources. An interaction between Queen Clotilde and King Clovis I recorded by Gregory of Tours in his Ten Books of Histories, volume 2 chapter 29, where Clotilde, attempting to persuade Clovis I to allow her son Ingomer to be baptized says “The gods whom you worship are no good… The very names which you have given them were the names of men, not of gods. Take your Saturn, for example, who ran away from his own son to avoid being exiled from his kingdom, or so they say…” She continues to name several other Latin gods diminishing their status and making accusations against them: Jupiter, his unnamed sister, Mercury, and Mars. However, if we ignore the Christian bias from the speaker and the writer there is a snapshot of the possible gods worshiped by the Franks, whether mistakenly named or not.

We also have the name Saturn seen throughout the Germanic world using the name Saturn within their days of the week following the Latin standard.

Etymology: There are several attested etymologies for the name Saturn. Varro, in De lingua latina 5.64, asserts that the name comes from satus, or “sowing.” From Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, Quintus Lucilius Balbus suggests that the name comes from satis, meaning “filled, plenty.” While the cult of Saturn is well known in Italy, these etymologies may help to expand his Frankish cultus. The Frankish day analogous to diēs Saturnī is Saterdag, thus Sater from Saturn.

TFA Interpretation: Sater takes the roles of despotic king and the Lord of Misrule during Satertîd. The one who hoards the wealth and resources needed to secure the wellbeing of his people. Keeping in mind that the divine presides over their aspect as well as the opposite (ex. Apollon as Paean and as seen in the Illiad the bringer of plague), Sater would also be the generous king, sharing wealth and granting abundance in harvest. He is called Meginfîronâri (Great-Reveler) who delights in disturbing the order the gods so love and whose thirst can never be satiated. During Satertîd – his celebration coinciding with Jiol – Sater sends out a cohort of gods to retrieve his boar, the Saterbaracho, as he revels in the madness he’s created.