Thingsô

Attestation: Found within the Housesteads Roman Fort along Hadrian’s Wall in northern England are several votive altars, one dedicated to Mars Thincsus. In Latin it reads Deo Marti Thincso et duabus Alaisiagis Bede et Fimmilene et N(umini) Aug(usti) Germ(ani) cives Tuihanti v(otum) s(olverunt) l(ibentes) m(erito) translated as “To the god Mars Thincsus and the two Alaisiagae, Beda and Fimmilena, and to the Divinity of the Emperor the Germans, being tribesmen of Twenthe, willingly and deservedly fulfilled their vow.” This altar was dedicated by a Germanic tribesman, possibly from modern Holland, serving at an auxiliary fort at Hadrian’s Wall.

Etymology: The modern Frankish theonym Thingsō comes from the dative form of the epithet Thincsus from the latinized name Marti Thincso, relating to the Germanic concept of the thing or “legal assembly.”

TFA Interpretation: Within the TFA, Thingsō follows the associations given to Mars as well as a more Germanic association. We see him first as the “Spring-Tiller” who prepares the fields for the growing season as well as defending the fields and homestead from harm, be it force or baneful charms. We can see many references to the charming of the Earth for fertility against harmful charms such as northern Germanic plough-charming and the Anglo-Saxon Æcerbot as well as the Roman rite of Suovetaurilia for the purifying of the land. For his namesake he is as well the “Thing-God”, leading the legal assemblies and mediating disputes. Through his association to Roman Mars we can also assume Thingsō to be a god associated to warfare and battle-glory.