Albruna
She was mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, after the seeress Veleda, and he implied that the two were venerated because of true divine inspiration by the Germanic peoples, in contrast to Roman women who were fabricated into goddesses.
Moreover, it is pointed out that the emendation Albruna is noteworthy in its possible meanings, and that it is similar to the name of another early Germanic priestess.
In spite of the extensive treatment of the Germanic peoples in the work, only four are mentioned by name, and she is one of them beside the seeress Veleda and the kings Maroboduus and Tudrus.
[2] sed et olim Albrunam et compluris alias venerati sunt, non adulatione nec tamquam facerent deas.
[6]The reference to "making goddesses out of women" is considered to serve to contrast the Germanic reverence of their seeresses with the Roman custom of deifying female members of the imperial family, such as Drusilla, and Poppaea.
[11] Much (1967) and Kienast identify her with the tall but unnamed Germanic seeress who addressed Drusus in his own language and frightened him so much with her prophecies that he did not dare cross the Elbe with his troops in 9 BC and returned after which he died.
[14] Cassius Dio (book LV): From there he proceeded to the country of the Cherusci, and crossing the Visurgis, advanced as far as the Albis, pillaging everything on his way.
It is indeed marvellous that such a voice should have come to any man from the Deity, yet I cannot discredit the tale; for Drusus immediately departed, and as he was returning in haste, died on the way of some disease before reaching the Rhine.
[15]Suetonius: He also killed many of the enemy and forced them far back into the most remote places of the interior, not leaving off his pursuit until an apparition, in the form of a barbarian woman but of greater than human size, gave a warning, in the Latin language, that the victor should not press further on.
Since they would have had some familiarity with the northern Germanic seeresses, they could have imagined that only the supernatural powers of these sorceresses could have thwarted the advance of the Roman legions.
In Scandinavian sources, there is evidence for sacrifices to the elves in Austrfararvísur, where Sighvatr Þórðarson was refused lodging in western Sweden because people were sacrificing, and also in Kormáks saga.
[30] Sixth century Goth scholar Jordanes reported in his Getica that the early Goths had called their seeresses haliuru(n)nae and the word also identified in Old English, hellerune ('seeress' or 'witch') and in OHG as hellirûna ('necromancy') and hellirunari ('necromancer'),[31][32] and from these forms an earlier Proto-Germanic form *χalja-rūnō(n) has been reconstructed,[33] in which the first element is *χaljō, i.e. Hel, the abode of the dead,[34] and the second is *rūnō ('mystery, secret').
[2] Although, Orchard cautions that most manuscripts have the name Aurinia, he considers Albruna to be "highly appropriate" and he agrees on the translation 'elf-confidante'.
[12] Simek considers Albrinia and Aurinia to be the more likely forms but comments that the etymological interpretations of Albruna are very tempting.
[2] Schramm writes that in 2002, the Albruna interpretation fell apart like a "house of cards", when Lena Peterson did research on the Hersfeld manuscript, which during the Middle Ages was the only extant copy.
[38] Schramm argues that Aurinia was confused by an Italian copyist with the name of the town Albinia, which resulted in the form Albrinia, on which the Albruna reading is based.
[39] Already Schönfeld (1910) reacted against the emendation Albruna and suggested that Aurinia may have been a Celtic name that was borrowed by the Germanic peoples.
He concludes that Lena Peterson may be right in calling Albruna a "ghost name", but the existence of Guiliaruna makes it less so.
