Mercurius Hranno

Mercurius Hranno is a Germanic god, who is only attested in one dedicatory inscription from the 2nd to 3rd century in Hümmerich, a district of the town of Bornheim.

In Old Norse, "Hranno" means "rough guy" or "loudmouth", alluding to an aspect of the personality of Odin.

In 1984 the epigraphic and archaeological value of the piece was recognised and it was handed it over to the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn for scientific examination.

The name of the donor Nigrinia (a derivative of the nomen Nigrinius) has the peculiarity that it is only documented in Gallia Belgica and Germania.

To clarify the epithet Norbert Wagner draws evidence from Germanic personal names.

In the fornaldarsaga of Hrólfs saga kraka, Odin appears disguised as a farmer named Hrani.

In Old Norse (as well as Modern Icelandic) "Hrani" is an appelation applied to loudmouths, rough guys, and braggarts.

The epithet is attested both in an early inscription and in later saga literature, which Neumann sees as an example of well-attested linguistic conservatism of the north of Germania.

The question of why a woman has offered veneration to this explicitly masculine deity will probably remain unclear, depending on future archaeological finds.