Waluburg

Waluburg, 'magic staff protection' (Greek: Βαλουβουργ), was a second century Germanic seeress (sorceress, priestess) from the Semnonian tribe whose existence was revealed by the archaeological find of an ostracon, a pot shard of the type that was used by scribes to write receipts in Roman Egypt.

Waluburg probably was taught her craft by a fellow tribeswoman, the seeress Ganna, who succeeded Veleda as a leader of the Germanic resistance against the Romans and who is known to have had an audience with emperor Domitian.

The reason how and why Waluburg ended up in southern Egypt at the First Cataract of the Nile is not known, but scholars speculate that she may have arrived while accompanying a warband of her own tribe in Roman service, that she was a war prisoner, or that she was a valuable hostage.

[6][7][8] In North Germanic accounts, the seeresses were always equipped with a staff, a vǫlr,[9] the Old Norse form of the same Proto-Germanic word *waluz.

The grade -*burgō 'protection' was possible on the other hand because it was connected to a female noun meaning 'fortress' (*burgz[14]), and in this way gender associations and sensitivities would have been respected.

It is dated to the second century AD and it was found on the island of Elephantine opposite Aswan (Syene) at the southern Egyptian border.

[3] Among the proper names are such that were usually given to servants and slaves, so it lists the members of a group of people occupied in service to the Roman governor.

Schubart transcribed it as Baloubourg, but he identified it as Walburg, then a rare feminine Germanic name that appears in Walpurgis Night.

[3] Consequently, it has been suggested that the ostracon is from a later time, but the ethnonym, or cult name, Semnones did not survive the seonnd century, and it was last attested in 179/180 AD by Cassius Dio.

[3] Schubart also proposes that Waluburg may also have been a war prisoner accompanying a Roman soldier in his career that led to his being stationed in Egypt at the first cataract.