Religion on the Road—Nehalennia Revisited: Voyagers Addressing a North Sea Deity in the Second Century CE
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Gert van Klinken
Abstract
Connections between travel and religion are discussed by an analysis of the seafarers’ cult of Nehalennia during the early Roman Empire in a region that now belongs to the seaboard of the Dutch province of Zeeland. Veneration of Nehalennia exemplifies an important aspect of transition, not only for those who made the perilous journey between Britain and the European mainland so many years ago, but also for those who study religious history from a modern perspective. The cult of Nehalennia demonstrates the impact of Mediterranean concepts of the divine on local culture in the North, a dissemination that clearly received an impetus from travel between different regions of the vast Roman Empire. It is noticed that some aspects that are commonly attributed to the era of Christianization during Frankish rule can already be observed in pagan form in the Nehalennia cult during the second century CE. In order to understand the formative process that was to shape the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, this case study suggests that many of its characteristics were brought in during the preceding Roman era, when paganism in the form of fusion between Greco-Roman and native Germanic motives was still the norm. Despite massive demographic and political change, continuity in the religious developments during the first millennium CE deserves academic attention. Both in the Roman and in the early Medieval era ideas used to be exchanged via networks of trading connections, and not only by the agency of religious professionals.
Abstract
Connections between travel and religion are discussed by an analysis of the seafarers’ cult of Nehalennia during the early Roman Empire in a region that now belongs to the seaboard of the Dutch province of Zeeland. Veneration of Nehalennia exemplifies an important aspect of transition, not only for those who made the perilous journey between Britain and the European mainland so many years ago, but also for those who study religious history from a modern perspective. The cult of Nehalennia demonstrates the impact of Mediterranean concepts of the divine on local culture in the North, a dissemination that clearly received an impetus from travel between different regions of the vast Roman Empire. It is noticed that some aspects that are commonly attributed to the era of Christianization during Frankish rule can already be observed in pagan form in the Nehalennia cult during the second century CE. In order to understand the formative process that was to shape the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, this case study suggests that many of its characteristics were brought in during the preceding Roman era, when paganism in the form of fusion between Greco-Roman and native Germanic motives was still the norm. Despite massive demographic and political change, continuity in the religious developments during the first millennium CE deserves academic attention. Both in the Roman and in the early Medieval era ideas used to be exchanged via networks of trading connections, and not only by the agency of religious professionals.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Contributors VII
- Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences 1
- “And as They Travelled Eastward” (Gen 11:2): Travel in the Book of Genesis and the Anonymous Travelers in the Tower of Babel Account 11
- The Consolations of Travel: Reading Seneca’s Ad Marciam vis-à-vis Paul of Tarsus 33
- The (Missing) Motif of “Returning Home” from an Otherworldly Journey in Menippean Literature and the New Testament 55
- The Educational Aspect of the Lukan Travel Narrative: Jesus as a Πεπαιδευμένος 73
- Acts of the Apostles—A Celebration of Uncertainty? Constructing a Dialogical Self for the Early Jesus Movement 97
- “Today or Tomorrow We Will Go to Such and Such a City” (Jas 4:13): The Experience of Interconnectivity and the Mobility of Norms in the Ancient Globalized World 113
- Heavenly Journey and Divine Epistemology in the Fourth Gospel 145
- Following Vespasian in His Footsteps: Movement and (E)motion Management in Josephus’ Judean War 161
- Religion on the Road—Nehalennia Revisited: Voyagers Addressing a North Sea Deity in the Second Century CE 181
- Mapping Cosmological Space in the Apocalypse of Paul and the Visio Pauli: The Actualization of Virtual Spatiality in Two Pauline Apocalyptical Journeys based on 2 Cor 12:2–4 189
- The Travels of Barnabas: From the Acts of the Apostles to Late Antique Hagiographic Literature 229
- Rabbinic Geography: Between the Imaginary and Real 251
- The Journey of Zayd Ibn ʿAmr: In Search of True Worship 269
- Nautical Fiction of Late Antiquity: Jews and Christians Traveling by Sea 295
- Monasteries as Travel Loci for Muslims and Christians (500–1000 CE) 313
- Sachregister 337
- Stellenregister 341
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of Contributors VII
- Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Travel Experiences 1
- “And as They Travelled Eastward” (Gen 11:2): Travel in the Book of Genesis and the Anonymous Travelers in the Tower of Babel Account 11
- The Consolations of Travel: Reading Seneca’s Ad Marciam vis-à-vis Paul of Tarsus 33
- The (Missing) Motif of “Returning Home” from an Otherworldly Journey in Menippean Literature and the New Testament 55
- The Educational Aspect of the Lukan Travel Narrative: Jesus as a Πεπαιδευμένος 73
- Acts of the Apostles—A Celebration of Uncertainty? Constructing a Dialogical Self for the Early Jesus Movement 97
- “Today or Tomorrow We Will Go to Such and Such a City” (Jas 4:13): The Experience of Interconnectivity and the Mobility of Norms in the Ancient Globalized World 113
- Heavenly Journey and Divine Epistemology in the Fourth Gospel 145
- Following Vespasian in His Footsteps: Movement and (E)motion Management in Josephus’ Judean War 161
- Religion on the Road—Nehalennia Revisited: Voyagers Addressing a North Sea Deity in the Second Century CE 181
- Mapping Cosmological Space in the Apocalypse of Paul and the Visio Pauli: The Actualization of Virtual Spatiality in Two Pauline Apocalyptical Journeys based on 2 Cor 12:2–4 189
- The Travels of Barnabas: From the Acts of the Apostles to Late Antique Hagiographic Literature 229
- Rabbinic Geography: Between the Imaginary and Real 251
- The Journey of Zayd Ibn ʿAmr: In Search of True Worship 269
- Nautical Fiction of Late Antiquity: Jews and Christians Traveling by Sea 295
- Monasteries as Travel Loci for Muslims and Christians (500–1000 CE) 313
- Sachregister 337
- Stellenregister 341
