A NEW IDENTIFICATION OF THE NORTH BRITISH GOD VETERIS

Snake and Boar from Veteris Altar

Altar to Mogons Vitiris at Netherby, Cumbria

(see https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/971)

Most authorities have thought that the name Veteris or Vitiris rather transparently draws upon the Latin veteris, meaning in this context something like “the Old One” (veteris as a genitive singular of vetus ‘old’).  There are other theories, of course, but none are particularly convincing.[1]  It is a shame that we don't know anything about this deity, given that Veteris was one of the most important gods of Northern Britain during the Roman period.

In the past I tried to make a case for his name being of Germanic origin:

"... something akin to Old English hwyttre, hwitere, forms of the word hwit, meaning “white”?  I thought of this because the Chesterholm Roman fort was called Vindolanda, the ‘White Moor/Heath’.  This fort has the second highest concentration of dedications to Veteris; only Carvoran has more.  And this means Vindolanda could, conceivably, be the cult center of Veteres.  Netherby, where we find Mogons Veteres, is hard by the ‘White Dales’ of Myrddin.

Old English hwīt (comparative hwītra, superlative hwītost),  “white”
Proto-Germanic *hwītaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kweit-. Cognate with Old High German wīz (German weiß), Old Norse hvítr (Swedish vit).
Spellings in declension such as hwitre, etc.

When I wrote to Professor Ranko Matasovic about this, he responded thusly:

“OE hwitere is a good formal match to Viteris. But the word for 'white' is inherited in Germanic, of course (cf. its correspondent in Lith. kviečiai 'wheat'); it is not a borrowing from Celtic. Irish h-prothesis is much older, and in Greek h- is from *s- or *sw-, so the spelling hv- in Vitires probably indicates that the name is not Celtic."

However, as it turns out the majority of the worshipers of Veteris appear to have been Celtic.  There is an excellent and detailed treatment of this god at http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6643/2/6643_3946-vol2.PDF. Other Germanic etymologies are briefly discussed in this source, although any that rely upon (or resort to?) late Norse names can be ignored. The summary from the study is particularly enlightening:

"Thus it is that the god Veteris (in whatever variation of

the spelling) was a god who appealed to the lower strata
of society. The cult in its Romanised form flourished

mainly on the Hadrianic frontier probably during the third

century AD and perhaps beyond. It is possible that

Veteris was imported from abroad by auxiliary soldiers but

more probable that an indigenous deity is in question.

Addressed by his votaries in various forms - singular

and plural~ masculine and feminine and perhaps even neuter

- the deity seems ill-defined and amorphous as might befit

a vague and primitive spirit of nature. Yet the Celtic

symbolism detected on some of the altars suggests a

concern with hunting and fertility, healing and

protection. There is a similarity to the dedications to

Belatucadrus~ yet to be discussed, and it may be that, as

will be suggest for Belatucadrus~ Veteris should be

regarded as the god of a specific community. If of course

Veteris is regarded as imported, then that community is

not likely to represent an indigenous tribal grouping but

rather an assemblage of incomers. On the other hand~ if

the indigenous nature of Veteris is accepted, then a

native tribal group is the likely source of the cult.

That this tribal group was not the same as that belonging

to Belatucadrus is suggested by the fact that despite some

overlapping, the distribution of the dedications to the

two deities does not coincide. A location within the Tyne 

Gap would seem called for. In addition, from what has been 

said, the attractive hypothesis suggests itself that the deity 

belonging to this tribal group was not only pre-Roman but 

pre-Celtic. This could account for some of the difficulties in

interpretation and~ while it cannot be proved~ the

possibility of such antiquity should be recognised."

I've gone so far as to propose Celtic roots for the name.  Dr. Simon Rodway of The University of Wales suggested the following:

“Welsh gwid derives from a participle *wi-to- 'hunted, desired' or *wi-ti- 'the hunt, enjoyment (of food)' according to GPC. The second form looks compatible with the forms in Viti-, but does not explain those in *Vete- (unless these are examples of Vulgar Latin <e> for <i>). As for the ending -ris, it could be from -ri:x 'king'. Kenneth Jackson (LHEB 535, 625) states that -x (i.e. /xs/) had become -s in Brittonic 'by the fifth century'. This is rather late, and at any rate it has been challenged by Patrick Sims-Williams. However, one might compare a 3rd century inscription from Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall: CVNARIS < *Cunori:x 'hound-like king'. Here the change of composition vowel /o/ > /a/ suggests this is probably an Irish name. So, Irish influence could account for -x > -s in your name too. Alternatively, there are Vulgar Latin examples of -s for -x, e.g. felis for felix.”

Alas, the -ris for -ri:x does not work as many of the inscriptions come from the 2nd century.  

A rather brilliant idea, I thought, seeks to connect Veteris with an ancient root for 'willow.'  This could be significant given the god Esus's connection to this tree.  I will have more on Esus below.

Proto-Celtic *weti- 'withe' [Noun]

GOlD: Mlr.feith [i f] 'some kind of twining plant'

W: MW gwden, gwyden [f] 'withe' [GPC: withe; rope (coil, band, &c.) of plaited withes (esp. for traces), snare, noose, hangman’s halter.]

BRET: MBret. gueden, MoBret. gwedenn [f]

CO: OCo. guiden gl. circulus, MCo. gusen [Singulative]

PIE: *weyh,t-i- 'willow, withe' (IEW: 1122)

But again, if the name Veteris is from 'willow' we can't account for the -ris terminal.  No matter what we do in terms of etymology, we end up coming back to the Latin word for an old/ancient deity.  The problem has always been: just who or what is the Old God?

Well, when we look at the distribution of the Veteris inscriptions, we notice something fascinating.  The heaviest concentration of altars is found at Carvoran and the second largest at Vindolanda.  While Vindolanda lies just south of the Wall, between these two forts is Aesica, the 'Place of [the god] Esus.'  Oddly enough, we have not found a single dedication to Esus. [For a good treatment of Esus, see http://www.chronarchy.com/esus/aboutesus.html.]

The iconography for Veteris may provide a clue as to this god's identity. On a Veteris altar at Netherby two trees are depicted.  Accompanying the trees are a boar and a snake.  The trees are generally described as apple trees. The following is from https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/352614/Anna.Thesis.v2correct.print.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y:

"Only one of these [altars to Veteris] has reliefs, possibly telling us something about the character of Veteris. RIB 973 only bears the inscription deo hveteri, or “To the god Hveter”, on the front. On the left side however, we can see a scene of a tree and a snake encircling it. The right side shows another tree and the snout and forefeet of a boar, which is all that remains of a fuller representation. These scenes are often interpreted as alluding to two of the works of Hercules, that is the apple tree of the Hesperides guarded by the serpent-like dragon Ladon and the Erymanthian boar... The boar and snake, especially within scenes set in nature, in this case the forest, were also common elements in Celtic religion and mythology. However, the Romano-British context of the find in Netherby, where the soldiers of the Roman fort Castra Exploratorum were stationed, does suggest that Interpretatio Romana would be likely. Also, the altar shows two spiralled columns between both sides and the middle panel and the top is decorated with a frieze of geometrical shapes. This gives the altar the look of a Roman temple, which was a practice unknown to the people of Britain before the Roman conquest. This altar is made with an incredible skill not seen on any other altar to Veteris, which are all rather plain." 

The god Esus is portrayed on a relief as a heavily muscled figure chopping down a willow tree.  In other words, he physically resembles Hercules.  I would add that the Erymanthian boar is associated with cypress trees.  One of the Hesperides, viz. Aegle or Aigle, was a willow tree goddess. 

So might Veteris be Esus?  I think this is possible.  How?

Here is what Professor Ranko Matasovic had to tell me about the divine name Esus:

"I think the name comes from PIE *h1esh2os "lord", and is cognate with Latin erus 'lord, master', Hittite ishas 'id.'. The spelling aesus stems from a period when Latin /ae/ and /e/ were no longer distinguished, so I believe the spelling Esus (found in Lucan) is original."

This etymology is generally accepted, although (as I've mentioned above) other ideas have been proposed.  For example, it has been traced to either PIE *eis- "passion or fury", *ais- "to respect, to honor", Italic aisus, esus, "god,", the Breton word (h)euzuz, meaning "terrible" or esu, "good" (cf. Gk. eus and also archaic Indic asura). There may be more proposed derivations out there somewhere; I have not done a comprehensive search for such.  

But what I wondered whether the god-name could be from Proto-Celtic

*ay-sso-, *ay-to- ‘life, age’ [Noun] 

GOID: OIr. aes, oes [o n]; cf. OIr. aesta 'old, ancient'

W: OW ois [f] ‘age’, MW oes [GPC 'age, long indefinite period; century']; OW oit [f and m] ‘time, period’, MW oed 
BRET: OBret. oit, MBret. oet 
CO: OCo. huis gl. seculum, Co. oys 

PIE: *h 2 ey-(wo)- ‘age’ (IEW: 17f.)

Or, if not from this root, could it be that in Britain the divine name Esus were interpreted as if it came from *ay-sso-?

This did not seem like a ridiculous notion to me.  So, as I always do, I went and asked the experts.

Dr. Simon Rodway contributed this:

"*aysso- (to use Matasovic’s notation), according to Jackson’s chronology (LHEB, 329-30) would give *ɛ:ss- (with long open e) by about the 1c. AD, *ɛis(s) (with glide i) by the 6c. and Welsh ois by early or mid-8c. (recte c. 800, because some of Jackson’s datings of Old Welsh texts are too early). Might there have been an early (mistaken) connection with Esus/Aesus? Not impossible, I think, but the quality of the vowel in Esus is unclear and the etymology unprovable."

To which Professor Peter Schrijver added:

"I find it very hard to make any pronouncement on the etymology of an extremely short string ES in which the first element is unstable (AES) and the second could be a number of earlier phonological structures (st, ts, tt, ss, s). But even if Esus were not actually from the root *aysso-, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the name could easily have been wrongly interpreted in this fashion."

These are not exactly resounding endorsements of my solution to the problem posed by the name Veteris.  But, given the degree of scholarly uncertainty about the meaning of Esus, I feel justified in proposing that either the name is from a root meaning 'old' or, more likely, the worshipers of Esus in Britain interpreted their god's name as meaning the Old/Ancient One and so substituted Latin Veteris. 

I've asked several other leading Celtic linguists about this matter.  Once I hear back from them, I will post their responses here.

[1]

Two names of dedicators to Veteres are worth singling out.  These are Senaculus and Senilis.  

https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/1699

for Senaculus

and

RIB 3339 Vindolanda Inscription a.d. 43-410
Veteribus posuit Senilis


Both names (see https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/personalnames/search.php?s_element=seno-) contain Celtic *seno- 'old.'

To my mind, this is yet more evidence for Veteres as the Old God.  

NOTE ON MYRDDIN AND VETERIS

Given that the Netherby Roman fort with its Veteris altars is directly between Myrddin's/Merlin's/Llallog's/Llallogan's Carwinley and Arthuret, I've often wondered if some aspect of the god may be involved in the story of this famous Welsh madman and prophet.

Firstly, the Veteris iconography at Netherby includes what appears to be an apple tree and a boar.  We are reminded immediately of Myrddin's apple tree and pig in the early Welsh poetry.  

Secondly, if Veteris is Esus, the latter's willow tree may be present in the Myrddin story.  For we are told that Merlin is buried at the Powsail or 'Willow Pool', now Drumelzier Burn on the Tweed. This is a relocation of the Willow Pool near the confluence of the Esk and the Liddel (the Liddel has a tributary called the Tweed or Tweeden, which Brythonic place-name expert Alan James believes may well be ancient). 

Thirdly, according to Anne Ross and Don Robbins in their THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A DRUID PRINCE, Esus may be one of the gods involved in the Triple Sacrificial Death.  He seems to have been offered victims by hanging and stabbing, much as was said to be true of the Germanic god Odin. Merlin undergoes such a ritualized execution (see https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-triple-sacrifice-of-merlinllallogan.html), although in the past I and others have firmly connected this with the similar triple death of the god Lleu in the MABINOGION.

And fourth, the Llallog/Llallogan nickname of Myrddin derives from Welsh llall, which has as one of its definitions '(the) second', according to the authoritative GPC.  One of the altars to Veteris at Netherby was dedicated by an Aelius Secundus.  This is probably mere happy coincidence, but it is interesting, nonetheless.