1) Celtic root + Germanic adjectival suffix –henae

The name of the Matronae Berguiahenae, for instance, which appears on various inscriptions from Gereonsweiler, Bonn and Tetz (Germany),²⁹⁹ seems at first sight to be Germanic because of the Germanized suffix –henae. And yet, one can notice that their name can be related to the Celtic word bergo-, signifying ‘hill’, derived from IE *bherĝh, ‘high’.³⁰⁰They are thus etymologically linked to Celtic Bergonia (‘Mount’), honoured in Viens (Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur), and Bergusia (‘Mount’) in Mont-Auxois (Côte d’Or).³⁰¹ According to Patrizia De Bernardo Stempel, their name, possibly ‘Those who belong to the Height’, is therefore a Celtic theonym* with a Germanic variant.³⁰²Nonetheless, it should not be forgotten that the IE root *bherĝh gave the word ‘hill’ or ‘mountain’ in Germanic too: *bergaz, in Modern German Berg, ‘mountain’.³⁰³ From this, it follows that the Matronae Berguiahenaeare probably more Germanic than Celtic, all the more so as their name ends in –henae.

The epithet of the Matronae Albiahenae, honoured in Ober-Elvenich,³⁰⁴ is also a ‘Mischkomposita’, for Albia-henae is composed of a Germanized suffix –henae and of a Celtic word alb-, albio-, albo- signifying ‘world (from the above)’, ‘bright world’, ‘celestial’, derived from IE *albho-, ‘white’ and cognate with Welsh elfydd, ‘world’.³⁰⁵ This word is the opposite of dubno- > dumno-, ‘deep, from below, dark’, ‘World from down below’, that is ‘the Underworld, the Otherworld’, present in the Welsh compound Annwfn, ‘Other World’.³⁰⁶In Gaul, three deities have similar names: Albius (‘Of this World’) in Aignay-le-Duc (Côte d’Or),³⁰⁷ Albiorix (‘King of this World’) in Mont-Genèvre (Hautes-Alpes), Vaison-la-Romaine (Vaucluse) and Montsalier (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence)³⁰⁸, and Albiorica (‘Queen of the World’) in Saint-Saturnin d’Apt (Vaucluse).³⁰⁹De Bernardo Stempel glosses the Albiahenae as ‘Those who belong to the Earthly World’.³¹⁰ As far as Neumann is concerned, he thinks that their epithet is a Germanic hydronym* reflected in the name of the river Elbe, which rises in the northern Czech Republic and flows to the North Sea (Central Europe).³¹¹We also saw that their epithet may be a toponym* referring to the town of Albiniacum (Elvenich, Germany).

The same problem is again encountered in the name of the Matres Mediotautehae, venerated in Cologne (Germany): Matribus Mediotautehi[s] Iul(ius) Primus vet(e)ranus leg(ionis) I M(inerviae) P(iae) F(idelis) vslm. ³¹² Olmsted suggests these are Germanic deities, because of the inflexion –ehae.³¹³ However, the first element medio-, ‘central, middle’ is known in Celtic.³¹⁴ In addition, it is possible to recognize in the second element the Celtic word touta, teuta meaning ‘tribe’ or ‘people’, cognate with Old Irish tuath, Middle Welsh tut, ‘tribe’, ‘people’, Welsh tûd, ‘country’, Breton tud, ‘the people’, all coming from IE *teutā, ‘tribe’, ‘people’.³¹⁵ This word is found again in the names of the Gaulish gods Toutatis / Teutates (Mars),³¹⁶ Toutenus (Mercurius),³¹⁷ Teutanus (IOM),³¹⁸ who are ‘The One (God) of the Tribe’ and in Toutiorix (Apollo), ‘The King of the Tribe’.³¹⁹ In addition, the Matres Ollototae, studied above, honoured in Binchester and Heronbridge (Britain), are ‘The Mothers of All the Peoples’. One can also notice that the Irish gods are called the Tuatha Dé Danann, that is ‘the Tribe of the Goddess Danu’.³²⁰ The form tautehae is equivalent to Celtic *toutiko-. Indeed, Neumann specifies that the diphthong /au/ is Germanic and is equivalent to Celtic /ou/.³²¹ As for Olmsted, he advocates that, if the –h- in the inflexion –ehae has the value of –x-, it would indicate that the name was originally Celtic, with an ending in –ica, -eca (*Mediotoutica), and actually underwent a Germanic influence later on.³²² The name of the semi-Celtic, semi-Germanic Matres Mediotautehae can be glossed as ‘The Mothers of the Middle Tribe or ‘of the Central Country’.³²³

Similarly, the Matronae Gesahenae,honoured in Roedingen, Bettenhofen, Deutz and Cologne (Germany), seem to be at first sight Germanic.³²⁴ Neuman proposes to link their name to the Germanic verb geisa, meaning ‘to rage’, ‘to storm’, ‘to charge at’, ‘to attack’, ‘to assault’.³²⁵ Yet, Schmidt and Delamarre list them among the Celtic goddesses, relating the first part of their name gesa- to Celtic gaiso-, gaeso- > geso-, meaning ‘spear’, ‘javelin’, cognate with Old Irish gae, genitive ga, ‘spear’, fo-gha, ‘dart’, ‘javelin’, Welsh gwayw, Old Breton guugoiuou, ‘spear’, ‘javelin’.³²⁶ The Matronae Gesahenae are etymologically linked to the Matronae Gesationum, venerated in an inscription from Iülich (Germany),³²⁷ and to the Gaulish tribe of the Gaesati (‘Armed with Spears’ or ‘Lancers’), who were settled along the Rhône.³²⁸

From all of this, it follows that the origin of some mother-goddesses’ divine epithets confronts us with a problem. Indeed, it is possible to link the first element of those bynames* to the Celtic language, while the adjectival suffix –henae is clearly Germanic. On the one hand, such epithets could be understood as Celtic theonyms including a Germanic element or variant. This would mean that the original Celtic name underwent a transformation or a change when confronted with Germanic peoples and it would imply that those goddess names are Celtic in origin.³²⁹ On the other hand, it might be that some Celtic names are borrowed from Germanic. For instance, regarding the Matronae Gesahenae, Oswald Szemerény suggests that the Celtic word *gaisos may have been borrowed from Germanic, on account of its vowel pattern.³³⁰ This would indicate that those goddesses were probably more Germanic in origin than Celtic.