Irminsul
Videos
An Irminsul was a sacred, pillar-like object attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxons. Medieval sources describe how an Irminsul was destroyed by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars. A church was erected on its place in 783 and blessed by Pope Leo III.
Sacred trees and sacred groves were widely venerated by the Germanic peoples, and the oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air.
A modern interpretation of the Irminsul, erected 1996 in Harbarnsen-Irmenseul municipality (near Hildesheim in Lower Saxony). The sun cross on the top is based on the coat of arms of the village of Irmenseul.
A late 16th century interpretation of an Irminsul bearing the cult image of a god of war and commerce, from Sebastian Münster's Cosmographia
The image identified as representing Irminsul by Wilhelm Teudt on the Externsteine Descent from the Cross relief, rejected by Bernard Mees and interpreted as an elaborate chair
Royal Frankish Annals
Videos
The Royal Frankish Annals, also called the Annales Laurissenses maiores, are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state of the monarchy from 741 to 829. Their authorship is unknown, though Wilhelm von Giesebrecht suggested that Arno of Salzburg was the author of an early section surviving in the copy at Lorsch Abbey. The Annals are believed to have been composed in successive sections by different authors, and then compiled.
The coronation in 752 of Pépin the Short by Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz.
Louis the Pious giving penance at Attigny in 822.