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Baduhenna was a Germanic goddess worshipped by the Frisians. As with Tanfana, we know her only from a single passage in Tacitus.
In AD 28 the Frisians rose against Roman tax demands. In a wood that Tacitus calls the grove of Baduhenna came catastrophe: around 900 Roman soldiers are said to have fallen there, others took their own lives in despair.
The name sounds warlike (Germanic badu- = "battle"). Perhaps Baduhenna was a battle goddess – but that remains conjecture. Certain is only this: her sacred grove was a real place where cult and war met.
"… in the grove they call that of Baduhenna."after Tacitus, Annals 4.73 (public domain, own translation)
Baduhenna shows the sacred groves as the heart of Germanic belief. Continue with Tanfana and Germanic sacrifice & sanctuaries.
Tanfana · The Frisians · Nerthus – the earth goddess · Germanic Religion · The grove of the Semnones.
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