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The Bructeri were a Germanic tribe in north-western Germany, on the rivers Lippe and Ems – neighbours of the Cherusci, Marsi and Chatti. They were among the tribes that joined the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest and the resistance against Rome.
Their most famous child was the seeress Veleda, who held great influence in the Batavian revolt (69/70) and was venerated "as if a deity". That a Bructeran woman reached such a position of power shows the standing seeresses could enjoy in Germanic belief.
The Bructeri stood against Rome again and again: under Arminius, in the Batavian revolt. Later Tacitus reports a terrible event – a war of neighbouring Germanic tribes against the Bructeri (around 98 AD), in which supposedly over 60,000 people died. Tacitus notes coolly that the Romans attended the slaughter as spectators. It is a shocking example that the greatest danger to a Germanic tribe was often the other Germanic peoples.
"Wits must he have who wanders wide, but all is easy at home."Hávamál 5, after Henry A. Bellows 1923 (public domain)
The Bructeri are a tribe of extremes: home of a venerated seeress and victim of one of the bloodiest fratricidal wars of the Germanic world. More about their seeress in the article Veleda.
Veleda · The Marsi · The Cherusci & Arminius · The Batavi · Germanic Religion.
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