The Nahanarvali were a sub-tribe of the Lugian league in eastern Germania. They are famous for an ancient sacred grove.
Tacitus reports that in this grove a priest in women's dress performed the cult – and that the divine pair of the Alcis was worshipped there. He compares them with the Roman twin gods Castor and Pollux: young, brotherly gods.
The Alcis belong to the very earliest testimonies of Germanic belief in gods. They show that besides the great gods there were local cults – continental, centuries old, independent of the much later Norse tradition.
"They worship two young gods, brothers, whom they call the Alcis."after Tacitus, Germania 43 (public domain, own translation)
The Naharvali were one of the tribes of the great East Germanic Lugii confederation. Tacitus reports in his "Germania" of an ancient sacred grove in their territory that served as a supra-regional cult centre – a place where the religious cohesion of several peoples was bundled.
In this grove the Alcis were worshipped, a divine pair of brothers. Tacitus compares them with the Roman twin gods Castor and Pollux and describes them as young gods. There were no images or statues – a sign of an imageless worship directed at the sacred place itself.
One detail has always fascinated researchers: the priest of the grove appeared, according to Tacitus, in women's dress. What this meant is disputed to this day – perhaps a ritual role, perhaps a misunderstanding by the Roman observer. It shows how strange and yet ordered Germanic religion seemed to Roman eyes.
Divine twins recur in many Indo-European cultures – the Greek Dioscuri, the Indian Ashvins. The Alcis fit into this ancient pattern. It remains honest to say: we know them only from a few lines of Tacitus, and all else is interpretation. That is precisely what makes them a fascinating riddle of the Germanic world of faith.
The Naharvali did not stand alone: they belonged to the Lugii confederation, a powerful union of East Germanic tribes between Oder and Vistula. Such cult leagues, in which several peoples tended a common sanctuary, were an important bond of the Germanic world – religion created community across tribal boundaries.
The cult of the Alcis shows features typical of Germanic religion: sacred groves instead of temples, worship without images of gods, a priesthood with special signs. Thus the small tribe of the Naharvali fits into a larger picture that Tacitus's reports on Nerthus and the Semnones also draw – a world of faith lived in the open, at special places and in ritual order.
Precisely because we know so little about the Naharvali, their few surviving lines are so precious. They give us a rare glimpse of a real Germanic cult site, of divine twins and a priesthood with its own signs. At GLANZ & GRAVUR we strictly separate the attested from the interpreted – for the old worlds of belief are fascinating enough without embellishment. The Alcis remain an honest riddle, and that is exactly what makes them powerful.
The Nahanarvali lead into the heart of early Germanic belief. Continue with the Lugii and Germanic religion.
The Lugii · The Semnones · Germanic Religion · The Suebi · Interpretatio Romana.
