Albruna

Albruna, Aurinia or Albrinia are some of the forms of the name of a probable Germanic seeress who would have lived in the late 1st century BC or in the early 1st century AD. She was mentioned by Tacitus in Germania, after the seeress Veleda, and he implied that the two were venerated because of true divine inspiration by the Germanic peoples, in contrast to Roman women who were fabricated into goddesses. It has also been suggested that she was the frightening giant woman who addressed the Roman general Drusus in his own language and made him turn back at the Elbe, only to die shortly after, but this may also be an invention to explain why a consul of Rome would have turned back. In addition, there is so little evidence for her that not every scholar agrees that she was a seeress, or that she should be included in a discussion on them. She may also have been a minor goddess, a matron.

Her name has been discussed since the 19th century based on various different forms in the manuscripts where her name appears, and several theories have been put forward, of which Albruna used to be the most accepted one. The emendation Albruna has been explained with definitions such as 'having secret knowledge of elvish spirits', 'confidante of elves' and the 'one gifted with the divine, magical powers of the elves'. However, in 2002, the interpretation Albruna was seriously questioned by a Swedish scholar, who called it a "phantom name" (spöknamn), and since then more scholars have begun to doubt that the form was correct, and may be more in favour of the forms Aurinia and Albrinia. Other suggestions are that it has been derived from a Germanic word *auraz meaning 'water', 'sand' and 'luster', or that it may be a hybrid word containing the Latin word aureum for gold, but they have not become generally accepted. Moreover, it is pointed out that the emendation Albruna is noteworthy in its possible meanings, and that it is similar to the name of another early Germanic priestess.