Irmin might also have been an epithet of the god Ziu ( Tyr) in early Germanic times, only later transferred to Odin, as certain scholars subscribe to the idea that Odin replaced Tyr as the chief Germanic deity at the onset of the Migration Period. It has been suggested that Irmin was more probably an aspect or epithet of some other deity – most likely Wodan ( Odin). Ī Germanic god Irmin, inferred from the name Irminsûl and the tribal name Irminones, is in some older scholarship presumed to have been the national god or demi-god of the Saxons. the Earth) or iörmungandr ('great snake', i.e. 19th century scholar Jakob Grimm connects the name Irmin with Old Norse terms like iörmungrund ('great ground', i.e. Yggdrasil (Old Norse 'Yggr's horse') is a cosmic tree from which Odin sacrificed himself, and which connects the Nine worlds. Among the North Germanic peoples, the Old Norse form of Irmin is Jörmunr, which just like Yggr is one of the names of Odin. The first element, Irmin- ('great') is cognate with terms with some significance elsewhere in Germanic mythology. The Old Saxon word compound Irminsûl means 'great pillar'. The reproduction of Irminsul with a sun wheel on the top, erected 1996 in Harbarnsen-Irmenseul municipality (near Hildesheim in Lower Saxony)
