Andermatt

Center of the Celtic Otherworld (Anderworld)

J.W. Richter

The Otherworld1
Indoeuropeans believed in an "Otherworld" and in many cases such as in Greek, Germanic, Celtic, Slavic and Indic mythologies a river had to be crossed to allow entrance to the Otherworld. At the entrance of this realm usually an old man would be responsible for transporting the soul across the waters. Spirits were thought to travel between worlds, or layers of existence, usually along an axis such as a giant tree, a tent pole, a river, a rope or mountains. In Greek and Indic mythology the waters of this river were thought to wash away sins or memories whereas Celtic and Germanic myths feature wisdom-imparting waters, suggesting that while the memories of the deceased are washed away a drinker of the waters would gain inspiration. The wayfarer will commonly encounter a dog either in the capacity of a guardian of the Otherworld or as the wanderer's guide. Examples of this are the Greek Krberos, the three-headed hound of Hades, and the Indic "sarvar, one of the hounds of Yama, whose names may derive from an Indo-European *erberos meaning "spotted". In Indo-European mythologies the Otherworld is depicted in many ways, including peaceful meadows, islands and buildings making it hard to determine how the original Proto-Indo-European Otherworld was viewed. However the ruler of the dead was possibly *Yemo the divine twin of *Manu the first man2. The characteristics of the Otherworld may be condensed in a summary which will be needed to identify the Otherworld as it had been designed in original Celtic environments: A river had to be crossed to enter the Otherworld, where an old Man, probably the Ruler of the Dead, a divine twin of Man3 or first man Manu himself (?), transported the souls across the waters along an axis (such as a tree, a pole, a river, a rope or mountains.

The Underworlds in the Atlantic Ocean

Ancient scriptures describe the Otherworld's location near a western border such as Anglesey (Mn), located on the Northern Welsh Coast, which was the sacred island of the druids of Britain; or the Scilly islands, where archaeological remains of proto-historical temples have been found; and some of the Hebrides Islands. However these locations may also be second choices for the fugitive Celtic peoples on their run for the Roman barbarians. An earlier stable and intact Celtic civilization did not reach as far as the British isles and had been centered 200 BCE around the Alps. The map of Celtic expansion in its heydays clearly shows a very different situation. The Celts were living in the European mainland. Only a minor part of the British islands had been settled. No islands of any importance are found in the original Celtic realm. In fact the Otherworlds may have been separated in an elevated Upperworld for the divine beings in the mountains and a lower Unterworld near the seashore for the deceased.

1 From Wkipedia "Otherworld" 2 Divine twins such as the Greek Dioscuri , Romulus and Remus and Hengest and Horsa have been identified as the sons of the Sky God 3 *Manu, the first man, son of the creator-god Tuisco

The Otherworld in Switzerland

Andermatt = Anderworld
The highest divine Indoeuropean powers were sky-gods and it would only be natural to search the highest sky-god at the highest mountains to be nearer to God. In Greco-Roman mythology the Gods were said to dwell on Mount Olympus whereas the dead usually went to the Underworld or Fortunate Isles after death. The German world for Otherworld is Anderwelt (Anderworld, orbis alius) which may be related to Underworld, in which merely one symbolic letter U will transform Anderworld to Underworld. According to Julius Caesar the Gaulic Celts honored Dispater (Rich Father) as their ancestor God, although etymologically the name Dispater may also be related to the highest Roman and androgynous skygod Diespater (Jupiter), who even by St. Augustine had been described as both Father and Mother. The comparable Greek Sky-god living at Mount Olympus has been Zeus and it would only be natural to consider the Alps as a habitat for Dispater and Diespater as well. Of course Andermatt clearly correlates to Anderworld and Andermatt may even be translated as Otherfields or Anderfields, a sort of Elysium, the sacred fields - initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes. Later, expanding to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, where they would remain after death, to live a blessed and happy life, and indulging in whatever employment they had enjoyed in life.

Rivers
Some main rivers are crossing the Celtic mainland at their heydays: the Rhine, the Rhone and the Danube. The Danube's source is located at the northern side near the center of the La Tne-area, but the source in the Black forest is found in a flat swamp area - not really a spectacular place in the middle of high mountains. The Danube's source is not suited as a place for the Otherworld. The other rivers however Rhine and Rhone spring from spectacular mountainous areas in Alpine regions. The Rhone springs from a glacier near the Grimselpass and Furkapass and is westward bound, gathering waters from another large glacier (Aletsch) on ots way to the Mediterranean Sea. In contrast the Rhine is not springing from glaciers but gathers water from the rain over two upper Rhine creeks springing very near to the Rhone glacier. In fact we might imagine a mountain or a ridge between the Rhine and Rhone on which the falling water droplets must decide whether to flow to the north (towards the North Sea) or to the south (towards the Mediterranean Sea). Of course this great water divide has been well known at the time of the Celtic settlements, but in later eras the Celts lost control over the area to toe Roman soldiers, who may have occupied all accesses and roads towards the places. A similar fate has been documented for the Roquepertuse sanctuary, which had been devastated by Roman soldiers. The Celts may have left the locations and started a search for alternative Otherworlds in the Northwest regions, where more easily could be defended against Roman soldiers.

Fig. 1: Overview map of the Hallstatt (yellow) and La Tne (green) cultures the Hallstatt culture.
after Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp.30-37. 4 Originally only minor parts of the British territory have been settled.

At the drainage divide a small town with a peculiar name Andermatt (Otherfields) related to Anderwelt (Otherworld) is embedded at 1447 meters altitude inside a vast spectacular Alpine valley surrounded by high mountains. The area is famous for heavy snowfall and is located at the cross-roads of important roads leading to the north, south, east and west. The cross-roads not only mark the road crossings, but also the axis of the Furka-road connecting the eastward flowing Rhine and the westward flowing Rhone. Etymologically the Furka forks the road to the North and the south, east and west. At the time of our visit at the end of May 2000 the Furkapass at 2436 meters was still closed. We saw the young river Vorderrhein (Upper Rhine) as a bright white milky river, full of melting ice located at the roadside. Andermatt is the entry point to the Gotthard road leading to Italy. The Gotthard pass at 2091 meters itself is rather unspectacular. We visited Andermatt and crossed the pass at 25th of May 2000.

4 Published by Dbachmann for the Wikimedia Commons under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Fig. 2: Gotthard pass at 2091 meters Huge walls of snow were piled up at the roadside and we belonged to the first cars which were allowed to use the roads towards Italy. The road had been cleaned up and opened that day for the first time that year.

Fig 3: Huge walls of snow were piled up at the roadside

I drove the road from Andermatt to the north into the steep Gschenen valley, where I identified the Dammastock mountain as a great water divide between the waters flowing northwards and southwards. The ice covered mountain ridge behind the lake is the water divide separating the Rhone glacier from the northern territories. This northward road between Andermatt and Gschenen has not been available until the completion of the spectacular devil's bridge. In ancient times this road must have been a chine - a steep-sided river valley where the river flows gap or yawn, where the entry from the Anderworld to the Underworld may be expected. Today we may easily drive this road by car if it is not jammed by traffic or snow.

Fig. 4: Water divide at Gschenen Lake (photographed May 2000)

In retrospect the Andermatt location might have been perfectly suited as an Otherworld-location. I highlighted the relevant parameters in the specification of the Otherworld: A river had to be crossed to enter the Otherworld, where an old Man, probably the Ruler of the Dead, a divine twin of Man5 or first man Manu himself (?), transported the souls across the waters along an axis (such as a tree, a pole, a river, a rope or mountains. Certainly this place is a place of four rivers (the westward flowing Rhone, the eastward flowing Rhine, the northward flowing Aare and (at the other side of the Gotthard the Ticino leading to Italy) the southward flowing Ticino. The twins may be symbolized by the female Rhone and the male Rhine, which are aligned in their east-west oriented valleys as if they form an axis. On the other hand the mountain ridge form the drainage divides between the north and the south. This impressive landscape certainly gives visitors a feeling of nearness to a sky-god even in modern times. At the time of my visit however I was unaware of the linguistic background of the Alpine area. There was no proof of any ancient religious remains comparable to the spectacular androgynous (?) Hermes sculpture, found at the Roquepertuse sanctuary6. No even a small temple or a stone with some inscriptions could be identified.
5 *Manu, the first man, son of the creator-god Tuisco 6 Documented in The Hermetic Codex and The Sky-God Dyaeus

Etymological Evidence
Things changed 2011 after I discovered the central position of the Alps in Celtic language7. Language seemed to have spread from a center located in the middle of the Alps. Of course the mountains must have been huge obstacles. On the other hand the design of the three most important words (the Ego-, Thou and We-pronouns) seemed to have been chosen in four very special variants to divert from the Alps. Of course the diverting center may simply have been a huge mountain, blocking any communication. This blockade however has not been the case for all pronouns. The Thou-pronoun for instance did not seem to be varying that much. The Thou-pronoun's design more or less remains unaltered over ages and vast areas. However the Ego-pronouns vary considerably often within relatively shot distances, especially in thin-populated Alpine areas. In the Alps the Ego-pronoun8 seemed to have been derived from a universal I*U-structure, which just like the cross-roads at Andermatt diverted in four directions. To the south into the Ticino valley the pronoun developed to IOU, resulting in an Italian io and in the Roman sky-god *IOU-pter or Jupiter. In Sicily the pronoun lost the o and transformed to iu. Towards the west, following the Rhone valley the pronoun developed to IEU, resulting in an Occitan ieu and in French je and in the French sky-god Dieu.

Background map after Atlas of the Celtic World, by John Haywood; London Thames & Hudson Ltd., 2001, pp.30-37. 9

7 A Celtic Religious Centre in the Alps 8 The personal pronoun of the first person singular 9 Published by Dbachmann for the Wikimedia Commons under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

Eastwards in the Swiss valleys the universal I*U-structure transformed to the Jauer-language, which uses the Ego-pronoun IAU. The corresponding sky-god must have been a Dyausderivate, but seems to have been lost. In eastward directions the pronouns deteriorated to ja, which is a common pronoun in a great number of Slavic countries. Northwards along the rivers Aare and Rhine the universal I*U-structure transformed to the Egopronoun in German Ih and English I, by losing all OU-traces. With a growing distance from the Alps the deterioration of the Ego-pronouns increases. In fact the deterioration reaches a maximum at the borders of European territories 10. The trailing u-symbol vanishes as may be seen in the following table, in which English and German even lost two characters from the original I*U-pattern: Direction South West East North Genuine Pronoun IOU ( Jupiter) IEU (Provencal) IAU (Jauer dialect) I*U Deteriorated Pronoun 1 Io (Italian), Iu (Sicilian) Je (French) Ja (Slavic) Ih (southern German dialect) Table 1: Deterioration of Pronouns Of course we should consider the conservation of words in remote areas. This conservation however has only be observed in the Alps and fails in other remote places, where older pronouns (the moi-, me- and similar pronouns) have been identified. The I*U-structure is concentrated in the Alpine area, from where it spreads into four directions characterized by their typical vowels. The vowel concentration in words itself already indicates a religious symbolism, which is demonstrated by the very definition of consonants as additionally or con-sounding characters. For this reason we might consider the Alps as the source for these pronouns. However it may have been initiated and triggered in the Alps as a borrowed idea, derived from a remote source such as YHWH. I (English) Deteriorated Pronoun 2 Yo (Spanish) Dji (Walloon)

The origin of IU-cults

One of the sources for I*U-cults may have been the Jewish God YHWH, whose name has been identified as an IU-structured word. YHWH created a first Man Adam, which in a certain sense may be compared to a divine twin respectively the legendary Manu. In German mythology the corresponding name is Mannus, the son of the androgynous creator-god Tuisco as documented in Tacitus' Germania, c. 2,2 : "celebrant carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est ) Tuisconem deum Terra editum et filium Mannum originem gentis conditorisque. Manno tris filios assignant, e quorum nominibus proximi Oceano Ingaevones, medii Herminones, ceteri Istaevones vocentur"

10 From lists in The Hieroglyphs in the Ego-Pronoun we may identify the deteriorated pronouns.

Fig. 5: Map of countries in Europe and the surrounding region

Map of countries in Europe and the surrounding region derivative work of Europe countries map.png by San Jose, published by San Jose (map) under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version

The origin of the ZIUS-cults

Jupiter, the Teutonics' Ziu and even Tuisco are an IU-word as well. Older forms of the Jupiter's name in Rome were Dieus-pater (day/sky-father), then Dispiter. Dieus is the etymological equivalent of ancient Greece's Zeus and of the Teutonics' Ziu, gen. Ziewes. The Indo-European deity is thus the god from which Zeus and the Indo-Aryan Vedic Dyaus Pita are derived. For this reason the Ego-pronouns must be considered as derivations from the Indoeuropean skyfather's name Dieus. The Ego-pronouns were to be derived from the divine names in the process of distilling the sacred vowels (ieu) by removal of the consonants. The sky-father's name may have been spoken, respectively written as Dyaus or Dyeus or Zeus or Deus. Some, especially the central character of these vowels may have been so sacred that it had to be omitted in speaking or writing. The I-symbol represented the male, and the U-symbol the female elements. The central position (A, O, E) may have been a divine joint, which in some traditions may have needed protection by hiding the vowel symbol11. The consonants' symbolism is unknown. The D and S in Dyeus, respectively the Z and S in Zeus may have represented minor symbolism compared to the sacred vowels.
11 The Hermetic Codex and The Sky-God Dyaeus

Of course the old man's sculpture is a rather modern statue representing a saint.

Fig. 6: The Old Man near the Gotthard pass

There is no real proof for the idea, that the Celts may have defined the Alps as their mysterious religious headquarters. However the very concentration of the pronouns IEU, IOU and IAU and their controlled deterioration (JE, YO, JA) from the center towards the borders may invite us to look for special landmarks in the Alpine region. The most apparent location for the Otherworld as the habitat for the sky-father (Ziu or Tusico??) may have been Andermatt, to be be understood and translated as Otherfield, where an old man (Ziu or Tuisco) accompanied the dead warriors to the rich, green pastures of the Otherfield between the high mountains, where the bright, fertile waters for the twin rivers (the male Rhine and the female Rhone) is springing.

Fig. 7: Canyon near the Gschenen lake

Ziu's Country
Switzerland (French: Suisse) is Ziu's or Zui's country. Although Blavatsky claims the reversed sequence of words indicate an evil transformation the reversal version UI instead of IU does not seem to be really significant. Other words may also be identified as Zui's or Dui's heritage, such as Zuirich (Zrich). The androgynous bipolarity is indicated by the UI-combination. Ziu's and Iuppiter's bipolarity may also refer to the bipolarity of the divine twins Romulus and Remus who have been depicted with the Roman she-wolf (Lupa Romana). The two children have been added later.

Fig. 8: The Capitoline she-wolf with the boys Romulus and Remus
Public domain in the USA - From Wikimedia Commons The Capitoline she-wolf with the boys Romulus and Remus. Museo Nuovo in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. 13th century AD with figures of Romulus and Remus added in the 15th century . Book scan from Emmanuel Mller-Baden (dir.), Bibliothek des allgemeinen und praktischen Wissens, I, Deutsches Verlaghaus Bong & Co, Berlin-Leipzig-WienStuttgart, 1904. Image copied from de:Bild:Kapitolinische-woelfin 1b-640x480.jpg