Who is the Goddess Ostara?

Who is the Goddess Ostara who seems to have survived even the conversion to Christianity? She is often depicted in paintings and drawings wearing white. Many associate her with the Goddess Frigga for she is considered a goddess of the Earth – and of nature’s resurrection. In various parts of Germany there remain today stone altars known as “Easter-stones” said to have been dedicated to this goddess. People decorated such stones with flowers and even today dance around them by the light of great bonfires. While the symbolism is strong, our historical knowledge is weak – in fact quite limited.

One of the few references to Ostara comes from the eighth century work De Temporum Ratione (The Reckoning of Time) by the Northumbrian monk known as the Venerable Bede. Bede wrote:

“Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month,” and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honor feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honored name of the old observance.”

Following this brief passage by Bede, there is little written that recalls the goddess Ostara – until 1835 when Jacob Grimm wrote of her in his Deutsche Mythologie. Grimm was quite sure that the name of the holiday as celebrated in Germany, “Ostern” was derived from Bede’s Goddess Eostre. Grimm was the first to reconstruct the Goddess’s name as Ostara. It is worth also noting the etymological similarity of her name to the Greek Goddess Eos and the Roman Aurora who arise each morning in the east announcing the new dawn. While some Ásatrúars are reluctant to recognize Ostara as there are no references to her in the Scandinavian Eddas or Sagas, most choose to mark the coming of spring with a celebration that honors her.

It may be fitting indeed or the working of wyrd that this ancient Goddess was all but wiped out by the conversion to Christianity. Perhaps in the Church’s attempt to convert through appeasement of the English and German folk, Ostara’s name became immortalized as that of the highest of Christian holidays. That one slip up on the part of the Church provides us with enough of a fragment to recall her in the collective unconsciousness of our people.

As Pagans and Asatruars gather each spring to give witness to nature’s return, we should recall and honor Ostara for she represents, perhaps most of all, a return – a resurrection - of the old gods after a long and harsh winter.