Traces of the worship of Arminius are to be found among our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, after their settlement in this island. One of the four great highways was held to be under the protection of the deity, and was called the "Irmin-street." The name Arminius is, of course, the mere Latinized form of "Herman," the name by which the hero and the deity were known by every man of Low German blood, on either side of the German Sea. It means, etymologically, the "War-man," the "man of hosts." No other explanation of the worship of the "Irmin-sul," and of the name of the "Irmin-street," is so satisfactory as that which connects them with the deified Arminius. We know for certain of the existence of other columns of an analogous character. Thus, there was the Roland-seule in North Germany; there was a Thor-seule in Sweden, and (what is more important) there was an Athelstan-seule in Saxon England. [See Lappenburg's Anglo-Saxons, p. 378. For nearly all the philological and ethnographical facts respecting Arminius, I am indebted to Dr. R. G. Latham.] There is at the present moment a song respecting the Irmin-sul current in the bishopric of Minden, one version of which might seem only to refer to Charlemagne having pulled down the Irmin-sul:-- "Herman, sla dermen, Sla pipen, sla trummen, De Kaiser will kummen, Met hamer un stangen, Will Herman uphangen." But there is another version, which probably is the oldest, and which clearly refers to the great Arminius:-- "Un Herman slaug dermen; Slaug pipen, slaug trummen; De fursten sind kammen, Met all eren-mannen Hebt VARUS uphangen." [See Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 329.]