Junius (16th century) and Tanfana: "initium & primordium"

[ott]

The Westfrisian Hadrianus Junius/Adriaen de Jonghe van Hoorn (1511–1575) wrote Batavia in Latin, which was first published in 1588. The first (Dutch) translation was published in 2011 as Holland is een eiland.

In chapter 16 (translation p. 294-295, original p.228), he writes about Tanfana, explaining the word as if he knew of T.ANFANG as used in Oera Linda:

Latin original: (source)
Nonnulli Tanfanam, cuius celeberrimum gentibus templum solo aequauit Germanicus Caesar, vt Tacitus dicit, pro numine praecipuo habuerunt, non intellecto hactenus, vt existimo. Videntur autem sapientes viri religionis conditiores voluisse designare genitalem originem & primordium rerum, seu primam principemq́ue omnium caussam, Deum videlicet. Neque enim aliud est Tanfana, quàm initium & primordium, à the articulo, & anfan principium, & per crasin Tanfan, quod hodie The anfang scriberemus, vbi barbaries magis oculatam se & altiore mentis indagineplus peruidisse, quàm Romana, si Dijs placet, sapientia, ostendit, Deum sub principij nomine colendo, qui fons est & principium mouendi, principij autem origo nulla existit, quippe ex quo vniuersa oriuntur, ipsum verò principium non aliunde nascritur, nunquam id futurum, si vlla ex re alia gigneretur: quod si nunquam oritur, ne occidit quidem vnquam, vt pulchrè disserit in Phaedro Platonis Socrates, & ex eo transcripsit Cicero in Tusculanarum primo.

Dutch translation (2011, with footnotes):
Door sommigen werd Tanfana beschouwd als de voornaamste godheid. Haar beroemde tempel is door Germanicus Caesar met de grond gelijkgemaakt, zoals Tacitus zegt.[42] De naam van deze godin is tot dusverre nog nooit door iemand begrepen, geloof ik. Ik denk dat de wijze godsdienststichters met zo'n naam de aanvang en oorsprong van de wereld hebben willen aanduiden, ofwel de eerste en voornaamste oorzaak van alle dingen, namelijk God. Want Tanfana is niets anders dan 'begin' en 'beginsel'. Ik leid dit af van het lidwoord the en het woord anfan of aanvang, samengetrokken tot Tanfan: tegenwoordig zouden we The Anfan schrijven. Daaruit blijkt dat nota bene de 'barbaarse' wereld beter gekeken heeft en met haar speurtocht tot een dieper inzicht is gekomen dan de Romeinse wijsgeren. Want zij vereerde God onder de naam van Beginsel. 'Hij is de bron en het beginsel van alle beweging. Maar een beginsel heeft geen oorsprong, want alles ontstaat eruit. Zelf komt het niet uit iets anders voort, want als dat zo was, zou het nooit een beginsel zijn. En als het geen ontstaan heeft, dan heeft het ook geen einde'. Aldus het mooie betoog van Socrates in de Phaedrus van Plato, waaruit Cicero het overnam voor boek I van zijn gesprekken in Tusculum.[43]

[42] Tacitus, Annales 1.51.
[43] Plato, Phaedrus 245C-246A en Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 1.53-54. Zo blijkt, via Tanfana, dat de Germanen Plato naar de kroon staken. Vgl. Grotius' Batavische République (1610), die ook de Atheense en Romeinse republieken deed verbleken.

English translation (by me, with notes) of Dutch translation:
Tanfana was considered by some to be the prime deity*. Her* famous temple was razed to the ground by Germanicus Caesar, as Tacitus says.[42] The name of this goddess* has never been understood by anyone so far, I believe. I think that by such a name the wise founders of religion intended to designate the beginning and origin of the world, or the first and prime cause of all things, namely, God. For Tanfana is nothing but "beginning" and "principle." I derive this from the definite article the and the word anfan or commencement, contracted to Tanfan: nowadays we would write The Anfan. It's noteworthy that this shows how the 'barbarians' looked more closely and with their quest came to a deeper insight than the Roman philosophers, by worshiping God under the name of Principle. “He is the source and principle of all motion. But a principle has no origin, for everything arises from it. It itself does not arise from anything else, for if it did it would never be a principle. And if it has no origin, then it has no end." Thus the beautiful argument of Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus, from which Cicero took over for book I of his conversations in Tusculum.[43]

[*] Junius did not use the terms deity, her and goddess in his Latin. These were interpretations by the Dutch translator.
[42] Tacitus, Annales 1.51.
[43] Plato, Phaedrus 245C-246A and Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes 1.53-54. Thus it appears, via Tanfana, that the Germans rivaled Plato. cf. Grotius' Batavian République (1610), which also made the Athenian and Roman Republics look pale.

Discussion (beginning of):
If, as some may argue, Haverschmidt and/or Verwijs (creator suspects of the main hoax theory) got their idea for T.ANFANG from Junius, it would be very strange that they did not use more inspiration from the book (of which there would have been plenty). Also, it is remarkable that Ottema (or anyone after him, thus far) seems to not have known about Junius' reference. At least, it was never referred to, as far as I know.

[Wil Helm]

I found another reference, probably slightly later than Adrianus Junius.
From another Adrianus: Schrieckius (Adriaan van Schrieck).

Telling the same: Tanfana = 't An-faen = 't Aan-vang.

The descripted meaning there comes down to:
Initiation (acceptance), or place of admission(initiation) that transpired with ceremonies, following the ancient manner of practicing relgion.



https://books.google.be/books?id=deFLAA ... &q&f=false

[ott]

Great, I will add these to the wiki. Thanks!

[Nordic]

I always thought the English "the" to be relatively late English language form, preceded historically by likes of de, den, der/das/die etc. How common is the English-sque "the" in Benelux region languages?

[ott]

There's no real difference between the, de and die. Fryas T can be short for THET.

[PýrKlépsas]

anfa, from Old Irish anbod, anfud (“tempest, storm”) (Irish).
1. storm, tempest
2. terror, stress
anfach (“stormy, rough, tempestuous”, adjective)*
anfacht ♀ (“storminess”)*
anfúil (“terrified; stormy, rough, tempestuous”, adjective)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anfa#Irish

* fukt (swedish)
1. moisture
2. dampness
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fukt#Swedish
fog (english)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fog#English