ON: Odin
OHG: Wuotan = Wodan
OE: Woden

· The supreme god, known as All Father because he was father to all the gods. Snorri: He ruled over all things and all the other gods, no matter how powerful, serve him like children who obey their father.

· A complicated mysterious figure with various functions: the God of War who ruled over the outcome of battles; the God of Poetry and the Runes; the God of Wisdom; the God of Magic and Ecstacy.

· Only god to whom human sacrifice was made. Victims were hung or killed with the speer sacred to him. From time to time an entire enemy army was consecrated to him by throwing a speer over the heads of the bad guys. The bad guys, provided they lost, were hung, their horses were slaughtered and their weapons were turned to scrap iron in a fit of religious frenzy or bloodlust.

· After defeating a Roman army close to Arausio in present-day France in the year 105 B.C.E., the Cimbrians and the Teutons sacrificed the entire booty to Wodan. The Roman Orosius reports that the clothes were ripped apart and thrown into the dirt, gold and silver were thrown into the river Rhone, the mail-coats were broken into pieces, the horses were drowned and the POWs were hung from trees.

· Other episodes can be found in the war between the Chatti and the Hermundurians in 58 C.E. and also massive collections of hacked-up weapons have been found in Danish moors, obviously a sacrifice to Wodan.

· Wodan was venerated by all the Germanic tribes. He was the ruler in Asgard and in Midgard and represented the sovereignty principle per se. All Germanic royal houses, no matter the tribe, claimed him as their common ancestor. Talk about the divine right of kings! In Christian times, the monarchy also claimed to be Christ's or God's representative on Earth. Enhances knigship and gives certain legal and religious basis to kingship.

· As God of war Wodan made decisions on victory and defeat for both the whole army and the individual warrior. The Lombard monk Warnefried, better known as Paulus Diakonus, describes in his History of this tribe how Wodan gave it its name. The Vinnilans, a Germanic tribe, ran into the Vandals as they migrated from Scandinavia to North Germany and a conflict arose as to which tribe would be able to settle there. The Vandals prayed to Wodan who told them, presumably through a priest, that he would give victory to the first tribe that he saw at daybreak. The Vinnilans prayed to Frigg who told them to have their women hold their long hair in front of their faces like men and then to go and stand with their men in a place where Wodan would see them first. When the sun rose over the battlefield Wodan: Who are these Longbeards? And Frigg enjoined her husband to give them the victory in keeping with his promise. Since this time they have been known as the Lombards.

· Wodan never personally intervened in a battle, but did give his favourites magic weapons, even his own spear, Gungnir, or taught them some new tactic or strategy. He could also blind, deafen or fill the enemy with terror.

· Adam of Bremen describes Wodan as representing Rage or Fury. In the Edda there is a verse that states that Wodan shouts into his shield and that he conducts his followers safely into battle and then back home again. Since the Germanic warriors yelled into their shields to terrify the enemy, it must have been consoling to know that Wodan was there with them yelling and that he would lead them to victory.

· Most of the time he liked to intensify the battle rage of his followers to a frenzy. High on mead or even perhaps drugs as his elite warriors were known as Berserks, i.e. those who wore a bear or wolf pelt and who raged like these animals. The concept of the werwolf goes back to these times since the word means nothing more than "man-wolf". After accomplishing superhuman feats in battle, they would often sink exhausted to the ground after victory.

· Tacitus reports that their shields were black, their bodies painted and that they liked to attack on dark nights in order to terrify the enemy.

· What happens when the tribe does everything right and still loses? Sense of deep depression. They cannot understand the God's injustice. Wodan's actions are to them at times incomprehensible and the call him "The Terrible One". Any inconceivabe events such as the murder of a relative may be ascribed to his influence.

· Fall warriors are taken to Walhalla. Etymology: Wal = battlefield, halla = Other World. Taken by the valkryies who selected them on the field of battle. Walhalla was a magnificent palace with 540 doors where Wodan hosted his chosen warriors. Fighting during day, then resurrection and drinking and eating bouts. Valkyries functioned as waitresses. Winter storms were explained as Wodan and his wild army of warriors hunting up in the clouds.

· Life continues in Valhalla but is even better than on earth because of the heroic nature of the warrior's death. No lose situation. You either are victorious or you die and go as a hero to Valhalla. For this reason Germanic warriors were not afraid of death.

· Well, actually they were afraid, but not of a brave death on the battlefield. They were afraid of succumbing to illness or old age and ending up with the goddess Hel whose name is the basis for the Christian Hell. Hel was a dark and cold place without any earthly goods or pleasures. It has nothing, however, to do with punishment or the Day of Judgment when the good are rewarded and the sinners sent to the Christian Hell.

· So what happens if you are on your deathbed and you want to go to Valhalla? Usually all that was needed was a small incision by spearpoint which was called Wodan's Wound.

· Wodan also determined the fates of sailors on the open seas. In the Icelandic sagas he gives favourable winds or protects the sailors during storms.

· Wodanstag, Wednesday, Woensdag (Dutch), Odinsdagr (ON), Onsdag (Danish, Swedish).

· Wodan's animals were the two ravens Huginn and Munin. He also had two wolves named Geri and Freki ("the greedy ones). Predators of the battlefield.

· Huginn and Munin as Thought and Memory are also attributes of Wodan as the God of Wisdom. Acted as his messengers and as reporters. No newspapers! Traces of this belief can be found in the Christian legend that Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa (died 1190 on the Third Crusade in Turkish river) is buried in the Kyffhäuser Mountain Range around which two ravens fly. These ravens are keeping an eye on the situation in Germany and will awake the emperor if there is a need for him to return. Similar to both Christ and King Arthur myths. Based on hopes and wishes of the people.

· Ravens were sacred birds to Celts and Germans. Demonized by Christians as part of effort to discredit this religion. Easy to do since the ravens liked carrion and death and could thus represent the black souls of the non-believers.

· In one of the Edda songs that you will be reading in conjunction with the NL Sigurd or Siegfried asks Wodan what the best omen is before a battle and Wodan answers: seeing a raven.

· Sleipnir is another attribute of Wodan. See Swedish rock carving from around 750. Handout. 8 legs = swiftness and endurance. Best of all horses it is called. Wodan's loyal companion. Tacitus reports that horses were sacred to the Germanic tribes and that they told the future from the sounds and behaviour of the horse. Sacred white horses were kept by priests in the holy groves and were never used for riding. Instead, they pulled the sacred cart while the king or priest or head of the tribe walked alongside listening to their neighing and whinnying. If humans were servants of the gods, then horses were confidants and what they had to say made horsesense.

· Horse sacrifices were made to Wodan and horsemeat was eaten during the sacrificial festivals. Christians made it punishable and spread the rumour that it tasted awful but in Holland today it is still eaten.

· Horse and raven as the sacred animals of Wodan decorated the battle standards of many Germanic tribes: 1. Viking raiders of England carried a banner with a flying raven which they believed gave them victory. 2. White horse was the symbol of the Saxons and can be found today in the coat-of-arms for the German states of Lower Saxony and Westphalia as well as the county of Kent which was concquered by the Saxons in the 5th century c.e.

· Snake and eagle as sacred animals because Wodan used these forms.

· Spear Gungnir as a terrible weapon and symbol of Wodan's sovereignty. A spear was erected in the middle of the Thing as a symbol of power, divine protection and the assurance of peace during the public assembly. Any violation of this peace was therefore a religious offense against Wodan. The Germanic kings all used the spear as a reminder that they were descended from Wodan. This is probably the underlying reason for Henry I, Founder of the German Empire, to secure the Holy Lance associated with Longinus and Christ, an acquisition that was made in 935 c.e. It is now at the Hofburg in Vienna.

· Ring Draupnir mentioned in many legends although its significance is not clear. Every 9 nights it reproduced eight heavy, identical rings.

· Physical appearance as 1. warrior with usual attributes; 2. as tall, old man with a long beard, a wide, blue coat and a floppy hat that hid part of his face.

· He has only one eye as he sacrificed the other for the wisdom that comes from Mimir's well at the foot of Yggdrasil. The sacrifice is to be understood symbolically since he acquires insight into the more arcane mysteries of the universe, e.g. his knowledge of runes. This is not logical, scientific knowledge, but rather knowledge based on intuition, magic etc.: Read PE p. 34. Beyond thought and pain.

· Runes contained a magic power and were used only for cultic purposes in the pre-Christian period, i.e. not used as we use the alphabet in our letters etc. Each rune represented both a sound and a word or concept: feh-Rune, for example = f and Vieh which represents Wealth. Difficulty in reading a runic text in that the symbol may just be a letter or it may be a word with meaning.

· Runes were used primarily to ask gods about the future, i.e. in divination. Tacitus has described the procedure used: they cut some thin twigs from a fruit tree, carve a symbol into each one and then throw them randomly onto a white sheet. Then the priest (or the father if a private event) prays before picking out 3 twigs and then interpreting the runes on them. Saying that all good things come in threes goes back to this custom. Through the use of the rune it was assumed that the divine power inside the rune would prove helpful. The victory rune on the sword, for example, was supposed to improve the power of the sword and help the warrior to victory.

· Wodan is also the god of poetry because he won the mead which inspires poetry for the gods. Because of the lack of written records, the oral tradition represented by poetry was very highly regarded. The scalds enjoyed immense popularity and high esteem wherever they went. Naturally they paid homage to Wodan as their patron and so helped preserve and enhance his memory.

· Wodan was also the god of magic. He knew charms that could heal wounds, that could smite women with love, that could blunten enemy weapons and break apart chains. One of these is the Merseburg Charm which was written down in the 10th century. Handout. If he is omnipotent, why does he need magic? He seems to be more a god of the spiritual world since wisdom, poetry, ecstacy and magic are all parts of this world.

· Mainly a god of the jarls, the berserkers and other warriors. Simple peasants found him unsettling and looked more to Thor for protection.

· Wodan also reflects a part of the soul of those who worshipped him, namely the mystical part of the Germanic soul: furor teutonicus, ecstatic frenzy in battle, the yearning for a heroic death; the spiritual sentimentality, the interest in psychology, the eruptions of irrationality from time to time, the introversion of a nation of poets and philosophers.

· Christians replaced Wodan with the archangel Saint Michael and erected churches in his name where Wodan had been worshipped, e.g. Heiligenberg near Heidelberg. St. Michael became the protector of Germany, his banner was carried into battle in 933 and 955, the crusaders were known as Michael's People.

· Other Christian saints who were very popular also carry the attributes of Wodan, e.g. St. George on horse with spear (unhistorical); St. Martin, the patron saint of the Franks is depicted on a horse with a spear or sword. In the St. Martin church in Dunningen there is an old stone that can be seen in the tower masonry depicting Wodan with his two wolves Geri and Freki. Handout.

· The Anglo-Saxon King, St. Oswald of Northumbria, an ancestor of Otto the Great (936-973), is shown in a book from 1488 along with two ravens.

· Wodan still lives today in the minds of some country people who believe that the winter storms at night are Wodan and his army of dead souls riding through the air.

Last modified: September 4, 2001