Chapter 7

Other names occur, besides those of mountains. The breviarium Lulli, in Wenk II. no 12, names a place in Thuringia: ' in Wudaneshusum,' and again Woteneshusun (conf. Schannat no. 84. 105); in Oldenburg there is a Wodensholt, now Godensholt, cited in a land-book of 1428, Ehrentraut Fries. arch. 1, 445: 'to Wodensholte Tideke Tammen gut x schillings'; Wothenower (Wôdenôver?), seat of a Brandenburg family, Höfers urk. p. 270, anno 1334; not far from Bergen op Zoom and the Scheldt, towards Antwerp, stands to this day a Woensdrecht, as if Wodani trajectum. Woensel = Wodenssele, Wodani aula, lies near Eindhoven on the Dommel in N. Brabant; a remarkable passage on it in Gramaye's Taxandria, p. 23, was pointed out to me by J. W. Wolf: Imo amplius supersunt aperte Cymbricorum dorum pagis aliquot, ubi forte culti erant, indita nomina, nominatim Mercurii in Woensel, honoris in Eersel, Martis in Roysel. Uti enim Woen Mercurium eis dictum alias docui, et eer honorem esse omnes sciunt, ita Roy Martem a colore sanguineo cognominatum ostendunt illi qui tertiam hebdomadis feriam Roydach indigitant. In due time I shall speak of Eersel and Roysel, which lie in the neighbourhood of Woensel, and all of them in the N. Brabant district of Oirschot. This Woensel is like the Oðinssalr, Othänsäle, Onsala named on p. 158. Wunstorp, Wunsdorf, a convent and small town in Lower Saxony, stands unmutilated as Wodenstorp in a doc. of 1179, Falke tradit. corb. 770. Near Windbergen in the Ditmar country, an open space in a wood bears the name of Wodenslag, Wonslag. Near Hadersleben in Schleswig are the villages of Wonsbeke, Wonslei, Woyens formerly Wodensyen. An AS. doc. of 862 (Kemble 2, 73) contains in a boundary-settlement the name Wônstoc = Wôdenesstoc, Wodani stipes, and at the same time betrays the influence of the god on ancient delimitation. Wuotan, Hermes, Mercury, all seem to be divinities of measurement and demarcation; conf. Woedensspanne, Woenslet, p. 160 (see Suppl.).

As these names, denoting the waggon and the mountain of the old gods, have survived chiefly in Lower Germany, where heathenism maintained itself longest; a remarkable custom of the people in Lower Saxony at harvest-time points the same way. It is usual to leave a clump of standing corn in a field to Woden for his horse. Oðinn in the Edda rides the eight-footed steed Sleipnir, the best of all horses, Sæm. 46 93. Sn. 18. 45. 65. Sleipnis verðr (food) is a poetic name for hay, Yngl. saga cap. 21: other sagas speak of a tall white horse, by which the god of victory might be recognised in battles (see Suppl.). Christianity has not entirely rooted out the harmless practice for the Norse any more than for the Saxon peasant. In Schonen and Blekingen it continued for a long time to be the custom for reapers to leave on the field a gift for Oden's horses. (32) The usage in Mecklenburg is thus described by Gryse: Ja, im heidendom hebben tor tid der arne (at harvest-tide) de meiers (mowers) dem afgade Woden umme god korn angeropen (invoked for good corn), denn wenn de roggenarne geendet, heft men up den lesten platz eins idern (each) veldes einen kleinen ord unde humpel korns unafgemeiet stan laten, datsülve baven (b' oben, a-b' ove) an den aren drevoldigen to samende geschörtet, unde besprenget (ears festooned together three times, and sprinkled). Alle meiers sin darumme her getreden, ere höde (their hats) vam koppe genamen (v. supra, p. 32), unde ere seisen (scythes) na der sülven wode [mode?] unde geschrenke (encircling) dem kornbusche upgerichet, und hebben den Wodendüvel dremal semplik lud averall also angeropen unde gebeden:

Wode, hale (fetch) dinem rosse nu voder,

nu distil unde dorn,

tom andern jar beter korn!

welker afgödischer gebruk im Pawestom gebleven. Daher denn ok noch an dissen orden dar heiden gewanet, bi etliken ackerlüden (-leuten, men) soker avergelövischer gebruk in anropinge des Woden tor tid der arne gespöret werd, und ok oft desülve helsche jeger (the same hellish hunter), sonderliken im winter, des nachtes up dem velde mit sinen jagethunden sik hören let. (33)

David Franck (Meklenb. 1, 56-7), who has heard the same from old people, quotes the rhyme thus:

Wode, Wode,

hal dinen rosse nu voder,

nu distel un dorn,

ächter jar beter korn!

He adds, that at the squires' mansions, when the rye is all cut, there is Wodel-beer served out to the mowers; no one weeds flax on a Wodenstag, lest Woden's horse should trample the seeds; from Christmas to Twelfth-day they will not spin, nor leave any flax on the distaff, and to the question why? they answer, Wode is galloping across. We are expressly told, this wild hunter Wode rides a white horse. (34) Near Sätuna in Vestergötland are some fine meadows called Onsängarne (Odens ängar, ings), in which the god's horses are said to have grazed, Afzelius 1, 4. In S. Germany they tell of the lord of the castle's grazing gray (or white), Mone anz. 3, 259; v. infra, the 'wütende heer'. I have been told, that in the neighbourhood of Kloppenburg in Oldenburg, the harvesters leave a bunch of corn-stalks uncut on the field, and dance round it. There may be a rhyme sung over it still, no doubt there was formerly.

A custom in Schaumburg I find thus described: (35) the people go out to mow in parites of twelve, sixteen or twenty scythes, but it is so managed, that on the last day of harvest they are all finished at the same time, or some leave a strip standing which they can cut down at a stroke the last thing, or they merely pass their scythes over the stubble, pretending there is still some left to mow. At the last stroke of the scythe they raise their implements aloft, plant them upright, and beat the blades three times with the strop. Each spills on the field a little of the drink he has, whether beer, brandy, or milk, then drinks himself, while they wave their hats, beat their scythes three times, and cry aloud Wôld, Wôld, Wôld! and the women knock all the crumbs out of their baskets on the stubble. They march home shouting and singing. Fifty years ago a song was in use, which has now died out, but whose first strophe ran thus:  
 



ENDNOTES:

32. Geyers schwed. gesch. 1, 110. orig. 1, 123. In the Högrumssocken, Oeland, are some large stones named Odins flisor, Odini lamellae, of which the story is told, that Odin, in turning his horse out to graze, took the bit off him and laid it on a huge block of stone; the weight of the bit split the stone into two pieces, which were set upright as a memorial. Another story is, that Oden was about to fight an adversary, and knew not, where to tie his horse up. In the hurry he ran to the stone, pierced it with his sword, and tied his horse fast through the hole. But the horse broke loose, the stone burst in pieces and rolled away, and from this arose the deep bog named Högrumsträsk; people have tied poles together, but never could reach the bottom. Abrah. Ahlquist, Oelands historia, Calmar 1822. 1, 37. 2, 212. There is a picture of the stones in Liliengren och Brunius, no. xviii. In the Högbysocken of Oeland is also a smooth block of granite named Odinssten, on which, acc. to the folk-tale, the warriors of old , when marching to battle, used to whet their swords; Ahlquist 2, 79. These legends confirm the special importance of Odin's horse in his mythus. Verelii notae on the Gautrekssaga p. 40 quote from the Clavis computi runici: 'Odin beter hesta sina i belg burden,' which I do not quite understand. In the Fornm. sög. 9, 55-6 Oðinn has his horse shod at a blacksmith's, and rides away by enormous leaps to Sweden, where a war breaks out (see Suppl.).  (back)

33. Spegel des antichristischen pawestdoms (popery), dorch Nicolaum Grysen, predigern in Rostock, Rost. 1593. 4, sheet E iiii. With the verses cited by him, conf. the formula in weisthümer: Let it lie fallow one year, and bear thistle and thorn the next.  (back)

34. Mussäus meklenb. volkssagen no. 5; in Lisch meklenb. jahrb. 2, 133 it is spelt Waud, and a note is made, that on the Elbe they say fruh Wod, i.e. frôho, lord; conf. infra, fru Gaue and fru Gauden in the 'wütende heer'.  (back)

35. By Münchhausen in Bragur VI. 1, 21-34.  (back)