Chapter 7

Lastly, a principal proof of the deeply-rooted worship of this divinity is furnished by Wôdan's being interwoven with the old Saxon genealogies, which I shall examine minutely in the Appendix. (49)

Here we see Wôdan invariably in the centre. To him are traced up all the races of heroes and kings; among his sons and his ancestors, several have divine honours paid them. In particular, there appear as sons, Balder and that Saxnôt who in the 8th century was not yet rooted out of N.W. Germany; and in the line of his progenitors, Heremôd and Geât, the latter expressly pronounced a god, or the son of a god, in these legends, while Wôdan himself is regarded more as the head of all noble races. But we easily come to see, that from a higher point of view both Geát and Wôdan merge into one being, as in fact Oðinn is called 'alda Gautr,' Sæm. 93 95; conf. infra Goz, Koz.

In these genealogies, which in more than one direction are visibly interwoven with the oldest epic poetry of our nation, the gods, heroes and kings are mixed up together. As heroes become deified, so can gods also come up again as heroes; amid such reappearances , the order of succession of the individual links varies [in different tables].

Each pedigree ends with real historical kings: but to reckon back from these, and by the number of human generations to get at the date of mythical heroes and gods, is preposterous. The earliest Anglo-Saxon kings that are historically certain fall into the fifth, sixth or seventh century; count four, eight or twelve generations up to Wôden, you cannot push him back farther than the third or fourth century. Such calculations can do nothing to shake our assumption of his far earlier existence. The adoration of Wôden must reach up to immemorial times, a long way beyond the first notices given us by the Romans of Mercury's worship in Germania.

There is one more reflection to which the high place assigned to by the Germans to their Wuotan may fairly lead us. Monotheism is a thing so necessary, so natural, that almost all heathens, admidst their motley throng of deites, have consciously or unconsciously ended by acknowledging a supreme god, who has already in him the attributes of all the rest, so that these are only to be regarded as emanations from him, renovations, rejuvenescences of him. This explains how certain characteristics come to be assigned, now to this, now to that particular god, and why one or another of them, according to the difference of nation, comes to be invested with supreme power. Thus our Wuotan resembles Hermes and Mercury, but he stands higher than these two; contrariwise, the German Donar (Thunor, Thôrr) is a weaker Zeus or Jupiter; what was added to the one, had to be subtracted from the other; as for Ziu (Tiw, Tyr), he hardly does more than administer one of Wuotan's offices, yet is identical in name with the first and highest god of the Greeks and Romans: and so all these god-phenomena keep meeting and crossing one another. The Hellenic Hermes is pictured as a youth, the Teutonic Wuotan as a patriarch: Oðinn hinn gamli (the old), Yngl. saga cap. 15, like 'the old god' on p. 21. Ziu and Froho are mere emanations of Wuotan (see Suppl.).

GENEALOGIES OF ANGLO-SAXON KINGS.

Descending Series.
Kent .

     Eastanglia.

      Essex

      Mercia
Wôden

   Wôden

      Wôden

    Wôden
Wecta

       Câsere

        Saxneát

    Wihlæg
Witta

        Titmon

       Gesecg

    Wærmund
Wihtgils

     Trigel

        Andsecg

   Offa
Hengest (d.489)   

    Hrôthmund

        Sweppa

    Angeltheow
Eoric (Oesc)       

        Hrippa

       Sigefugel

   Eomær
Octa

      Quichelm

           Bedeca

     Icel
Eormenrîc

   Uffa

         Offa

          Cnebba  
Æthelbeorht (567)     Tidel

       Æscwine (527)

     Cynewald

 Rædwald (d. 617)    Sledda

     Creoda

    Eorpwald (632)

 Sæbeorht (604)

   Wibba

     Penda (d. 656) 



ENDNOTES:

49. This Appendix forms part of the third volume. In the meanwhile readers may be glad to see for themselves the substance of these pedigrees, which I have extracted from the Appendix, and placed at the end of this chapter.-----Trans.  (back)