Chapter 7

Even a part of the human body was named after the god: the space between the thumb and the forefinger when stretched out, which the Greeks name licaj, was called in the Netherlands Woedensspanne, Woedenspanne, Woenslet. The thumb was sacred, and even worshipped as thumbkin and Pollux = pollex; Wodan was the god of play, and lucky men were said to have the game running on their thumb. We must await further disclosures about the name, its purport, and the superstition lying at the bottom of it (see Suppl.).

I started with assuming that the worship of this divinity was common to all the Teutonic races, and foreign to none, just because we must recognise him as the most universal and the supreme one. Wuotan---so far as we have succeeded in gleaning from the relics of the old religion an idea of his being----Wuotan is the most intellectual god of our antiquity, he shines out above all other gods; and therefore the Latin writers, when they speak of the German cultus, are always prompted to make mention first of Mercury.

We know that not only the Norsemen, but the Saxons, Thuringians, Alamanns and Langobards worshipped this deity; why should Franks, Goths, and the rest be excluded from his service?

At the same time there are plain indications that his worship was not always and everywhere the dominant one. In the South of Germany, although the personification of Wish maintained its ground, Wuotan became extinct sooner than in the North; neither names of places, nor that of the fourth day of the week, have preserved him there. Among the Scandinavians, the Swedes and Norwegians seem to have been less devoted to him than the Gotlanders and Danes. The ON. sagas several times mention images of Thor, never one of Oðinn; only Saxo Gram. does so in an altogether mythical way (p. 113); Adam of Bremen, though he names Wodan among the Upsala gods, assigns but the second place to him, and the first to Thor. Later still, the worship of Freyr seems to have predominated in Sweden.

An addition to the St. Olaf saga, though made at a later time, furnishes a striking statement about the heathen gods whom the introduction of christianity overthrew. I will quote it here, intending to return to it from time to time: 'Olafr konûngr kristnaði þetta rîki allt, öll blôt braut hann niðr ok öll goð, sem Thôr Engilsmanna goð, ok Oðin Saxa goð, ok Skiöld Skânûnga goð, ok Frey Svîa goð, ok Goðorm Dana goð' ; i.e. king O. christened all this kingdom, broke down all sacrifices and all gods, as Thor the Englishmen's god, Oðin the Saxons' god, &c., Fornm. sög. 5, 239.---This need not be taken too strictly, but it seems to me to express the still abiding recollections of the old national gods: as the Swedes preferred Freyr, so probably did the Saxons Wôden, to all other deities. Why, I wonder, did the writer, doubtless a Norwegian, omit the favourite god of his own countrymen? To them he ought to have given Thor, instead of the English, who, like other Saxons, were votaries of Wôden.

Meanwhile it must not be overlooked, that in the Abrenuntiatio, an 8th century document, not purely Saxon, yet Low German, O. Frankish and perhaps Ripuarian, Thunar is named before Vuodan, and Saxnôt occupies the third place. From this it follows at all events, that the worship of Thunar also prevailed in those regions; may we still vindicate Wuodan's claims to the highest place by supposing that the three gods are here named in the order in which their statues were placed side by side? that Wuodan, as the greatest of them, stood in the middle ? as, according to Adam of Bremen, Thor did at Upsala, with Wodan and Fricco on each side of him.

In the ON. sagas, when two of these gods are named together, Thôrr usually precedes Oðinn. The Laxdælasaga, p. 174, says of Kiartan: At hann þykist eiga meira traust undir afli sinu ok vâpnum (put more trust in his strength and weapons, conf. pp. 6, 7) heldr enn þar sem er Thôrr ok Oðinn. The same passage is repeated in Fornm. sög. 2, 34. Again, Eyvindr relates how his parents made a vow before his birth: At sâ maðr skal alt til dauðadags þiona Thôr ok Oðni (this man shall until death-day serve, &c.), Fornm. sög. 2, 161. (43) But it does not follow from this, that Thôrr was thought the greatest, for Eyvindr was actually dedicated to Oðinn. In Fornm. sög. 5, 249, Styrbiörn sacrifices to Thôrr, and Eirekr to Oðinn, but the former is beaten. Thôrr tôk jolaveizlu frâ Haraldi, enn Oðinn tôk frâ Hâlfdâni, Fornm. sög. 10, 178. In the popular assembly at Thrândheim, the first cup is drunk to Oðinn, the second to Thôrr, ibid. 1, 35. In the famous Bravalla fight, Othin under the name of Bruno acts as charioteer to the Danish king Harald, and to the latter's destruction; on the Swedish side there fight descendents of Freyr, Saxo Gram. 144-7. Yet the Eddic Harbarzlioð seems to place Oðinn above Thôrr. A contrast between Oðinn and Thôrr is brought out strongly in the Gautrekssaga quoted below, ch. XXVIII. But, since Thôrr is represented as Oðin's son, as a rejuvenescence of him, the two must often resolve into one another. (44)

If the three mightiest gods are named, I find Oðinn foremost: Oðinn, Thôr, Freyr, Sn. edda 131. According to Fornm. sög. 1, 16, voyagers vow money and three casks of ale to Freyr, if a fair wind shall carry them to Sweden, but to Thôrr or Oðinn, if it bring them home to Iceland (see Suppl.).

It is a different thing, when Oðinn in ON. documents is styled Thridi, the third; (45) in that case he appears not by the side of Thôrr and Freyr, but by the side of Hâr and Iafnhâr (the high and the even-high or co-equal, OHG. epan hôh) as the Third High (46) (see Suppl.), Sn. 7. Yngl. saga 52. Sæm. 46. As we might imagine, the grade varies: at other times he is Tveggi (duplex or secundus). Again, in a different relation he appears with his brothers Vili and Ve, Sn. 7; with Hænir and Loðr, Sæm. 3, or with Hænir and Loki Sæm. 180. Sn. 135; all this rests upon older myths, which, as peculiar to the North, we leave on one side. Yet, with respect to the trilogy Oðinn, Vili, Ve, we must not omit to mention here that the OHG. willo expresses not only voluntas, but votum, impetus and spiritus, (47) and the Gothic viljan, velle, is closely connected with valjan, eligere; whence it is easy to conceive and believe, how Wuotan, Wish and Will should touch one another (see Suppl.). With the largitor opum may also be connected the AS. wela, OS. welo, OHG. wolo, welo = opes, felicitas [weal, wealth], and Wela comes up several times almost as a personification (conf. Gramm. 4, 752), like the Lat. goddess Ops (conf. infra Sælde, note); there is also a Vali among the Norse gods. In the case of Ve, gen. vea, the sense may waver between wiho, sanctus (Goth. Ahma sa veiha, Holy Ghost), and wih, idolum. In Sæm. 63, Loki casts the teeth of Frigg her intrigues with Ve and Vili; [[Loki throws in the face of Frigg her intrigues with Ve and Vili;]] this refers to the story in Yngl. saga cap. 3, from which we clearly gather the identity of the three brothers, so that Frigg could be considered the wife of any one of them. (48)  
 



ENDNOTES:

43. So in an AS. homily De temporibus Antichristi, in Wheloc's Beda p. 495, are enumerated 'Thor and Eoðwen, þe hæðene men heriað swiðe' ; and before that, 'Erculus se ent (Hercules gigas) and Apollinis (Apollo), þe hi mærne god lêton'. The preacher was thinking of the Greek and the Norse deities, not of the Saxon, or he would have said Thunor and Wôden. And in other cases, where distinctly Norse gods are meant, AS. writers use the Norse form of name. F. Magnusens lex. p. 919.  (back)

44. When Oðinn is called Thundr in the songs of the Edda, Sæm. 28 47, this may be derived from a lost þynja = AS. þunian, tonare, and so be equivalent to Donar; it is true, they explain þundr as loricatus, from þund lorica. But Wuotan, as Vôma, is the noise of the rushing air, and we saw him hurl the cudgel, as Thôrr does the hammer.  (back)

45. As Zeus also is tritoj from which Tritogeneia is more easily explained than by her birth from his head (see Suppl.).  (back)

46. Ælfric's glosses 56, Altanus: Wôden. Altanus, like Summanus, an epithet of Jove, the Altissimus; else Altanus, as the name of a wind, might also have to do with the storm of the 'wütende heer'. (back)

47. The Greek menoj would be well adapted to unite the meanings of courage, fury (mut, wut), wish, will, thought.  (back)

48. According to this story, Oðinn was abroad a long time, during which his brothers act for him; it is worthy of note, that Saxo also makes Othin travel to foreign lands, and Mithothin fill his place, p. 13; this Mithothin's position throws light on that of Vili and Ve. But Saxo, p. 45, represents Othin as once more an exile, and puts Oller in his place (see Suppl.). The distant journeys of the god are implied in the Norse by-names Gângrâðr, Gângleri, Vegtamr, and Viðförull, and in Saxo 45 viator indefessus. It is not to be overlooked, that even Paulus Diac. 1, 9 knows of Wodan's residence in Greece (qui non circa haec tempora---of the war between Langobards and Vandals---sed longe anterius, nec in Germania, sed in Graecia fuisse perhibetur; while Saxo removes him to Byzantium, and Snorri to Tyrkland). In the passage in Paul. Diac.: 'Wodan sane, quem adjecta litera Gwodan dixerunt, ipse est qui apud Romanos Mercurius dicitur, et ab universis Germaniae gentibus ut deus adoratur, qui non circa haec tempora, sed longe anterius, nec in Germania, sed in Graecia fuisse perhibetur'---it has been proposed to refer the second 'qui' to Mercurius instead of Wodan (Ad. Schmidt zeitschr. 1, 264), and then the harmony of this account with Snorri and Saxo would disappear. But Paul is dealing with the absurdity of the Langobardic legend related in 1, 8, whose unhistoric basis he lays bare, by pointing out that Wodan at the time of the occurrence between the Wandali and Winili, had not ruled in Germany, but in Greece; which is the main point here. The notion that Mercury should be confined to Greece, has wider bearings, and would shock the heathen faith not only of the Germans but of the Romans. The heathen gods were supposed to be omnipresent, as may be seen by the mere fact that Woden-hills were admitted to exist in various spots all over the country; so that the community of this god to Germans, Greeks and Romans raised no difficulty.  (back)