Hello. In my last video I talked about how I believed Wodan probably derived from Wode,
a leader of the Wild Hunt, a death demon, a product of fear may be chaotic, and a character
somewhat similar to the Greek god of death, Thantos. But I was unable to show any evidence
that how Odin then related to Woden or wodu, or Wodanaz. So in this video, we're going to
look at a few potential ways that Odin could have evolved from Odin by looking at the hypothosis,
or hypotheses that have been discussed by many academics. And whilst I cannot say
any of these theories are going to talk about are definitely right,
I can state a level of assurance to any inferences I make this video. I will say this, though,
this isn't all my own work. But we'll compare the conclusion that has also been attested to by
Jacob Grimm, Karl Helm, and Anatoly Lieberman, and the letter whose book “Prayer and Laughter”,
I can highly recommend, and it's helped greatly with my research. So welcome to the video on how
Woden became Odin. And welcome to Crecganford. So before, I tell you where the names came from,
what to say first, thank you for your messages and comments, obviously, from the last video,
it means a lot, and I'll do my best to reply to all of them. So thank you,
to everyone who clicks like on the video, who subscribes or even if you just watch these videos,
it does mean a lot. And your support inspires me. So thank you. Now, let's try and find Odin. And I
want to start by saying that whilst etymology is the study of the origin of words, we can't
determine the origin of word unless we understand what thing is designated by the words meaning.
And this is the method used to understand where we're to come from whether they've evolved from
other cultures, or whether they've evolved with the development of language.
And languages itslef has slight changes between generations, over a few 100 years
can have significant differences. For example, Shakespeare, which is about 500 years old, or so,
if you look at that language and compare it to modern English, the words are spoken so
much more differently today and mean different things. And this uncertainty within etymology.
And the odd truths within mythology gives us a mash up of ideas that we have to tread
carefully between to make sure we get to the right answer. And the prime example of
this is an Snorri Sturlusson, who wrote the prose Edda, which has stories about the Old Norse gods,
and he stated that some God's powers would evolve. So the word Thunder he played came
from Thors name, where today we actually know the opposite of true, Thors name came from thunder.
And we have this problem with the etymology of Loki. Because we can't find a, his sort of
core characteristic, we can't say what his name actually means or where it comes from. And these
challenges hold true for Odin too. The root of the word oath or an oath in is not in dispute. We know
the adjective form of the word means frantic or furious. And the noun means poetry or song. But
none of these seem to relate directly with Wodanaz and so there's no clear link between him and
wakefulness. So today, when we also consider God, we see them as a personification of a spiritual
power. So for Odin that would mean, we would consider him the poet because of the nouns meaning
that the earliest Gods from the proto indo European times didn't personify anything. Again,
as mentioned in my last video, the Wild Hunt video, these early gods were neutrally gendered,
and considered a group of spirits. They were masters of things man considered evil, wanted
to be rid of, they were feared not loved. They were given sacrifice to prevent things happening,
rather than make things happen. These earliest beliefs often associated with nature. For example,
the sun, the moon, the sky, the weather, and so the view of the Wild Hunt with the spirits flying
through the air could manifest itself as being associated with winds or maybe storms. And this
natural view is one the academics have followed. So to progress this most academics will start at
Vedic culture, and the word Vata Which means the blowing one, and this may be a need to
widen. However, if we hadn't evolved from Vata, it would mean that God wasn't Germanic,
not created in Germany, but came from India. And they would be more evident this through Persia
and Greece if that was the case, but better is also cognate with value of the aliens,
and the usual name for their storm or wind got. And this has led to some academics are speculating
that the root of this indo European word is wa which means wind, and as what could be considered
the root of Woden, we could therefore associate Woden as the God of the wind.
However, the term vata when explored more closely is never really personified. It just
remains as wind within the Vedic poems. And thus then to evolve into a personified Woden
seems to have significant problems, especially given the strength of evidence around wode,
and also from a word evolution point of view to expand the root of wode would require suffixes of
to or wo. And if the rules of language were to be followed, then neither of those options would
have matched the structure of the name woden. Equally, along the nature aspect of the word wod,
meaning woods, could also be considered a root avoidant. But again, this is just untenable,
because it evolves around language. In fact, people who believe this nature mythology have very
few arguments to counter challenges, so best their considerations, but worse that they just shouldn't
be considered. But this doesn't stop academics looking at vat sort of a shorter version of vata
to make vater or vatin and having an etymological link to both and as, however, the letting of that
which is better is requires the creation of the word have been taken from a non Roman source, such
as Celtic. And if this was the case, then the word would have developed differently. And even then
the link of how it cognates to wod or wodu doesn't exist without this Wild Hunt consideration.
And there will be huge challenges proving the wind is a source of woden. And then there is absolutely
no evidence of how God could be named in the Germanic from a Celtic ritual source, you know,
there was actually no precedent in the world religion has done such a thing, and to further
down the suffixes of an or in would only apply if Woden was considered to mean Lord of the wind, or
Lord of the vats. And here we need to understand that whilst vat links to wind, wind in this
context isn't a collective it isn't a proof of concept, it is still in its singular form. And so
it would fail undere examination along this path, because the wild hunt is a collective.
So let's look at this from a different angle. And if we go to the Germanic and odin, or odr,
then our journey has to begin with one of these names. And if we start with both or
any screening of poetry, then again, we lose our links to the wild hunt and wodu, whereas with odin
we have a different problem. And that is with the suffix of in, which could also be an and goes back
to Proto-Indo European suffixes of a eno or ono which would have evolved into that. And these
designate the bear that suffix would belong in a group always being a groups ruler. However, such
subsidies can't be associated with in even with Old Norse, it will break the rules of how language
evolved. Now, others have said that Woden as Wodu or Wodan, was a clerical alteration of wodin,
in effect learned it folk etymology, people became used to pronouncing it incorrectly. But
for this to happen, a similar substitution must therefore have happened between Old High German
and Old Saxon when woutan turned into Wodan. And for two clerical errors to occur in that way,
in different places, seems so highly improbable, it is not really worth considering any further.
So, perhaps we should look for other sources of clues. And the clue about Odin
is contained within the poetic Edda, perhaps one of the oldest poems within it, the Voluspa,
and that's the creation myth and End of Gods myth. Now, the poetic eddas Myth of creation
of man and woman within the voluspa differs to the one that is told within the prose Edda and
I chose the poetic Edda version, as we can be confident is a near direct copy of how the old
newspapers actually told whereas the prose Edda advice from snorri sturluson, who's a Christian,
and to help those who aren't aware understand the differences between the poetic Edda and the Prose
Eda the poetic Edda is a collection of poems that follows a specific poetic rules. In Old
Norse that would be the number of syllables and the alliteration, and the like. And if someone
changed a line, it would be quite obvious that the poem has stopped following the poetic rules. And
so we can see when poems have been altered, and if you read the poetic Edda, there are very few signs
of this. However, the Prose Edda was completely written by Snorri Sturlusson, who've been
Christian man hasn't put much poetry within it. And therefore any editorial changes applied to the
original story nor stories he wrote about aren't obvious. And it's they contradict what's in the
poetic Edda. And so the stories and the words in the procedure must always be approached with
caution. So the poetic Edda is a more accurate reference than the prose Edda. And so we go to
the poetics at his creation story is there is a specific difference in that story. And then
there are the procedure. And that difference is in God's names, and the gods who create humans.
And I'll explore the actual specific differences in another video, but for now, in the Poetic
Eddas voluspa in the stanza, 17, and 18, the names of three gods who found a tree's askr,
an emblr within made into humans were Odin, Hoenir and Lothr, where as in the Prose Edda,
it was Odin, Villi, and Ve. And, in those standards, the two trees were described as being
of little power, and don't fight it. And so the three Gods gave them gifts to make them human.
And this is where it gets interesting, because they now know Odin gave them ond,
Lodur gave them little gopher, and hoenir gave them Odr, and these gifts are
commonly translated as breath, colour and poetry respectively. We think about it last breath seems
appropriate maybe in terms of giving these trees life to be human. colour and poetry
seemed rather what choices, not particularly powerful gifts to allow a tree to become
human. And so let's investigate why weren't trees given given properties that were important?
But also, what is strange is why odin didn't give oath or was not I was in the only God who could
give poetry. Now, we will naturally assume he would have given his connection with over its root
of his name. So perhaps we should question whether we translate these gifts and names correctly,
could mean more than just breath, that we'd be translating these not as nouns but as adjectives
as gifts or powers. Well, there's a significant amount of academic support, that little gopher
could not mean just colour, but could actually be referring to genitals, and odr could be not just
poetry but voice. And these are characteristics that would be useful to turn a tree into human.
Then what about this meaning? Well, some academics believe that means more than just breath,
suggested Instead, it means a disturbance of air, then let's remember who odin was,
before he became a sorcerer, as described in the poetic edda, Odin was Woden, he was leader of the
Wild Hunt all those 1000s of years ago. You know, the culture viewed him as a collection of demons,
demons of death, and unstoppable omnipotent force, Odin could go where he pleased,
he had an eight legged horse, he could fly and he became associated with movement. And I say that
because there is not an unusual power within ancient myths. Within Homer's Iliad,
there is commentary saying Boreas of northwind begat horses, which is a metaphor for speed
and travel. And also, the harpies could fly and assume the shape and form of a horse.
So given all this perhaps, and does mean more than perhaps it means, oh think gave the ability
of the movement to allow askr and embla to move and wished unrestrained or uncontrolled,
a far more appropriate gift alongside genitals and a voice. And this opens up what I feel is the most
likely source for the name of Odin evolving from Wodan. This gift of movement Odin had und ties up
with the meaning of the adjective over and that is of badness and violent movement. Often the object
is paired This makes always in akin to being at one with the spirits with a madness possessed.
And that is cognate with old High German word, meaning divine violent movement. And as
was associated with that, too, and this is what the Gothic wat and the German wod, and the English
word mean. And when people are in this way, in this state, they often creative, they can
perform great deeds, and they can write poetry. And Odin being the bears the supernatural Wod,
or violent movement compares with Woden has unstoppable and provides us with enough
correlation has to be considered a significantly probable link. So from this evidence, Woden
is connected with Odin not because of poetry, and not being the leader of the wild hunt,
but due to his powers of movement, and his gift to man by giving him those powers.
And once I said become be 100% sure that this is the case, the movement of demons of the great
hunt, their madness, and how that chaotic wind, you know, would imagine itself in people's head.
Yeah, and how that relates to Wodanaz when put alongside the gift of odr gave with his oth or
his madness, his movement, it makes a very compelling case. From here we have a link
between the names, one that I and others feel is the strongest and most likely of links, you know,
there's no etymological trickery, or breaking the standard linguistic rules. So open and widen, are
related. And this opens up other characteristics of open that I'd like to talk about,
particularly his association with the Yggdrassil and discuss more about his cultural journey
between both and as and everything. Because some of the conclusions I have made in these videos
need to be questioned further, even tacitus. These words, Deus Maximus from my previous video
can still be questioned further, but we'll leave these for another video, as I said, and these are
different topics, and require much more time than I've got left in this video. But for now, we shall
conclude the journey to find the names of Wodan and Odin and the cognates. And I'm born at Wild
hunt and the words linking this with his movement from it. Being its leader of power,
he then used as a gift to create man from a tree. This doesn't mean one god evolved into the other,
there may have still formed as separate gods and then merged we can't know for sure. But due to
both their histories, in terms of leading a world hunt, and movement that is bound to its leader, we
can say both come from stories that are 1000s of years old. So for now, only leaves me to say thank
you for your support messages. I do try and read and reply to them all. So please keep them coming.
Ask me anything and change me where you can. I want to learn more. I think we all want to
learn more. So until the next video, stay safe. Stay well. And this was Crecganford.