Hello today I’m going to look at how and when Óðinn could have developed
from Wodan, or the previous forms of Wodan. In a previous video, Óðinn and the Wild Hunt,
I have given plausible explanations of how the wild hunt featured a procession of dead bodies,
sometime riding horses, being called wōðu in proto-Indo European. With the term wōðu meaning
erratic or unpredictable movement. I have then shown that the demonic figure
of death, the leader of the hunt, didn’t ride at the front of the hunt as is often depicted, but
was chasing the dead, consuming the dead, a figure that at one time was probably half man half horse
and in other times a man-eating horse. A figure that over time became a standalone personification
eventually known as wōðu, that evolved into the being Wōðanaz. A name he would probably been known
as in the times when Tacitus was writing during the Roman conquest of Europe, 2000 years ago.
Tacitus wrote that the tribes in Europe had a god to whom he referred to as “deus maximus of
the teutons”, the major god of the Teutons, and we know this to be Wōðanaz, who was surrounded
at this point in time by other personifications of gods. And then, over the next thousand years,
Wōðanaz would eventually become Wodan. In a follow up video, who was Óðinn,
I have also shown that the name Óðinn probably evolved from Óðr, a continuation of wōðu,
with Óðr being another name for the gift of movement given by Óðinn to Asker and Embla,
the first humans that were created from trees. But there is still some uncertainty in why Tacitus
called Wōðanaz “deus maximus” as comparing Wōðanaz with Mercury, the counter part of Hermes. Mercury
was not the main divinity of the Romans, that was Jupiter, and Tacitus and Caesar both called this
Teutonic god “a war god” which would align the god with Mars. So in this video we’re going to look at
ways of how Óðinn could have evolved from Wōðanaz to become the god we know of today from the Eddas,
so welcome to the story of how Wōðanaz became Óðinn, and welcome to Crecganford.
So when Tacitus called Wōðanaz “deus maximus” it was probably the visually obvious association of
ravens that led to the “interpretatio romana” of Mercury. With “interpretatio romana” being a way
Romans compared objects from other cultures to their way of understanding, thus
the god Tacitus was referring to, the Romans would know as the equivalent of Mercury
and was the major god of the Teutons. So why label the major god with Mercury and not Jupiter
or Mars? Well, the easiest comparison to make was visually and Wōðanaz had birds
and so did Mercury, and aligns with how the Romans labelled the Celtic god Lug as well, who was also
associated with birds. But why this labelling was used when the Romans within Europe would
have been familiar with rituals and the physical representations of the gods can only be guessed at
with little information in Tacitus’ work, and even less in Caesars. It was probably just “easier” and
there were probably more important things to write about such as battle strategy.
So when we use linguistic evidence then we can show that Tiwaz was the Germanic version
of the Indo-European sky god, a god called “lord” and was the predecessor of
Freyr in Scandanavia, not Óðinn as some may think, so Freyr replaced Tyr as a major god.
And the ancient thunder god of this time would have been aligned with the sky god, the
Greek equivalent of Zeus, and Roman Jupiter, and this is from the Proto-Indo European “Dyēus Pter”,
and it is a descendant of this god that would eventually be called ϸórr in Scandinavia.
In fact this mismatch means that the only reason we conclude that Wōðanaz was Mercury, is the
fact that Wednesday is named after him, without this reference we would have probably assumed
it was a different god, probably Tiwaz. In short, the pantheons of the Germanic
and Romans do not match. Óðinn and Tyr, and Óðinn and Thor, just do not match
other Mediterranean pantheons major gods. Óðinn doesn’t fit, so where is he from?
Well there is no god in the proto-Indo European mythology that matches Wōðanaz, so where did he
come from and why did he take the position he did, a position that would have otherwise been
taken by “Dyēus Pter” or Tiwaz, or potentially a proto-ϸórr? Although ϸórr is a more complicated
god than the Thunder God label he has been given in modern myths, and I would suggest watching
this video if you want to understand why Thor is more of a sky god rather than a god of thunder.
Now we must also remember that the time between Tacitus’ work and the Poetic Edda
is far longer than the time from the Poetic Edda than today, and a lot changes with time. Changes
that are not documented and so the myths and their evolution are lost to our ancestors in that time.
For this reason it means that the age of Óðr is unknown, and whether he rose independently of wōðu
is also unknown, but there is still a reasonable probability that Óðr and wōðu originated from the
same proto-indo European source, but we cannot be certain about this, and so should approach this
inference with caution. But what we do understand with certainty is that the
creation of Óðr and wōðu were quite different, and so in terms of this explanation Óðr can
be removed from this pot of ingredients to understand the link from Wōðanaz to Óðinn,
and instead we can concentrate on Óðinn. So where did the concept of Óðinn come from?
If not from the Teutons, could it have come from their neighbours, the Celts,
did the Teutons take a god with similar characteristics? As discussed in the other
videos Wōðanaz is cognate with the Latin “vates”, a word borrowed from the tribes in Gaul, and Old
Irish “faith”. And the Wōðanaz itself is a rather aggressive accented word in the Celtic languages,
it stands out. But there is no evidence to support a borrowing of a similar god, no name that would
infer this with any degree of certainty. What seems certain is that in the beginning
of the Germanic gods creation there was no “deus maximus” that was an Óðinn character, but there
was Tyr, which means bright sky, and an ancestor of ϸórr, for thunder,
rain, and thus fertility. ϸórr at this point was probably not a war god, but a fighter, and thus a
champion of order. Tyr’s role as being a god of law and of order, which is still often asserted by
some, was demolished by Page in The Saga Book of Northern Research in response to Dumézil’s work,
if you’re interested in the specific references I’ll leave some information in the description.
The shift to Óðinn being “deus maximus” happened after the gods of Tyr and ϸórr were created,
but still long before the Roman’s came to Europe, and long before any documentation
was written about it. So, the when is still left unknown and thus restricts what we can infer.
At some point though Óðinn lost his eye, and a lot of importance is stressed on this event, but
this is just one of a number of knowledge gathering events, and too much emphasis
is placed on the eye. Óðinn hanged from a tree for nine days and raised a dead seeress to gain
knowledge. And the one-eyed god is a widespread motif in religions, however as several leaders of
tribes have been considered to have one eye, this may have led to this Óðinn cult gaining momentum.
But step back and you’ll see that in fact many of these Germanic gods were wounded,
with Tyr losing hand, and even ϸórr having a head wound from his duel with the giant Hrungnir. These
Germanic gods looked like rough versions of the Roman and Greek pantheons. And that is without
considering that Heimdallr was probably partly deaf, Hǫðr blind, Mjǫllnir had a defective handle,
and one of ϸórr’s goats was lame, and Vǫlundr, Wēyland in the Anglo-Saxon tales was lame too
(and you can watch a video on that here). So why are there these physical faults with
these gods? Well we should not look at these as faults, but symbolism representing the powers
they portray. Detailing this symbolism would require a whole video to cover these, and I’ll
do that at some point. But think of myths like the Greek Achilles or fairy tales like Cinderella,
which itself is potentially 4,000 years old, these represent foot mutilations, and
these mutilations are in fact a price paid for achieving something great, and this is a concept
that does go back to Proto-Indo Europeans. So perhaps we should look at features that
one would not expect a god described as “deus maximus” to have, what do we know about Óðinn?
For example, if the epithet of yggr has always been applied to Óðinn and his association of the
Yggdrassil, especially as a horse-type form. This is an association that must originate
in an ancient cult and probably alongside the wild hunt with its half man half horse motif.
Something known from proto-Indo European times. And so Óðinn must be ancient, and this can be
reinforced when understanding he is involved in the Norse creation myth, a place where the
oldest gods of pantheon often appear (although not always as we have Gayomart taking the place
of Yemo in Zoroastrianism which is explained in this video). But that does not apply here,
or at least there is no evidence to suggest this. But he is old enough to have giants’ blood
in his veins, from the very first beings that the primordial being created, Ymir or as the
Proto-Indo Europeans called him Yemo. And he is Loki’s sworn brother,
which if that is a surprise to you then check out Lokasenna, stanza 9, where Óðinn and Loki
bonded in blood. Óðinn’s back story shows a long history, an ancient god. And there still is a
different path we can go down here to understand the links between Óðinn and this “trickster” god,
as there are many, especially around death. So where did Óðinn come from to
walk this path to deus maximus, to greatness? The final place we could look is at poetry,
it gave power over the living and the dead, and has been in existence long before the proto-Indo
Europeans. It was important to obtain this power and hence why the giants, dwarves, gods and humans
wanted the mead of poetry (and I explain this in this video), and Óðinn acquires it though cunning,
where he starts showing intellect. This story of the mead of poetry must have developed over
centuries due to the importance of the acquisition to the culture, and during the time of the story’s
evolution Óðinn acquired shamanic knowledge and influence. This meant he was destined to
steal the mead of poetry, and this mead again we can trace back to Proto-Indo European times.
However, there is often too much emphasis placed on Runes with Óðinn, it wasn’t until
the 3rd century that these started to play an important role in Germanic and Nordic cultures,
and we only have one story, in the Hávamál, where it is explained how Óðinn the sorcerer
appropriated them, and this is perhaps just one of many stories that probably existed in time, but
alas the others are now lost, but it further shows his evolution into an intellectual god happening.
Before this point Óðinn’s role had already grown with the mead of poetry,
and alongside his role as a war god, a role he obtained in his personification as Wōðanaz,
the step from an active god of death chasing down the best warriors for Valholl to being a
god of war is a small one to make, although Óðinn was never a fighting god like ϸórr or
Tyr. Although he was treacherous, perhaps even mischievous, sometimes letting weaker warriors
win wars so he could acquire the dead but better warriors for his battle at Ragnarǫk.
But with the rise of Christianity he was forgotten by those who wrote books, before being remembered
again, but as a real historical figure, something we call euhemerization, and then demonised
to a degree, before being worshipped again. Knowing this, we have to ask ourselves how
much influence had Snorri Sturlusson, the writer of the Prose Edda, the writer
of many of the stories we have of Óðinn, have in drawing this picture of Óðinn we see?
And the answer to this is probably more than we give him credit for, Snorri must have known
more about Óðinn than he wrote, and he could have had access to Saxo Grammaticus’s work to
influence him, although it is more probable that he read an early version of Historia Norvegiae,
the history of Norway, and this may have helped influence the picture of Óðinn Snorri drew.
Whilst Snorri was keen to show and keep the beauty of skaldic poetry, he wanted to convert pagans,
but he managed to create a war god, powerful, but devoid of charm. He introduced berserkers
and made him a powerful pagan sorcerer with Shamanistic influence. Something that
is not noted in other sources outside the Eddas, and so maybe it was purely his doing.
It seems to me that Óðinn and Wodan come from the same diety, which split
through the Nordic and Germanic cultural evolution, but with Óðinn’s character
today being particularly influenced by Snorri and his fellow Christian Monks in Iceland.
There are many questions to answer such as why so many mutilations of gods, where is
Loki in all this, and what happened during key parts of Óðinn’s story?
But this video is to explain how Óðinn came to greatness from Wodan, and that is through being a
god of death, allowed him to become a god of war, with magic being required to control the dead,
he acquired poetry and with it knowledge. This happened in pre-Roman Europe, making
him a powerful figure, but the final image, the one most are familiar with has probably been
unfairly biased by Snorri in his Prose Edda, making Óðinn’s journey in the Viking age and
early Christianity rather cloudy, and one we will unlikely ever understand.