Woden
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This is the article about the West Germanic deity, for other uses see Woden (disambiguation), Wotan (disambiguation). For a comparative discussion of North and West Germanic, see Wodanaz.
Wōden is the deity in Anglo-Saxon polytheism corresponding to Norse Odin, both continuations of a Proto-Germanic deity, *Wōdanaz. Other West Germanic forms of the name include Dutch Wodan, Alemannic Wuodan, and German Wotan.
Woden was worshiped during the Migration period, until the 7th or 8th century, when Germanic paganism was gradually replaced by Christianity. In Anglo-Saxon England, Woden was rationalized as an historical king, and remnants of worship were continued into modern times as folklore, Wodan featuring prominently in both English and Continental folklore as the leader of the Wild Hunt.
Wednesday is named after Woden.
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[edit] Origins
Known as Óðinn in Norse mythology, Wōden in Old English, Wodan or Wotan in Old High German and Godan in Lombardic, Woden was probably the Germanic god named as Mercury by classical Roman writers such as Tacitus in his regnator omnium deus.
Odin probably rose to prominence during the Migration period, gradually displacing Tyr as the head of the pantheon in West and North Germanic cultures. Though such theories are only academic speculation based on trends of worship for other Indo-European cognate deity figures related to Tyr. Outside of the Germanic branch of Indo-European cultures, Odin/Wotan/Wodan has no cognate names or religious equivalents of attested certainty, and was always considered the Germanic supreme god from recorded sources.
Testimonies of the god are scattered over a wide range, both temporally and geographically. More than a millennium separates the earliest Roman accounts and archaeological evidence from the 1st century from the Odin of the Edda and later medieval folklore.
[edit] Continental Wodan
Details of Migration period Germanic religion are sketchy, reconstructed from artifacts, sparse contemporary sources, and the later testimonies of medieval legends and placenames. According to Jonas Bobiensis, the 6th century Irish missionary Saint Columbanus is reputed to have disrupted a Beer sacrifice to Wuodan (Deo suo Vodano nomine) in Bregenz, Alemannia. Wuodan was the chief god of the Alamanni, his name appears in the runic inscription on the Nordendorf fibula.
The "Merseburger Zaubersprüche" ("Merseburg Charms"), apart from runic inscriptions the only surviving pagan texts in the Old High German language, were written around AD 800. One of them describes Wodan as a healer:
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[edit] Anglo-Saxon Woden
The Anglo-Saxon tribes brought their faith to England around the 5th and 6th centuries and continued in that form of worship until nearly all were converted to Christianity by the 9th century, at which point the old gods and any records of them were almost completely lost. This process of conversion followed an established pattern that is attested in accounts of the same from continental Europe: leaders were baptised for varied reasons, and the conversion of their respective peoples almost always inevitably followed, sometimes in the space of a few years, but more often over the course of a few generations.
For the Anglo-Saxons, Woden was the carrier-off of the dead, but not necessarily with the exact same attributes of the Norse Odin. There do not appear to have been the concepts of Valkyries and Valhalla in the Norse sense, although there is a word for the former, Waelcyrge.
In addition to the roles named here, Woden was considered to be the leader of the Wild Hunt. The familial relationships are the same between Woden and the other Anglo-Saxon gods as they are for the Norse.
Wednesday (*Wēdnes dæg, "Woden's day", interestingly continuing the variant *Wōdinaz (with umlaut), unlike Wōden, continuing *Wōdanaz) is named after him, his link with the dead making him the appropriate match to the Roman Mercury.
The Anglo-Saxon kings claimed descent from Woden. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Britonum, Woden had the sons Wecta, Baeldaeg, Casere and Wihtlaeg.
- Wecta's line is continued by Witta, Wihtgils, Hengest and Horsa, and the Kings of Kent.
- Baeldaeg's line is continued by Brona, Frithugar, Freawine, Wig, Gewis, Esla, Elesa, Cerdic and the Kings of Wessex.
- Casere's line is continued by Tytmon, Trygils, Hrothmund, Hryp, Wilhelm, Wehha, Wuffa and the Kings of East Anglia.
- Wihtlaeg's line is continued by Wermund king of Angel, Offa Wermundson, Angeltheow, Eomer, Icel and the Kings of Mercia.
Anglo-Saxon literature starts at about the time of the conversion from the old religion. Though whatever stories recording his part in the lives of men and the gods are lost, Woden's name survived in the names of many settlements and geographical features.
[edit] Further reading
- Brian Branston, The Lost Gods of England, Thames and Hudson, 2nd ed. (1974), ISBN 0-500-11013-1
- Kathleen Herbert, Looking for the Lost Gods of England, Anglo-Saxon Books (1995), ISBN 1-898281-04-1
- E.G. Stanley, Imagining the Anglo-Saxon Past : The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism and Anglo-Saxon Trial by Jury, D.S.Brewer (2000), ISBN 0-85991-588-3
- Michael Wood, In search of the Dark Ages, Checkmark Books (2001), ISBN 0-8160-4702-2
[edit] See also
- Germanic polytheism
- Germanic Christianity
- Anglo-Saxon polytheism
- South Germanic deities
- Dutch mythology
- List of places named after Woden
- Migration Period art
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