Woden - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Woden or Wodan is a major deity of Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon polytheism

Anglo-Saxon paganism, or as it has also been known, Anglo-Saxon heathenism,The religion has been referred to as "paganism" by most scholars, such as David M. Wilson and Martin Carver , but as "heathenism" by some others, like Brian Branston...

and Continental Germanic polytheism. Together with his Norse

Norse paganism

Norse paganism is the religious traditions of the Norsemen, a Germanic people living in the Nordic countries. Norse paganism is therefore a subset of Germanic paganism, which was practiced in the lands inhabited by the Germanic tribes across most of Northern and Central Europe in the Viking Age...

counterpart Odin

Odin

Odin is a major god in Norse mythology and the ruler of Asgard. Homologous with the Anglo-Saxon "Wōden" and the Old High German "Wotan", the name is descended from Proto-Germanic "*Wodanaz" or "*Wōđanaz"....

, Woden represents a development of the Proto-Germanic god *Wōdanaz

Wodanaz

or is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of a god of Germanic paganism, known as in Norse mythology, in Old English, or in Old High German and in Lombardic...

.

Though less is known about the pre-Christian

Pre-Christian

Pre-Christian may mean:*before Christianization**historical polytheism *BC**Classical Antiquity**Iron Age...

religion of Anglo-Saxon and continental Germanic peoples than is known about Norse paganism, Woden is attested in English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, and Dutch toponyms

Toponymy

Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...

as well as in various texts and pieces of archeological evidence from the Early Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

The Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...

Etymology and origins

Wōđanaz or *Wōđinaz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-Germanic , or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the unattested, reconstructed proto-language of all the Germanic languages, such as modern English, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Luxembourgish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Swedish.The Proto-Germanic language is...

name of a god of Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

.

The name is connected to the Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European

Proto-Indo-European may refer to:*Proto-Indo-European language, the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages.*Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language....

stem *wāt, "inspiration", derived ultimately from the Indo-European theme *awē, "to blow". *Wāt continues in Old Irish fáith, "poet" or "seer"; Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

wut, "fury"; and Gothic

Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...

wods, "possessed". Old English had the noun wōþ "song, sound", corresponding to Old Norse óðr

Óðr

In Norse mythology, Óðr or Óð, sometimes angliziced as Odr or Od, is a figure associated with the major goddess Freyja...

, which has the meaning "fury" but also "poetry, inspiration". It is possible therefore that *Wōđanaz was seen as a manifestation of ecstasy, associated with mantic

Divination

Divination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic standardized process or ritual...

states, fury, and poetic inspiration. An explicit association of Wodan with the state of fury was made by 11th century German chronicler Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen

Adam of Bremen was a German medieval chronicler. He lived and worked in the second half of the eleventh century. He is most famous for his chronicle Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum .-Background:Little is known of his life other than hints from his own chronicles...

, who, when detailing the religious practices of Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n pagans, described Wodan, id est furor, "Wodan, that is, the furious".

Woden probably rose to prominence during the Migration period

Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions , was a period of intensified human migration in Europe that occurred from c. 400 to 800 CE. This period marked the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...

, gradually displacing Tyr as the head of the pantheon

Pantheon (gods)

A pantheon is a set of all the gods of a particular polytheistic religion or mythology.Max Weber's 1922 opus, Economy and Society discusses the link between a...

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.

He is in all likelihood identical with the Germanic god identified as "Mercury

Mercury (mythology)

Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...

" by Roman writers and possibly with the regnator omnium deus

Regnator omnium deus

In Tacitus' work Germania from the year 98, regnator omnium deus was a deity worshipped by the Semnones tribe in a sacred grove...

(god, ruler of all) mentioned by Tacitus

Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors...

in his 1st century work Germania

Germania (book)

The Germania , written by Gaius Cornelius Tacitus around 98, is an ethnographic work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.-Contents:...

.

The earliest attestation of the name is as Wodan in an Elder Futhark inscription: possibly on the Arguel pebble (of dubious authenticity, if genuine dating to the early 6th century), and on the Nordendorf fibula

Nordendorf fibula

thumb|300px|right|The Nordendorf II fibulaThe Nordendorf fibulae are two mid 6th to early 7th century Alamannic fibulae found in Nordendorf near Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany....

(early 7th century). Only slightly younger than the runic testimony of the Nordendorf fibula is the vita of Saint Columbanus by Jonas of Bobbio

Jonas of Bobbio

Jonas of Bobbio or Jonas Bobiensis was a Columbanian monk and writer of hagiography, among which his Life of Saint Columbanus is outstanding....

, which gives the Latinized Vodanus (attested in the dative, as Vodano).
A further runic inscription, on a brooch from Mülheim-Kärlich

Mülheim-Kärlich

Mülheim-Kärlich is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Weißenthurm. It is situated west of Koblenz, a few km from the Rhine.-References:...

, purportedly reading wodini hailag "consecrated to Woden", has long been recognized as a falsification.

Continental Wodan

Details of Migration period

Migration Period

Germanic religion

Germanic paganism

Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

are sketchy, reconstructed from artifacts, sparse contemporary sources, and the later testimonies of medieval legends and place names.

According to Jonas of Bobbio

Jonas of Bobbio

Jonas of Bobbio or Jonas Bobiensis was a Columbanian monk and writer of hagiography, among which his Life of Saint Columbanus is outstanding....

, the 6th century Irish missionary Saint Columbanus is reputed to have interrupted an offering being made by the Suebi

Suebi

The Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c...

to "their God Wodan".
"Wuodan" was the chief god of the Alamanni

Alamanni

The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Rhine river . One of the earliest references to them is the cognomen Alamannicus assumed by Roman Emperor Caracalla, who ruled the Roman Empire from 211 to 217 and claimed thereby to be...

, his name appears in the runic inscription on the Nordendorf fibulae.

The Langobard historian Paul the Deacon

Paul the Deacon

Paul the Deacon , also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefred, Barnefridus and Cassinensis, , was a Benedictine monk and historian of the Lombards.-Life:...

, who died in southern Italy in the 790s, was proud of his tribal origins and related how his people once had migrated from southern Scandinavia. In his work Historia Langobardorum, Paul states that "Wotan ... is adored as a god by all the peoples of Germania" and relates how Godan's (Wotan's) wife Frea (Frijjo

Frijjō

*Frijjō is the reconstructed name or epithet of a hypothesized Common Germanic love goddess giving rise to both Frigg and Freyja....

) had given victory to the Langobards in a war against the Vandals

Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....

. The story is an etiology of the name of the Lombards

Lombards

The Lombards , also referred to as Longobards, were a Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin, who from 568 to 774 ruled a Kingdom in Italy...

, interpreted as "longbeards". According to the story, the Langobards were formerly known as the "Winnili". In the war with the Vandals, Godan favoured the Vandals, while Frea favoured the Winnili. After a heated discussion, Godan swore that he would grant victory to the first tribe he saw the next morning upon awakening—knowing full well that the bed was arranged so that the Vandals were on his side. While he slept, Frea told the Winnili women to comb their hair over their faces to look like long beards so they would look like men and turned the bed so the Winnili women would be on Godan's side. When he woke up, Godan was surprised to see the disguised women first and asked who these long bearded men were, which was where the tribe got its new name, the "longbeards".

Woden is mentioned in an Old Saxon

Old Saxon

Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...

baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

al vow in Vatican Codex pal. 577 along with Thunear (Thor

Thor

In Norse mythology, Thor is a hammer-wielding god associated with thunder, lightning, storms, oak trees, strength, the protection of mankind, and also hallowing, healing, and fertility...

) and Saxnōt. The 8th- or 9th-century vow, intended for Christianising pagans, is recorded as:

ec forsacho allum dioboles uuercum and uuordum, Thunaer ende Uuöden ende Saxnote ende allum them unholdum the hira genötas sint

I renounce all the words and works of the devil

Devil

The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...

, Thunear, Wōden and Saxnōt, and all those fiends that are their associates.

Recorded during the 9th or 10th century, one of the two Merseburg Incantations

Merseburg Incantations

The Merseburg Incantations are two medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic pagan belief preserved in this language...

, from Merseburg

Merseburg

Merseburg is a town in the south of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt on the river Saale, approx. 14 km south of Halle . It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese founded by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg....

, Germany

Germany

mentions Wodan who rode into a wood together with Phol. There Balder's horse was injured, and Wodan, together with goddesses, cured the horse with enchantments (Phol is usually identified as Baldr).

Anglo-Saxon Woden

Anglo-Saxon polytheism

reached Great Britain during the 5th and 6th centuries with the Anglo-Saxon migration, and persisted until the completion of the Christianization of England by the 8th or 9th century.

For the Anglo-Saxons, Woden was the psychopomp

Psychopomp

Psychopomps are creatures, spirits, angels, or deities in many religions whose responsibility is to escort newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage...

or carrier-off of the dead, but not necessarily with exactly the same attributes of the Norse Odin. There has been some doubt as to whether the early English had the concepts of Valkyries and Valhalla

Valhalla

In Norse mythology, Valhalla is a majestic, enormous hall located in Asgard, ruled over by the god Odin. Chosen by Odin, half of those that die in combat travel to Valhalla upon death, led by valkyries, while the other half go to the goddess Freyja's field Fólkvangr...

in the Norse sense, although there is a word for the former, waelcyrge, attested in glosses, in reference to female creatures of classical mythology, the Erinyes

Erinyes

In Greek mythology the Erinyes from Greek ἐρίνειν " pursue, persecute"--sometimes referred to as "infernal goddesses" -- were female chthonic deities of vengeance. A formulaic oath in the Iliad invokes them as "those who beneath the earth punish whosoever has sworn a false oath"...

, a Gorgon

Gorgon

In Greek mythology, the Gorgon was a terrifying female creature. The name derives from the Greek word gorgós, which means "dreadful." While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair of living, venomous snakes, and a...

, Bellona

Bellona

-Places:United States of America*Bellona Foundry and adjacent Bellona Arsenal, 19th century United States Army and Confederate munitions factory and depot in VirginiaItaly*Bellona, Campania, a comune in the Province of CasertaSolomon Islands...

and once Venus

Venus (mythology)

Venus is a Roman goddess principally associated with love, beauty, sex,sexual seduction and fertility, who played a key role in many Roman religious festivals and myths...

.

The Christian writer of the Maxims

Maxims (Old English poems)

The titles Maxims I and Maxims II refer to pieces of Old English gnomic poetry. The poem Maxims I can be found in the Exeter Book and Maxims II is located in a lesser known manuscript, London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B i...

found in the Exeter Book

Exeter Book

The Exeter Book, Exeter Cathedral Library MS 3501, also known as the Codex Exoniensis, is a tenth-century book or codex which is an anthology of Anglo-Saxon poetry. It is one of the four major Anglo-Saxon literature codices. The book was donated to the library of Exeter Cathedral by Leofric, the...

(341, 28) records the verse Wôden worhte weos, wuldor alwealda rûme roderas ("Woden wrought the (heathen) altars / the almighty Lord

Names of God in Old English poetry

In Old English poetry, many descriptive epithets for God were used to satisfy alliterative requirements. These epithets include:- References :*Swanton, Michael James, ....

the wide heavens"). The name of such Wôdenes weohas (Saxon Wôdanes with, Norse Oðins ve) or sanctuaries to Woden survives in toponymy as Odinsvi, Wodeneswegs.

Royal genealogy

As the Christianisation of England took place, Woden was euhemerised as an important historical king and was believed to be the progenitor of numerous Anglo-Saxon royal houses.

Discussing the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain

The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain was the invasion and migration of Germanic peoples from continental Europe to Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, specifically the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain after the demise of Roman rule in the 5th century.The stimulus, progression and...

, Bede

Bede

Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...

, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People (completed in or before 731) writes that:

The two first commanders are said to have been Hengist and Horsa ... They were the sons of Victgilsus
Wihtgils
Wihtgils was a semi-legendary Jutish chieftain who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was the father of Hengest and Horsa:-External links and references:*...

, whose father was Vecta
Wecta
Wecta is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum.He is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hengest and Horsa and the kings of Kent, as well as of Aella of Deira and his son Edwin of Northumbria.He appears in the Prose Edda...

, son of Woden; from whose stock the royal race of many provinces deduce their original.

The Historia Brittonum, composed around 830, presents a similar genealogy and additionally lists Woden as a descendent of Godwulf

Godwulf

Godwulf or Guðúlfr is a figure from Germanic mythology. In the two surviving sources mentioning the figure he is associated with divine genealogies.-Historia Britonum:...

, who likewise in Snorri Sturluson's

Snorri Sturluson

Snorri Sturluson was an Icelandic historian, poet, and politician. He was twice elected lawspeaker at the Icelandic parliament, the Althing...

Prose Edda

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda or simply Edda, is an Icelandic collection of four sections interspersed with excerpts from earlier skaldic and Eddic poetry containing tales from Nordic mythology...

is said to be an ancestor of "Vóden, whom we call Odin

Odin

".

According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the Chronicle was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great...

, composed during the reign of Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...

, Woden was the father of Wecta

Wecta

Wecta is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Brittonum.He is considered mythological, though he shows up in the genealogies as a Saxon ancestor of Hengest and Horsa and the kings of Kent, as well as of Aella of Deira and his son Edwin of Northumbria.He appears in the Prose Edda...

, Beldeg, Wihtgils

Wihtgils

Wihtgils was a semi-legendary Jutish chieftain who, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was the father of Hengest and Horsa:-External links and references:*...

and Wihtlaeg and was therefore an ancestor of the Kings of Wessex, Nothumbria, Mercia and East Anglia. As in Bede's Ecclesiastical History, a history of early Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain incorporating Woden as an ancestor of Hengist and Horsa is given:

These men came from three tribes of Germany: from the Old Saxons, from the Angles, and from the Jutes ... their commanders were two brothers, Hengest and Horsa, that were the sons of Wihtgils. Wihtgils was Witta's offspring, Witta Wecta's offspring, Wecta Woden's offspring. From that Woden originated all our royal family ...

Descent from Woden appears to have been an important concept in Early Medieval England. According to N.J. Higham

Nicholas Higham

Nicholas John Higham FRS is a numerical analyst and Richardson Professor of Applied Mathematics at the School of Mathematics, University of Manchester....

, claiming Woden as an ancestor had by the 8th century become an essential way of establishing royal authority. Richard North (1997) believes similarly that "no king by the late seventh century could do without the status that descent from Woden entailed."

Nine Herbs Charm

Recorded in the 10th century, the Old English Nine Herbs Charm

Nine Herbs Charm

The Nine Herbs Charm is an Old English charm recorded in the 10th century Lacnunga manuscript. The charm is intended for treatment of poison and infection through the preparation of nine herbs. The numbers nine and three are mentioned frequently within the charm and are significant numbers in...

contains a mention of Woden:

A snake came crawling, it bit a man.

Then Woden took nine glory-twigs,

Smote the serpent so that it flew into nine parts.

There apple brought this pass against poison,

That she nevermore would enter her house.

According to R.K. Gordon

R.K. Gordon

Robert Kay Gordon was an English scholar of medieval and early modern English literature and administrator at the University of Alberta in Canada....

, the Nine Herbs Charm is an originally pagan spell altered by later Christian interpolation

Interpolation

In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, interpolation is a method of constructing new data points within the range of a discrete set of known data points....

. Baugh and Malone

Kemp Malone

Kemp Malone was a prolific medievalist, etymologist, philologist, and specialist in Chaucer who was lecturer and then professor of English Literature at Johns Hopkins University from 1924 to 1956....

(1959) write that "This narrative ... is a precious relic of English heathendom; unluckily we do not know the Woden myth which it summarizes." A charm from the same period, Wið færstice

Wið færstice

Wið færstice is an Old English medical text composed in, surviving in the collection known now as Lacnunga. Wið færstice means 'against a sudden/violent stabbing pain'; scholars have often sought to identify this as rheumatism, but other possibilities should not be excluded. The remedy describes...

, refers to the esa ("gods", cognate of Norse æsir

Æsir

In Old Norse, áss is the term denoting a member of the principal pantheon in Norse paganism. This pantheon includes Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. The second pantheon comprises the Vanir...

) but does not mention any deities by name.

Medieval and Early Modern folklore

Woden persisted as a figure in folklore and folk religion throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern period, notably as the leader of the Wild Hunt

Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is an ancient folk myth prevalent across Northern, Western and Central Europe. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a phantasmal, spectral group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting, horses, hounds, etc., in mad pursuit across the skies or along the ground,...

found in English

English folklore

English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...

, German

German folklore

German folklore shares many characteristics with Scandinavian folklore and English folklore due to their origins in a common Germanic mythology. It reflects a similar mix of influences: a pre-Christian pantheon and other beings equivalent to those of Norse mythology; magical characters associated...

, Swiss, and Scandinavian

Scandinavian folklore

Scandinavian folklore is the folklore of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the Swedish speaking parts of Finland.Collecting folklore began when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden sent out instructions to all of the priests in all of the parishes to collect the folklore of their area...

traditions.

Woden is thought to be the precursor of the English Father Christmas

Father Christmas

Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France , Spain , Brazil , Portugal , Italy , Armenia , India...

, or Father Winter

Father Winter

Old Man Winter like the elfish creature Jack Frost, is a personification of winter, sometimes also called Father Winter. He may be an alternative older name for Father Christmas and has been identified with the Old English god Woden....

, and the American Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

.

A celebrated late attestation of invocation of Wodan in Germany dates to 1593, in Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg

Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...

, where the formula Wode, Hale dynem Rosse nun Voder "Wodan, fetch now food for your horse" was spoken over the last sheaf of the harvest.

David Franck adds, that at the squires' mansions, when the rye is all cut, there is Wodel-beer served out to the mowers; no one weeds flax on a Wodenstag, lest Woden's horse should trample the seeds; from Christmas to Twelfth-day they will not spin, nor leave any flax on the distaff, and to the question why? they answer, Wode is galloping across.
We are expressly told, this wild hunter Wode rides a white horse. (34)

A custom in Schaumburg

Schaumburg

Schaumburg is a district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by the districts of Nienburg, Hanover and Hamelin-Pyrmont, and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia .-History:...

is reported by Jacob Grimm

Jacob Grimm

Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...

: the people go out to mow in parties of twelve, sixteen or twenty scythes, but it is managed in such a manner, that on the last day of harvest they are all finished at the same time, or some leave a strip standing which they can cut down at a stroke the last thing, or they merely pass their scythes over the stubble, pretending there is still some left to mow. At the last stroke of the scythe they raise their implements aloft, plant them upright, and beat the blades three times with the strop. Each spills on the field a little of the drink he has, whether beer, brandy, or milk, then drinks himself, while they wave their hats, beat their scythes three times, and cry aloud Wôld, Wôld, Wôld! and the women knock all the crumbs out of their baskets on the stubble. They march home shouting and singing. If the ceremony was omitted, the following year would bring bad crops of hay and corn. The first verse of the song is quoted by Grimm,

„Wôld, Wôld, Wôld!
Hävens wei wat schüt,
jümm hei dal van Häven süt.
Vulle Kruken un Sangen hät hei,
upen Holte wässt manigerlei:
hei is nig barn un wert nig old.
Wôld, Wôld, Wôld! “

“Wôld, Wôld, Wôld”!
Heaven’s giant knows what happens,
Looking down from heaven,
Providing full jugs and sheaves.
Many a plant grows in the woods.
He is not born and grows not old.
“Wôld, Wôld, Wôld”!

Grimm notes that the custom had died out in the fifty years preceding his time of writing (1835).

In England there are also folkloric references to Woden, including the "giants' dance" of Woden and Frigg in Dent

Dent

- People :Surname* Andrew Dent AM, Australian doctor and humanitarian worker* Bucky Dent, American baseball player* Charles Dent , multiple people with the name...

as recorded by Grimm, and the Lincolnshire charm that contained the line "One for God, one for Wod and one for Lok". Other references include the Northumbrian Auld Carl Hood from the ballad Earl Brand

Earl Brand

Earl Brand is one of the Child ballads 7 . Legend claims it recounts a historical event.-Synopsis:The hero, who may be Earl Brand, Lord Douglas, or Lord William, flees with the heroine, who may be Lady Margaret. A Carl Hood may betray them to her father, but they are always pursued. The hero...

, Herla

Herla

Herla or Herla King is a legendary leader of the German mythic Wild Hunt and the name from which the French term, Herlequin may have been derived...

, Woden's role as the leader of the Wild Hunt

Wild Hunt

in Northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

and in all likelihood Herne

Herne the Hunter

In English folklore, Herne the Hunter is a ghost associated with Windsor Forest and Great Park in the English county of Berkshire. His appearance is notable in the fact that he has antlers upon his head....

, the Wild Huntsman of Berkshire

Berkshire

Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...

Toponyms

Grimm (Teutonic Mythology

Teutonic Mythology

Teutonic Mythology may refer to:*Continental Germanic mythology*Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Mythologie *Viktor Rydberg's Undersökningar i germanisk mythologi I...

, ch. 7) discusses traces of Woden's name in toponymy

Toponymy

. Certain mountains were sacred to the service of the god. Othensberg, now Onsberg, on the Danish island of Samsø

Samsø

Samsø is a Danish island in the Kattegat off the Jutland Peninsula. Samsø is located in Samsø municipality. The community has 4,300 inhabitants called Samsingers and is 114 km² in area. Due to its central location, the island was used during the Viking Age as a meeting place...

; Odensberg in Schonen. Godesberg near Bonn

Bonn

Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....

, from earlier Wôdenesberg (annis 947, 974). Near the holy oak in Hesse, which Boniface brought down, there stood a Wuodenesberg, still so named in a document of 1154, later Vdenesberg, Gudensberg; this hill is not to be confounded with Gudensberg by Erkshausen, nor with a Gudenberg by Oberelsungen and Zierenberg so that three mountains of this name occur in Lower Hesse

Lower Hesse

Lower Hesse a historic designation for an area in northern Hesse, Germany.The term Lower Hesse originated in the Middle Ages for the so-called "lower principality" of Hesse, which was separated until 1450 from the so-called "upper principality" by the area Ziegenhain...

alone; conf. montem Vodinberg, cum silva eidem monti attinente, (doc. of 1265). In a different neighbourhood, a Henricus comes de Wôdenesberg is named in a doc. of 1130.
A Wôdnes beorg in the Saxon Chronicle, later Wodnesborough, Wanborough

Wanborough, Wiltshire

Wanborough is a village and civil parish in the borough of Swindon, Wiltshire. The village is about southeast of Swindon town centre. The parish includes the hamlet of Foxhill, southeast of the village.-History:...

in Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

. A Wôdnesbeorg in Lappenberg's map near the Bearucwudu, conf. Wodnesbury, Wodnesdyke, Wôdanesfeld. To this we must add, that about the Hessian Gudensberg the story goes that King Charles lies prisoned in it, that he there won a victory over the Saxons, and opened a well in the wood for his thirsting army, but he will yet come forth of the mountain, he and his host, at the appointed time. The mythus of a victorious army pining for water is already applied to King Carl by the Frankish annalists, at the very moment when they bring out the destruction of the Irminsul

Irminsul

An Irminsul was a kind of pillar which is attested as playing an important role in the Germanic paganism of the Saxon people. The oldest chronicle describing an Irminsul refers to it as a tree trunk erected in the open air...

; but beyond a doubt it is older : Saxo Grammaticus has it of the victorious Balder

Balder

Baldr is a god in Norse mythology.In the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story...

.

The breviarium Lulli, in names a place in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

: in Wudaneshusum, and again Woteneshusun; in Oldenburg

Oldenburg

Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

there is a Wodensholt, now Godensholt, cited in a land-book of 1428; Wothenower, seat of a Brandenburg family anno 1334; not far from Bergen op Zoom

Bergen op Zoom

Bergen op Zoom is a municipality and a city located in the south of the Netherlands.-History:Bergen op Zoom was granted city status probably in 1266. In 1287 the city and its surroundings became a lordship as it was separated from the lordship of Breda. The lordship was elevated to a margraviate...

, towards Antwerp, stands to this day a Woensdrecht

Woensdrecht

Woensdrecht is a municipality and a town in the southern Netherlands.Woensdrecht is mainly known for Woensdrecht Air Base. In 1983 it was decided that the US would station 48 nuclear armed cruise missiles here, unless the USSR would reduce the number of SS-20 missiles to 378. Since the number was...

, as if Wodani trajectum. Woensel

Woensel

Woensel is a former village in the Dutch province of North Brabant, now part of Eindhoven.An important rural village in North Brabant, Woensel is mentioned in a document from 1107; it was the seat of a deanage of the diocese of Liège. According to the German mythologist Jacob Grimm is the name...

= Wodenssele, Wodani aula, a so called stadsdeel

Stadsdeel

A stadsdeel is the name used for city districts in some of the larger municipalities of the Netherlands.Amsterdam calls 7 of its 8 deelgemeenten stadsdeel...

of the city of Eindhoven on the Dommel in Northern Brabant.
This Woensel is like the Oðinssalr, Othänsäle, Onsala; Wunstorp, Wunsdorf, a convent and small town in Lower Saxony, stands unmutilated as Wodenstorp in a document of 1179. Near Windbergen

Windbergen

Windbergen is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

in the Ditmar country, an open space in a wood bears the name of Wodenslag, Wonslag. Near Hadersleben in Schleswig are the villages of Wonsbeke, Wonslei, Woyens formerly Wodensyen. An Anglo-Saxon document of 862 contains in a boundary-settlement the name Wônstoc = Wôdenesstoc, Wodani stipes, and at the same time betrays the influence of the god on ancient delimitation (Wuotan, Hermes, Mercury, all seem to be divinities of measurement and demarcation)

Wensley

Wensley, Derbyshire

Wensley is a hamlet in Derbyshire, England. It is located of Matlock, on the B5057 road.The villagers in Wensley were employed in the lead mining industry in the fields around the village in the 18th and 19th century after the London Lead Company obtained the mining rights in the 1720's.Nearest...

, Wednesbury

Wednesbury

Wednesbury is a market town in England's Black Country, part of the Sandwell metropolitan borough in West Midlands, near the source of the River Tame. Similarly to the word Wednesday, it is pronounced .-Pre-Medieval and Medieval times:...

, Wansdyke

Wansdyke

Wansdyke may refer to:*Wansdyke *Wansdyke *Wansdyke...

and Wednesfield

Wednesfield

Wednesfield lies at , and is located to the northeast of Wolverhampton city centre on the northern fringe of the West Midlands conurbation...

are named after Woden. Also, the Woden Valley

Woden Valley

Woden Valley is a district of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Its name is taken from the name of a nearby homestead owned by Dr James Murray who named the homestead after the Old English god Woden in October 1837. He named it this as he was to spend his life in the pursuit of wisdom and...

in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

is named after Woden.

Wednesday

Wednesday is a day of the week in the Gregorian calendar. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. This day is between Tuesday and Thursday...

(*Wēdnes dæg, "Woden's day", interestingly continuing the variant *Wōdinaz (with umlaut

Germanic umlaut

In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...

of ō to ē), unlike Wōden, continuing *Wōdanaz) is named after him, his link with the dead making him the appropriate match to the Roman Mercury

Mercury (mythology)

Mercury was a messenger who wore winged sandals, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx , mercari , and merces...

Etymology and origins

Continental Wodan

Anglo-Saxon Woden

Royal genealogy

Nine Herbs Charm

Medieval and Early Modern folklore

Toponyms

Wednesday

See also

Further reading