#woden

[illustratus]

Wotan's farewell to Brunhilde by Ferdinand Leeke

[gifts-of-heimdall-runes]

Source: VK.com

Artist: Sjors van Helmond [ArtStation]

Original posted 27th December, 2021

Created by Photoshop

"In this artwork, I wanted to display the mystery and wisdom associated with the All-Father of the Norse gods. The artwork features Odin with all his attributes, his ravens, his wolves, his spear, his drinking horn, his hat and his magic ring. The illustration also features various references to stories related to Odin like the three shields in the bottom. The first shield shows Odin sacrificing his eye to the well of Mimir for wisdom, the second shield depicts Sleipnir Odin's eight legged horse and the third shield shows how Odin and his two brothers carved the first two humans Ask and Embla out of wood."

Re-posted respecting finding the original on ArtStation.

[miltaart]

ODIN

© Milta Svartvis 2015

MORE LIKE THIS @miltaart

MY PHOTOGRAPHS @sonnemordundsterne

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

[cusaqphotos]

[survivethejive]

9 adults and 5 children of The Hearth of Devon assembled for a blot to Woden on Dartmoor this weekend. The Neolithic stone row served as a procession path leading to a cist/dolmen which we used as a harrow (ON: hörgr). The ritual area was demarcated by hazel poles and a we-band (ON: vébönd). The hlaut bowl is positioned in the centre of the harrow with a flame to the South, the mead horns to the West, a silver oath ring to the East facing the supplicants at Delling's door, and a Woden stapol on the North side of the harrow.

[voiceoftheoldways]

Hail the Allfather on this Odin‘s Day!

O Wisdom-seeker,

Inspire us to peer into the mysteries of Wyrd,

And to your insatiable quest for knowing

May we join ourselves,

To prize above all else

The true sight of eyes

Blinded to expectation —

Therein is the vision of Yggdrasil.

[notthesomefather]

Prayer to Odin

[[written by a member of the Godsring and shared with permission]]

Wōden, World-Shaper, Wandering God!

We come before You this night and ask humbly for Your ear,

That You might hear us in our place of prayer and receive our thanks.

For Your never-ending quest for knowledge,

Inspires us, and makes us yearn to know more than we know,

To do more than we can do,

And to be more than we have ever been before.

We come before You this night and ask humbly for Your company,

That You might walk with us in the coming days and keep us on our way.

For Your ceaseless journey through the worlds,

Inspires us, and makes us yearn to see more than we see,

To go where we have yet to go,

And to be more than we have ever thought we could be.

Hail the Hanged God, who searches the void where He hung,

For those lost souls searching for secrets of their own,

And pulls them out, gasping, returned to the land of the living,

To keep learning, and wandering, and serving You.

Hail Wōden!

[the-fire-within0]

I know Wednesday has already passed for me, but I had a STRONG connection with Odin last night. He was coming in strong which led to me researching him more and feeling his grandfatherly energy, which I so honestly crave.

He wanted to show me that he was there and well, I told him the troubles I was having with a relationship. And he was giving me advice I needed to hear in that moment. I am not sharing however since it's private, but it was helpful and comforting to hear.

He has his moments of coming and going, but when he decides to stay for a while, it's quite reassuring.

I appreciate the old man.

[hesy-bes]

One-Eyed One

Pæþwyrhta, You lead me to my path, sending my on another journey. I hail to thee, One-Eyed Wanderer, and walk the path you’ve guided me to lovingly. I sing your name, and study your mysteries, and learn all I might. So that I may, continue on, and fight this good fight.

[illustratus]

Odin riding Sleipnir, with his wolves Geri and Freki

by Max Koch

[gifts-of-heimdall-runes]

WŌDEN MOODBOARD

Images sources: Apples of Idun [VK.com]

Assembled by @gifts-of-heimdall-runes

2024_07_27

[medraud]

Conspectus Deum Theodiscorum

Overview of all my remembered theses to date, assured & unassured, about the Thedish gods.

This being only a summary, I certainly did not give my full train of logic or sources in most cases, so if there's any point where there's curiosity for a clearer & fuller explanation, please do ask.

---

First Function.

Geven/Yeven - O.N. Gefjon

This gyden is assuredly the sister of Woden mentioned in Hávamál 164, as seen in the Lokasenna, the unnamed eighteenth spell being prescience. The myths regarding her- as a shapeshifting magical scheming-seducer mislaying kings- affirm this. Compare also Snorri's parallel stories of her mislaying Gylfi the first pagan king with her brother's failed seduction of Tryggvason the first Christian king.

The form of her name I use is borrowed from the Old Norse for its loveliness, not directly from a postulated Old English.

Latinly Diána, Hellenicly Artemis & Hecaté, Indially Kálí, Chámundá, & like Mahádevi-forms.

It would seem that the Theodiscans understood her being the gyden of maidens (meyjar) differently from the Mediterraneans, as only in the same sense that Apollo is unwed.

Woden - O.E. Wóden - O.N. Óðinn

Latinly Juppiter & specifically Védiovis, as well as Mercurius; Hellenicly Zeus as well as Hermés; Iliadicly perhaps Apollón-Hecatos; Indially Rudra, and perhaps Varuna; Bacchus might also be pertinent.

Herne the Hunter is likely a memory of him, Herne being an English form for Herjan.

Although he has clear heavenly attributes- being atop the highest mountain, bridegroom of the Earth, god of ernes & ravens - his nature as a god of heaven in particular is quiet in the extant West Norse verses- part of a trend that does not speak of the gods' essential elementalities, seen also with Thunder & Easter-Free. Contrarwise, the Christian skalds love to give IHVH titles like Sólar Salkonungr (Sun's Hall-King) and Ræsir Regnbýs (Ruler of the Rain-House).

The Sun & the Moon are his two eyen, and the Moon being the eye that lies in Mime's mead, which is akin to the famous link between Chandra & Soma among the Inds.

Frie-Scathe - O.E. Fríg-*Sceaða - O.N. Frigg-Skaði

I consider it likely, though not assured, that these two gydens & brides of Woden are mythologically the same, nikimitama & aramitama.

You will note that Scathe has an elaborate myth of how she came to the gods and wed Nearth and then Woden, but disappears from narrative right as she marries him and, as Snorri says, bears him many children. Contrariwise, Frie is regarded as Woden's wife most regularly, but there is no mythology of where she came from. (The title Fjörgyns mær (Fiergen's maid) given to her in the Lokasenna clearly in context means lover, not daughter, of Fjörgynn, who must be Óðinn; Loki taunts her by a name that recalls her husband's other wife Fjörgyn.)

You will also note the complementarity of the two names- Frie, love, Scathe, harm, as well as Scathe's complementarity with Woden (id est furor).

This also explains why Ing-Free is called Friggjar angan- Frie's sweetness- in the Völuspá; this refers to her role as her beloved son by Nearth, as seen in the För Skírnis.

Latinly Júnó, Hellenicly Héré, Indially Párvatí-Kálí.

Scathe is from the Old Norse, seeing as the very word was regularly borrowed into English. The fully English form would be Sheath.

Wider - O.E. *Wíder - O.N. Víðarr

I straightforwardly affirm Dumézil's theory that Wider is Indially Vishnu; their eschatological roles, their striding & riding are alike, and even the meanings of the names are similar.

His absence from attestations of other Indo-European religions may pertain to his grand eschatologicality. I do consider it possible that he may be hidden as one or another of the Greek heroes.

---

Second Function.

Thunder - O.E. Þunor - O.N. Þórr

Thunder agrees with Jove only in his weapon, in all other aspects of cult & myth, in particular his wandering & warding, ambuling & apotropaic, he agrees with Hercules, which is indeed what Tacitus calls him. This in confirmed by his role in the cognate gigantomachy myth; Apollonius notes that the giants could not be defeated until Heracles came, likewise with Thunder.

And one might object that Hercules was said to be a man first and a god second, but so were the Dioscouri, whom we know from the Inds to be in truth eternal gods. And all three of them were in deed worshipped as key gods always, whatever had happened in the mythology.

Of course Indially Indras, Hellenicly Héraclés, Latinly Hercules, & perhaps Márs also.

Tue - O.E. Tíw - O.N. Týr

I must be silent. From toponyms, he appears to have been known, not in Norway whence our verses come, but in Denmark, and further south, among the Angels & Sexen. Perhaps he is the same as Ing-Free- note the vaguness of the names Týr- God- and Freyr- Lord- but perhaps he is not.

Dumézil's thesis that he is an oath-god seems doubtful; his Varuna-Mitra theory has no real examples in any I.E. branch.

Barring new revelation, I do not think Lord Tue will be understood in our eld.

I would worship him like Mars, since that is the best we can do.

---

Third Function.

Nearth - O.E. *Neorþ - O.N. Njörðr

No apparent relation to gods in any other I.E. branches; likeness to e.g. Nereus is etymologically unsound. The Icelanders themselves said Saturnus, but this is late, as shown by the name of the day.

A fanciful myth I poet- that Easter-Free & Ing-Free were born from the hanged-gored Woden's blood drifted down into Nearth's sea, just as Venus was born from Uranus bled.

A mystery.

Ing-Free - O.E. Ing-Fréa - O.N. Yngvi-Freyr

There were were two sorts of masculine Third Function gods, the brothers of the dawn-gyden- among the Grecians & Inds one finds the two Discouri, but among the Italians & Theodiscans a solitary god is known as well- an Osirian founder king.

He was called Ing-Free among the Swedes, who held the holy land of the Thedishmen- the Norse name for Zion, Jórsalir, is modeled after the name of the heathen holy see of Uppsalir. His Sexen name is, of course, Sexneat.

Romanly he is Quirínus-Rómulus, but Iguvinely Vofionus.

It thus seems that this sort of cultic god was reconsecrated with a new name in every city or tribe. Hence, perhaps, the generic name of the poets Freyr.

On the other hand, founding twins were common in Thedish genealogies- Hengest & Horse for the Angelkin, Ybor & Agio for the Lombards, Ambri & Assi for the Wendels- and Tacitus claims the unknown Alcis were the Dioscouri. The meaning is not fully clear.

The "Fricco" name by which Adamus Bremensis knows him is perhaps some derivation of frakka, viz. spear, which is ithyphallic, and would match with Seaxnéat & the seax, and Quírinus & his quirís.

Balder, Foal, the other Theodiscan Osiris, may be a doublet of sorts.

Easter-Free - O.E. Éastre-Fréo - O.N. Freyja

Freyja is the Dawn-gyden. This is seen most assuredly by the cognate gigantomachies- in the Grecian the ettins seek Sun, Moon, & Dawn- the three childr of Hyperion as well- while in the Norse the giants seek Sun, Moon, & Freyja.

Thus, of course, she is the English Éastre, hence my lovely modern name for her of Easter-Free.

Furthermore she is the Sithgouth (O.E. *Sinþgúþ, O.H.G. Sinthgunt) of the Second Merseburg Charm, the witch who is the Sun's sister.

And again she is the Suebian Isis who so baffled Tacitus, the name he heard being *Idisiz, a synonym of *Frawjǭ.

Indially she is Ushas, Latinly Auróra & Venus (alma lux Ænéæ), and Hellenicly the triad of Éós in cosmology, Aphrodité in cult, & Helené in the heroic legend, who are all three the Walkyrie of Ilium.

She is the only main god who can be found by this more or less same name in so many branches, doubtless since it was the regular name of a natural element.

Her belovèd Wode (O.N. Óðr) is likely a solar or planetary god, her golden tears for him being like the Heliades' for her brother Phaethon- such a name was given to the belovèd of Eos-Aphrodite as well.

---

Homedeal - O.E. *Hámdeal - O.N. Homedeal

He is the god of Awedrassel the holy Tree, which the Völuspá tells us outright is Ash the first man, he & his Emble being made by the gods from driftwood, which must have come from the Tree to begin with, and indeed the last wife & wer Life & her Lover will return to the Tree at the end of days; Tree, God, & Man are all the same again & again, and Woden, we must then note, was hanged upon Man.

The story of the Rígsþula, then, is just Homedeal's aforementioned nature as the god of the Tree that begets Man shown in a different myth.

I affirm Signe Cohen's theory that he is the Inds' & Medes' Apám Napát.

Lock - O.E. *Loca - O.N. Loki

He has been shown to be the god Lóðurr, and so the giver of craft & beauty to mankind.

Possibly he was understood as a malign ghost who always was present at offerings, and who needed to be bound or beaten or bribed or blessèd off. This would explain well his roles in the mythology- how he can claim to have lain with all the gydens, why he always accompanies Thunder, why Woden cannot drink without him.

Hellenicly he is of course Prometheus, likewise a maker of man with Zeus, a giver of arts & beauty, and a divisionary of sacrifice; bound for his sins, but friends with Hercules. And one will note that Prometheus was worshipped, at Athens.

[incorrectwicdivquotes]

Woden: How did you get past security?! My fortress is impenetrable!

Persephone: Door was unlocked.

Woden: Son of a BITCH!

[that-guy-in-the-chiton]

Odin, father of the year.

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Armies of the Dead/heaven in myths and epic fantasy - and the magic horns behind them!

One of the most famous armies of dead soldiers? The Men of Dunharrow, the army of the dead from Lord of the Rings who broke their oaths and renewed them finally under Aragorn.

Let's do this!

If you're a younger fantasy reader, or more modern, perhaps your introduction to this idea is in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time with his magical horn that summons an army and legendary heroes to the field.

Some fans have said this is inspired by the Norse horn Gjallarhorn. 

This is the horn trusted to Heimdallr to be blown to announce the beginning of Ragnarok and summon the Norse gods to the "thing" (thing is used in this case legitimately to mean - meeting, assembly, folkmoot) - in a moment like NORSE AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE! 

This includes the Einherjar, the spirits of Norse warriors of honored dead who fell in battle and reside in Valhalla. But was there another possible influence?

Well, we know RJ was a Tolkien fan, and honestly who wouldn't be back in the days of early fantasy? 

So, what of Tolkien's ghostly army of dead warriors? Well, if you haven't read the books, you might not know that Aragorn too summons his army of the dead with a magical horn (cut from the films). That's right. 

You see, Elrohir (one of the sons of Elrond, also cut from the films) entrusts Aragorn with a silver horn to summon the dead with at the Stone of Erech to deal with them. Tolkien was a Norse buff and loved the old epics as well as poems. 

So he was likely familiar with the stories just like with Gjallarhorn as well. But also, quite possibly the Song of Roland (a French epic poem) in where Roland and his forces are ambushed at Roncesvalles and are going to lose. In final desperation, Roland blows the horn, and the emperor hears the call. But the aid will not arrive in time (unlike the films and more modern stories where the heroes do arrive to save the day - this is cuz we like the just in the nick of time trope) so Roland dies blowing it one last time to hard in vengeance his temples burst (and he ascends to heaven), but...Charlemagne's army arrives in the aftermath and scatters the enemy. But, are there other armies of the dead? In fact, yes. 

The Night Marchers of Hawaii who come with a warm wind, & the smell of sulfur, and the call of a conch shell to herald them. If you come upon this procession with torches in the night, and you are an enemy...time to RUN! Because if you watch them your eyes might be incinerated.

Then there is the Wild Hunt - a shared myth motif present through eastern, northern, and western European cultures. A ghostly army of the souls of dead men (and creatures) usually united under a leader (though this figure changes), Herne, Odin/Woden, Gwyn ap Nudd, Sigurd or Siegfried the Dragon Slayer, Theodoric the Great, onward. Now, they're not summoned by a horn, but in some tales their coming is announced by one.

Now, an Indian cognate of the Wild Hunt and warriors in the service of heavens The Maruts.

The number of them vary from 20+ to over 180, to even more (yay conflicting mythological sources and arguments in ancient texts and interpretations).

But who are they? Companions and servants to Lord Indra, Slayer of the First Born of Dragons, and lord of the heavens and storms! So, fittingly, these warriors are very...storm themed. Violent, aggressive, expert combatants armed with lightning weaponary, and golden chariots to fly through the clouds on. Their war crys and battle sounds are like thunder. Their blows would split clouds (sounding thunder) and would hunt the enemies of Lord Indra and slaughter demons/monsters.

Interestingly they are often associated as the sons (children) of Rudra (the Rig Vedic storm and wind god). However, there is another group that often gets that association (obviously so), the Rudras.

The Rudras are similar in (some) regards to the Maruts but not all. They aid Vishnu in his battles against demons and are clad in lion-skins, and wear serpents around their necks. A crescent moon adorns their foreheads, and they wield golden tridents and carry a skull in one hand they wear necklaces of lightning illuminated clouds (how's that for bling bling?), and are monstrously feral in battle. Lord Shiva can call them with a blow of a conch shell/horn. 

Their overlap, association with the Maruts is because of some etymology and shared functions as they too are a divine/spiritual/demigod group of heavenly warriors to aid the good and destroy evil - demons/adversaries, and the root word in their name means the roarers, thunderers, or the shouters - and this is also mentioned of the Maruts.

Are these all there are for legendary armies of the dead, of gods/heaven to be summoned to the field or aid? No. But, it's rainy, I'm a little messed up (mental health and meds), and tired. 

So I'm going to bow out and read and study for Tremaine 3 and leave this minor comparative thread here for folks into this stuff.