W is for Woden – Mythic Mondays

 

Odin, der Göttervater, Carl Emil Doepler, 1880

Odin, der Göttervater, Carl Emil Doepler, 1880

We haven’t deliberately left kings to the end, it’s just that the tail end of the alphabet has less names – and Woden, or Odin as he’s better known, graciously stepped aside for Osiris.

Woden is ruler of the Norse gods, the Allfather. He is the master magician amongst the Aesir, and leads them in battle. His servants, the Valkyrs, choose those dying warriors who are honored with a place in Valhalla. Where there is fighting, feasting, and apparently, opera.

The varied names come, as by now you will have figured, from the local interpretations. Wotan is more German and emphasises his role as a war-god, Odin more Saxon and more a god of knowledge, while Woden is both Saxon and English and is a name connected especially with royalty; although all the name variants come from the same Proto-Germanic root.

Almost any part of Norse society could be found following one of the aspects of Woden, and many of the Norse royal houses claim descent from him – he seems to have taken a leaf out of Zeus’s book here. He was patron of skalds, protector of travellers and healers, and the last appeal of justice.

Whilst we’re with the North-folk, a quick language primer. Viking is a verb – to go raiding by sea. Whilst the first invaders on British shores were Vikings, that’s a descriptor no more racially indicative than saying they were soldiers. The settlers who came later were of the Angle, Saxon, Jute or Dane races, and were generally not Vikings.

Although the Tarot isn’t really from the Northlands, Woden has a strong association with the 12th Arcana – the Hanged Man. Suspended from his feet to gain inspiration, the Hanged Man’s tale and Woden’s are virtually the same.

Story of the God – Gaining Wisdom

Woden knew many things about the world, but the thing that he most knew was how incomplete his knowledge was. He knew that Ragnarok – the end of the world – was coming, but he needed details to plan his fight. So he set out to seek wisdom

He walked and he walked and he walked the whole length of Midgard, until he came the the edge of Niflheim.

There was a branch there of Yggdrasill the World Tree and Woden tied his feet to it.

He hung there for nine days and nine nights, and at the end of his meditation, he had conceived of the runes, so that man could communicate and cast magic.

And he knew almost all of the past, and almost all of the present, and the ravens Hugin and Munin came to him and went about seeing all things for him. But still the future was dark to him.

So he walked and he walked and he walked, until he came to a deep pool. And this pool was called Mimir’s well.

There lived the Norns with their father Mimir – Wyrd, Verdandi And Skuld. Of the threads of the lives of men, Wyrd would spin it, and Verdandi measure its span, and Skuld would cut it off with her shears. And between these tasks they would take water from the well and water the root of the World Tree which grew there.

The knowledge they had of past and present and future, the Norns would not give up lightly. They told Woden that he would have to trade for it.

He had nothing to trade but himself, and so he gouged out his eye and dropped it into the well. And because he had damaged his mundane sight, he was granted visions of the future. We can still see his given eye in every pond and puddle, whilst his good eye shines in the heavens to give us light and heat and hope.

Now Woden was better armed to protect gods and men from the ravages of Ragnarok, he returned to Asgard to contemplate what he had seen.

In your games and stories

In any political game, it is not easy to tell by looking who is a Follower of Woden. Disciples of Freya might wear a wheatsheaf, Children of Thor wear his hammer, but there is no clear sign that someone worships the King of the Norse, given how varied his followers are. He protects and guides everyone, unless you commit the crime of Not Being Norse

As a master of magic, Woden’s priests and paladins might wield all kinds of spells, but the most common would be divinatory or sensory spells, and some devotees, most commonly women, would be likely to learn Seidr – the art of reweaving fate. Woden traditionally wields a spear, and rides an eight-legged horse, so that might influence the weapon choices of his adherents – and as the weather-god, Woden is a likely god to grant lightning bolts.

Temples to Woden frequently featured shrines to the other Aesir, and even to heros like Siegfried and Beowulf. So guardians of such places are more likely to be fierce warriors than fantastic beasts – particularly given that many shrines to Woden would be within the mead-hall. So not only fierce warriors but drunk fierce warriors.

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