Because Odin was chief of the gods and had so many powers, names, and
attributes, he was called the Allfather.
Odin
was called the Allfather, the chief of gods, but he had many other names.
"Gangleri
began his questioning thus: 'Who is foremost, or oldest, of all the gods?' Hárr answered: He is called in our speech
Allfather, but in the Elder Ásgard he had twelve names: one is Allfather; the second is Lord, or Lord of Hosts; the third
is Nikarr, or Spear-Lord; the fourth is Nikudr, or Striker; the fifth is Knower of Many Things; the sixth, Fulfiller of Wishes;
the seventh, Far-Speaking One; the eighth, The Shaker, or He that Putteth the Armies to Flight; the ninth, The Burner; the
tenth, The Destroyer; the eleventh, The Protector; the twelfth, Gelding'" (http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm).
"Who is foremost or oldest of the gods?"
The chief god of the Norsemen was Odin, Lord of the Dead and Masterful Magician. The Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends explains that:
"He was known by many names, each name showing a different facet of his personality: Odin,
Voden, Woden, Wotan, Votan or Wuotan. The name Odin probably means furious...When
he wandered among mankind, he wore a large blue cloak and a wide brimmed hat to conceal his missing eye...His missing eye
resulted from his pursuit of knowledge. He gave it to the giant Mimir in return for a drink from a well into which seeped
knowledge from a root of Yggdrasil, the world tree" (Cotterell, 140).
Mimir
Odin's eye was damaged in the process of learning to read the runes.
He was hanging in the tree Yggdrasil and experiencing anguish, probably both mental and physical. The story does not say whether
he paid this price because of the process of learning to read the runes or if it was a penalty imposed upon him.
The eyes are sometimes referred to as the "window of the soul", meaning
that you might be able to tell what a person is thinking or feeling by looking into his eyes. Sight is perhaps the
main sensory organ. Figurative sight, sometimes called second sight, was a way of "seeing" things hidden from literal sight.
Odin lost the literal sight in one eye, but gained supernatural sight. Very
likely, Odin's missing eye also had symbolic meaning. It is clear that eyes had meaning in other cultural myths.
The two eyes of the Egyptian god Horus had symbolic meaning:
"Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, was called "Horus who rules with
two eyes." His right eye was white and represented the sun; his left eye was black and represented the moon. According to
myth Horus lost his left eye to his evil brother, Seth, whom he fought to avenge Seth's murder of Osiris. Seth tore out the
eye but lost the fight. The eye was reassembled by magic by Thoth, the god of writing, the moon, and magic. Horus presented
his eye to Osiris, who experienced rebirth in the underworld"
In Riders to The Sea, this is said about the moon and the stars:
"MAURYA. If it wasn't found itself, that wind is raising the sea,
and there was a star up against the moon, and it rising in the night"
" BARTLEY (to Cathleen). If the west wind holds with the
last bit of the moon let you and Nora get up weed enough for another cock for the kelp. It's hard set we'll be from this day
with no one in it but one man to work."
This might also have an analogous reference in the play.
Horus' two eyes, one being dark and one being light, indicated the dichotomy
of opposing forces often present in mythology. In Horus' case, one eye was the sun, and one eye was the moon. There is reason
to believe that the sun and moon, often personified as dieties, were rivals and engendered rival religions.
Horus' left eye was black, representing the moon. This means that the missing
eye represented darkness, magic, and hell, the evil forces. It was put back together again by magic.
In Odin's case, the remaining eye may have been the "day" eye, while the "dark"
or missing eye may have been the "night" eye. The day was associated with light and heaven. The moon was the lesser light in
the dark of night and was associated with the netherworld, sometimes called Hell. People often think of a full
moon with witches and magic.
Nun suggested that Ra sent out his Eye to destroy the humans who were in contempt of the sun god.
Odin had the power to call the dead to ride in the "howling host". He also had the
power to summon witches from the grave, both of which were powers of magic. He could call on the dead for assistance in divination.
One figure in Norse mythology, the Volva, had the power to foretell
the future. Odin was more powerful than she and could cause her to rise from the dead so that he could question her. He asked
her questions about things with no answers or no known answers. She had no will of her own when summoned by Odin and
answered his questions under the binding magic of his spell.
Balder's Dream is a fragment of text from a manuscript called the Harbarthsljoth
which is catalogued under the title of Vegtamskvitha, the Lay of Vegtam.
It is not certain if the Volva in the poem is the same voice as the speaker of the
poem, but the poem suggests that the Volva has risin from the grave, having been summoned by Odin. He
tries to disguise himself by calling himself by another name, Vegtam the Wanderer. The Volva predicts the death of balder
and the fall of the gods.
The story of Odin raising the Volva is told in Baldrs Draumar or Balder's
Dream:
1. Once were the gods | together met,
And the goddesses came | and
council held,
And the far-famed ones | the truth would find,
Why baleful dreams |
to Baldr had come.
2. Then Othin rose, | the enchanter old,
And the saddle he laid | on
Sleipnir's back;
Thence rode he down | to Niflhel deep,
And the hound he met | that came from hell.
3. Bloody he was | on his breast before,
At the father of magic | he
howled from afar;
Forward rode Othin, | the earth resounded
Till the house so high | of Hel he reached.
4. Then Othin rode | to the eastern door,
There, he knew well, | was
the wise-woman's grave;
Magic he spoke | and mighty charms,
Till spell-bound she rose, | and in death she spoke:
5. "What is the man, | to me unknown,
That has made me travel | the
troublous road?
I was snowed on with snow, | and smitten with rain,
And drenched with dew; | long was I dead."
Othin spake:
6. "Vegtam my name, | I am Valtam's son;
Speak
thou of hell, | for of heaven I know:
For whom are the benches | bright with rings,
And the platforms gay | bedecked
with gold?"
The Wise-Woman spake:
7. "Here for Baldr | the mead is
brewed,
The shining drink, | and a shield lies o'er it;
But their hope is gone | from the mighty gods.
Unwilling
I spake, | and now would be still."
Othin spake:
8. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from thee
All
to know | that I fain would ask:
Who shall the bane | of Baldr become,
And steal the life | from Othin's son?"
The Wise-Woman spake:
9. "Hoth thither bears | the far-famed
branch,
He shall the bane | of Baldr become,
And steal the life | from Othin's son.
Unwilling I spake, | and now
would be still."
Othin spake:
10. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from
thee
All to know | that I fain would ask:
Who shall vengeance win | for the evil work,
Or bring to the flames | the
slayer of Baldr?"
The Wise-Woman spake:
11. "Rind bears Vali | in Vestrsalir,
And
one night old | fights Othin's son;
His hands he shall wash not, | his hair he shall comb not,
Till the
slayer of Baldr | he brings to the flames.
Unwilling I spake, | and now would be still."
Othin spake:
12. "Wise-woman, cease not! | I seek from
thee
All to know | that I fain would ask:
What maidens are they | who then shall weep,
And toss to the sky | the
yards of the sails?"
The Wise-Woman spake:
13. "Vegtam thou art not, | as erstwhile
I thought;
Othin thou art, | the enchanter old."
Othin spake:
"No wise-woman art thou, | nor wisdom hast;
Of
giants three | the mother art thou."
The Wise-Woman spake:
14. "Home ride, Othin, | be ever
proud;
For no one of men | shall seek me more
Till Loki wanders | loose from his bonds,
And to the last strife |
the destroyers come"
This idea of commanding a witch to answer questions is reflected in Sir Walter Scott's
poem St. Swithin's Chair:
"She mutter'd the spell of Swithin bold,
When his naked foot traced the midnight
wold,
When he stopp'd the Hag as she rode the night,
And bade her descend, and her promise plight.
He that
dare sit on St. Swithin's Chair,
When the Night-Hag wings the troubled air,
Questions three, when he speaks the spell,
He may ask, and she must tell"
Odin calls the spirit of a volva from Hell (4).
Othin spake: 6. "Vegtam my name, | I am Valtam's son;
The story of The Witch of Endor in the Bible has the main
components as the story of Odin raising the Volva from the grave.
In The Witch of Endor, King Saul is afraid of an upcoming
battle and looks for a reliable prophet, but he cannot find one since the prophet Samuel is dead.
King Saul had previously banished all witches and spirit mediums
from his kingdom, but now he seeks out a woman who is said to possess great powers of prediction. She lives in Endor. King
Saul disguises himself, hoping that the Witch of Endor will not realize who he is and commands her to summon up the spirit
of Samuel from the grave.
The witch is caught in a dilemma, because this act of witchcraft carries
the death penalty, but if she does not obey the king, she is also in trouble. Finally, she consents and conjures up what seems
to be the ghost of the prophet Samuel for King Saul who questions him about the future. The Ghost of Samuel predicts
that Saul and his house will all die.
The Witch of Endor calls up the ghost of Samuel.
How did the stories
of Odin get to Ireland? The Norse Vikings raided the coast of Ireland repeatedly, pillaging and later building settlements
there. Gradually, words and customs and religious beliefs were exchanged with the Irish. Some of the Irish gods had similar
qualities and mythologies.
The cult of Odin was
brought to Ireland via these Northmen. Place names in the British Isles and Europe originated from the name Odin.
Many of these names do not sound like the word Odin in English. Nevertheless, scholars have found
the origins of many place names in Europe and the British Isles based upon the worship of Odin. There is an Odin, Minnesota
in the United States.
The name of Odin is still linked to place names in England today. For example, the city of
Wormshill
in Kent, England:
"is thought to be much older, its name derived from the Anglo-Saxon
god Woden (a version of the Norse god, Odin)
and meaning "Woden's Hill...The University of Nottingham's Institute for Name-Studies has offered the suggestion that the name means 'shelter for a herd of pigs"
In English, the days of the week are named after Germanic gods. Wednesday
means "Odin's day".
Places named after Odin
Wednesday is dedicated to Odin.
Wormshill, Kent, England
St. Giles Church, Wormshill, Kent, England
Anglo Saxon
Harii, Berserkers or Men of the Wild Hunt
Woden
North Mythology
Not
only did Odin have many names, he also had many warriors. He was the Lord of the "Night-flying Howling Host". What were
those names collectively? Since the Norse were obsessed with riddles, how can we know if those warriors were not manifestations
of himself and his different names?
People have always been concerned with life and death and what becomes
of the individual after death. Religion and mythology explain these topics. In Norse mythology, Odin is in charge of the warriors
who die on the batttlefield. His angels, the Valkyrie, bring the warriors' souls to him.
"The analogous god of the dead in Irish myth is Donn, the eldest son
of Midir the Proud and his abode was Tech Duinn (House of Donn) on an island off the southwest coast of Ireland where he assembles
the dead before they set off westward to the Otherworld" (Ellis, 120-121).
Gylfaginning
Many Names of Thor
There may be other explanations of why Odin had
so many names. In Man, Myth & Magic, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, there
is a chronicle of the Lombards, the Origo Gentis Langobardum:
"Here Frija persuades her husband by a trick to give
a name to the tribe who sought her help. She turned Woden's bed to face the East, then told the people to come out at sunrise,
the women with their long hair hanging over their faces. 'Who are these Longbeards?' asked Woden in surprise, and since he
had bestowed a name on them, he was bound to give them the gift of victory that went along with it" (Cavendish, 965).
If a name means victory, then Woden had victory after
victory.
Further
reading furnishes explanations of Odin, the multi-faceted personality of the North. Sometimes he appeared in full battle rage,
sometimes as a trickster or shape-changer and, at still other times, as a skilled sorcerer:
Odin's name is
also associated with triads of gods. One of his names was Thridi, a third part of a trinity. The idea of a trinity existed
in pre-Christian religions. Pagan gods were often found in groups of three, and there were many such groups.
This explanation from The Encyclopedia
of Religion gives the reader more understanding about the number three: "Moreover
Odinn often appears in triads of gods and is even called Thridi, A third..."(Eliade,
57).
Synge, the author of Riders to The Sea, was friend to Yeats wrote these lines
emphasizing triads:
"John Synge, I and Augusta Gregory thought...
We three alone in modern times had brought
Everything
down to that sole test again,
Dream
of noble and the beggar man"
(http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Yeats/New/municipal.htm).
A trianlgle is made from thirds.The use of triads in mythology continued
in use even in the age of chivalry:
"A knight, Jacques de LaLaing, erected a pavilion on an island in the
river Saone with statues of a lady and a unicorn - the lady was apparently drenched in tears and the unicorn had three shields
around its neck, colored white, violet, and black - representing, respectively, ax, sword, and lance.On the first of the month,
knights who wished to challenge Jacques were invited to come and touch a shield to indicate which weapon they would use" (Bouchard,
104).
The presence of triads, not always strictly Christian, still
exists in some forms in old churches. For instance, St. Mary at Tarranr Crawford, Dorset, England has wall paintings
with themes common in the Middle Ages.
"Another allegory illustrated here is the 'Moral of the Three Living
and the Three Dead'. A trio of kings with all the trappings of wealth meet up with three skeletons, who warn them against
reliance on transitory riches" (Brabbs, 101).
The triad motif is ancient and seems to give extra creedence to the allegory.
Mural at Tarrant Crawford
The King Arthur Cycle of Mythology furnishes a character, Merlin, who
is a magician like Odin. In King Arthur, Dark Age Warrior and Mythic Hero, a character named Lailoken is described
as a "semi-mythical madman" from the Lowlands of Scotland and is also called a Wildman. He and Merlin have many of the
same characteristics. Both are described as laughing three times because of precognition and prediction.
As in the cult of Odin, Lailoken "predicts the threefold death for himself...The
motif is an extremely ancient one, deriving from the self-initiation, or false-death of the shaman..." (Matthews, 47).
Is it possible to know if Merlin was linked to the cult of Odin or was another manifestation
of man's need to create a mythical purveyor of magic to solve the difficult problems of those times?
Odin and Merlin from the legend of King Arthur have many similar
features.
"...the Norse Volsunga Saga. In this greatest of all Viking sagas can
be found the model for Arthur's Sword in the Stone. The tale also provides some clues to the origin of Merlin the Magician,
who can clearly be seen in the character of Odin, the Viking's all powerful wizard-god" (Matthews, 34).
Tricksters, Clowns, Magicians, Jesters & Fools
Another mythological seer was Merlin the Magician, "The Welsh Seer" (Matthews, 42).
The Sagan of the Volsongs has some similarities to the
the Arthurian legend The Sword In The Stone.
The Song of The Volsungs
| "I have searched for the dragon's egg." |
|
| This is a fossil. |
Nine is a significant and magic number in Norse legend, as is the number three. The book
Norse Myths relates poetically about the magic practices attributed to the high god Odin:
"I mind I hung on the windswept tree
Nine whole nights,
Stabbed by the spear, given to Odin
Myself to myself.
What roots it springs from.
No bread they gave me, no drink from the
horn,
Down I peered.
I took up the runes, howling I took them up,
And
back again I fell
Of that tree no man knows."
The number nine is found in many contexts about the Norse and Norse religion.
"Another time Odin pierced himself with Gungrir and hung as a corpse on Yggdrasil in order to
learn the secrets of the runes. After nine days and nights, his self-sacrifice was sufficient to reveal the hidden
knowledge, whereupon he cast off death and resumed his normal shape...Hanging was inextricably bound up with Odin worship,
although sacrifices could also be offered with a spear or fire...Moreover, the devastating Viking raid in AD 842 on the French
city of Nantes, which probably left thousands dead in the streets, was presumably the fulfillment of a barbarous pledge to
Odin Galgagramr (lord of the gallows), Geigudr
(the dangling one) and Hangagud (the hanging god)" (Cotterell, 140).
The Mythic Image by Joseph Campbell translates the verses
about Odin's ordeal this way:
"I ween that I hung on the windy tree
Hung there for nights full nine
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs?"
Odin watches the nine worlds.
What was Odin
doing on that tree? According to The Mythic Image, the purpose dealt with a time and state of mind "when
such a realization of the nonduality of heaven and earth - even of non-being and being - will have been attained and
assimilated, life-joy will pour from all things, as from an inexhaustible cup".
Odin's
quest was for a knowledge that transcended the common world of reality. The search was closer to Zen that what is usually
considered knowledge (Campbell, 198).
Other translations of Odin's words might give us more insight. In What Life Was Like When
Longships Sailed, we read:
"I know that I hung
On the windswept tree
For nine whole nights...
I grasped the runes,
Screaming I grasped them" (Dersin, 47).
A complete reading of the Havamal reveals Odin's lament is about
the runes:
"Runes you will find, and readable staves,
Very strong staves,
Very stout
staves,
Staves that Bolthor stained,
Made by mighty powers,
Graven by the prophetic God.
For the Gods by Odin, for the Elves by Dain,
By Dvalin, too, for the Dwarves,
By
Asvid for the hateful Giants,
And some I carved myself:
Thund, before man was made, scratched them,
Who rose first,
fell thereafter. |
Know how to cut them,
know how to read them,
Know how to stain
them,
know how to prove them,
Know how to evoke them,
know how to score them,
Know how to send them,
know how
to send them" |
The Havamal - Collection of Wisdom Poems
The Runatal - Lord of the Gallows
"No one came to comfort me with bread". These words are Odin's as he
endured his ordeal.
In Riders to The Sea, Maurya and her daughters are worried that
they forgot to give Bartley his bread and blessing as he went down to the sea.
Odin hung on the tree nine days. That number must be significant in other contexts.
In The Viking World there is an
account of an important festival involving the grim cult practices of the god Odin and the number nine.
These festivals derived from the myths and legends of the Northern peoples, an outworking of their religious
beliefs.
Besides Odin, there were other gods whose fables influenced people. One such Irish god was Lir, god of
the sea, also called Aegir. In Norse Mythology, Legends of Gods and Heroes, there
is a story that also illustrates the closeness of Norse worship to their occupation and preoccupation with the sea. Perhaps, not coincidentally, it also mentions the number nine:
"Aegir's wife Ran endeavored by all possible means to bring mischance upon mankind; she had in her possession
a net, with which she made it her constant pursuit to draw seafaring men down to herself in the deeps of the ocean. Aegir
and Ran had nine daughters; their names form various designations for the waves..." (Munch, 36).
Christ at the 9th hour.
Third time's charm, as the saying goes, and three times
three is nine.
Blot
The book The Norsemen in the Viking Age tells how the
oral tradition in skaldic verse helped them organize their genealogies. They concocted "cousinhoods" and connected lines of
male ancestors with stories and nicknames. "Theodoric, the king in the second episode, lived NINE-MEN-AGES AGO" (Christiansen,
246).
Considering the nature of the nine sacrifices of different kinds that
were hung from trees, it is interesting to note that meat was hung from trees in other cultures.
There are other cultural references about hanging
people, animals, or flesh in trees that widens understanding of just what is meant. The book Son of Old Man Hat by
Walter Dyk, a Navajo, tells about what they did with the meat after they butchered sheep:
"We butchered them and put the meat on the trees...The
trees outside the hogan were decorated with meat."
Putting the meat on trees kept it out of reach from animals. Even today, campers
hang their food in trees to prevent bear attacks.
Since Odin was a wanderer and appeared in disguise,
he was sometimes referred to as "the old man", a seemingly generic term, but sometimes understood more specifically as
an archetype. As an archetype, the Old One or the Old Man often appeared in folk tales and songs.
Once such song called "Hold Your Hands, Old Man", Child
Ballad #95, is found in many forms, and these versions have found their way into our times.
The Ozark (Missouri) version is among many,
and there are thirteen British variations. The following three verses show the main elements of the song which include hanging
on a gallows tree, a question of forfeit money to avoid death, and a form of the Norse prayer in the moments just before
death, found as the supplicant says that he sees his parents and family in the distance.
"Oh father, have you brought my gold?
Father, have you paid my fee?
Or have you come to see me hung
On yonder gallows tree?
Neither have I brought your gold,
An' neither have I paid your fee,
But I have come to see you hung
On yonder gallows tree.
Hold your hands, old man,
Hold 'em a little while,
For I think I see my mother a-coming,
At a distance far away"
(Randolph, 143).
Old Man Winter
Byanna's Sunday and the skull
The
image of a pirate with an eye patch (a small mask protecting the identity of the mutilated eye) is so prevalent
that you don't give it a second thought. Children's books are replete with stories of pirates and adventure on the high seas.
One
of Maurya's sons was called Patch. The history of Ireland tells of the Vikings who were cutthroat pirates
in every sense. The carnage of their battles may have left many a mutilation and lost body part. Pirates flew the skull and
crossbones as their flag, indicating their lot was a gruesome one. Even the Old High German origin of the word gruesome
means to shiver, as in shiver me timbers.
The
message behind the legend of Odin's missing eye seems to be a bad one by modern standards:
The
pursuit of knowledge will result in the loss of an eye or some other thing valuable to the self. You have heard the expression
used sometimes as an oath, "I'd give my right eye for ___".
What
would be the psychology behind that? Could it be that those who held power in days of old wanted to keep the rest
of the population in intellectual darkness and serfdom? Knowledge is power. Who would do all the grunt work if the serfs
became educated?
Meaning of iota
Tetragrammaton
Here is a strange twist on missing eyes.
In talking about wave function in a system's quantum
state, psi ( Psi (uppercase Ψ, lowercase ψ) is the 23rd letter of the Greek Alphabet ),
there is a way to predict the probability of a particle showing up at a particular place or with particular momentum is given
by the square of the amplitude of psi. In Teleportation, The Impossible Leap, this question is asked "Why
the square of the amplitude of psi and not psi itself?"
He continues, "Because psi is a complex function - complex
in the mathematical sense
that it contains terms that involve the square root
of minus one √-1, (written as i)...
Using the amplitude (also known as the modulus) is
a process that gets rid of all the i's" (Darling, 69).
Many
cultures have heroes and villians missing an eye or seeming to misss an eye.
The
Irish epic hero Cuchullain also had a curious feature about his eye. When he became furious, working himself into a battle
rage, one of his eyes would become much larger than the other and grossly swollen.
Cuchullain
"In the Mesoamerican Aztec culture, there was also a god with a patch over his missing eye. He was the twin brother
of Quetzalcoatl and was called Xolotl. He "took the shape of a deformed dog. When people prayed to Xolotl, his response depended
on the way his ears were pointing."
His nature was unpredictable and destructive.
"As a symbol of the hardships he had endured, he had a burst eye. He was worshipped as a god of the ball game and twins"
(Wilkinson, 108).
The Illustrated Dictionary of Mythology
The "burst" eye
conjures up the image of a stylized sunburst. Maybe the origin of Odin's missing eye stems from ancient sun worship,
the sun being a single bright blazing eye looking down upon man.
In classical literature, the Cyclops had only one eye which was put out by Odysseus. The Cyclops said to Odysseus:
"Now comes the weird upon me, spoken of old. A wizard, grand and wondrous, lived here--Telemos, a son of Eurymos; great
length of days he had in wizardry among the Cyclopes, and these things he foretold for time to come: my great eye lost, and
at Odysseus's hands. Always I had in mind some giant, armed in giant force, would come against me here. But this, but you--small,
pitiful and twiggy-- you put me down with wine, you blinded me."
Fate - The Cult of the Dead, "Wierd, literally 'that which happens'".
Cyclops
Everything about
the cult of Oden is paradoxical and, especially, duplicitous. The one eye of Oden is suggested by the gesture of
winking with the implied meaning of "It's a joke; don't you get it?" In the same way, this winking, behind someone's
back, as it were, implies amusement and exclusion of an outsider from a group "in-the-know" or, to use another proverb, in
the instance of speaking over-the-head of an initiate who may, as an apprentice, one day become a journeyman and eventually
a master. The old saw "Let's put him through the ropes" seems to be an instance of duplicitous meaning, just as one who
acts like an expert and operates at a higher level may be told to "get off his high horse".
The Courage to Create discusses the idea
of the physical eye and "Seeing deeply", showing that the eyes, the windows to the world, could be credited for the intake
of knowledge.
"The poet Rilke also was struck by Apollos' prominent eyes with their quality of seeing deeply. In his 'Archaic Torso
of Apollo'...speaks of'...his legendary head in which the eyeballs ripened'..." (May, 119).
Since the language of the cult of Odin is so cryptic,
this excerpt from Windmills makes you wonder how this reference evolved:
"An elaborate vocabulary developed to describe different
parts of windmills. Historically, many parts of the mill were called by feminine terms. The outside stone body of the
mill was called the skirt, the center part was the waist, and the grinding surface was referred to as the dressing. For example,
a cry from the miller to his assistant- 'Don't choke her eye!' - indicated that the wheat should not be fed into the hopper
too quickly" (Brooks, 23).
This seems to have a correlation to ancient harvest customs. Man,
Myth & Magic, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown, tells about a harvest custom enacted when
the gleaners reached the last ears of grain. This last handful was called 'the neck". The oldest reaper was given
the task of cutting the last handful and then shouted :
"I havet! I havet!, I havet !t! When asked what he had, he replied,
'A neck! A neck! A neck!' The sheaf was cut with much merriment, decked with ribbons and then left until the following
year..." (Cavendish, 456).
Crying the Neck
Hurrahing in Harvest, poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Odin wore his gorm cloak. Gorm means
blue. In one interpretation of the origin of the surname Gorman "a man in his little blue suit" is given as
the meaning of the name. Maybe it was sometimes understood as his birthday suit.
Scholars of history have evidence that Celtic warriors
used lime to bleach their hair and woad to die their bodies blue when they went into battle naked. They also wore blue
tattoos over their bodies. Perhaps that is the better meaning of the surname Gorman.
In Norse mythology, Sleipnir is Odin's magical eight-legged steed, and the greatest of all horses. His name means smooth or gliding,
and is related to the English word "slippery".
Wikipedia and Sliepner
Sleipner, like a a
spider, has eight legs and spins, and so did the mythical Norns. Since the Norns "spin yarns", you can't be sure your fate
is based on the truth.
Maurya's sons were riding on horses. If this were a riddle, it
might be guessed that the two horses riding together had eight legs.
As Odin's horse, Sleipner is considered the
greatest of all horses on earth. He is sometimes linked
with the color blue just as his dog Garm is. This
was probably because the Celts painted their bodies with a blue dye called woad before they went into battle and had blue tattoos
all over their bodies.
Odin's horse Sleipnir is
suggestive of a funeral. That would not be odd, since Odin is the Lord of the Dead. Sleipnir's eight legs are thought to represent
four men (two legs apiece) carrying a corpse.
In some legends, Odin, riding Sleipner, leads his host in the Wild
Hunt. Whether under the name of Grim or Wotan, Odin,
or the Gallows God, he leads a terrifying hunt in the sky. The prey might be men or animals. It may be that
the Wild Hunt was practiced by devotees on the ground under different names, mimicking the actions of the gods.
This myth serves
as a memorial of all the dead and the mythical routes they take to and from their graves.
The theme of resurrection
occurs in this myth. Looking at the Viking burial customs described by Ibn Fadlan, it can be seen that when the
corpse of the kings is dug up, this is a resurrection theme.
Besides Sleipner, there was another type of horse that Odin rode.
This tree Yggdrasil was the center point of the nine Norse worlds. The book Witches, An Encyclopedia of Paganism and Magic elaborates:
"The term originates in the fusion of Ygg, one
of the epithets of OTHIN, and the Old Norse word drasil, a horse, meaning literally
the horse of Ygg, a euphemism for a gallows tree" (Jordan, 190).
This is helpful in understanding the Norse use of figurative language. In this illustration one sees how the words are tied together, one to the other, as part of the linked usage
of magic to words as well as to the riddles hidden within the words. The tree
is linked to Odin and to the gallows by means of the figurative horse, which would carry the victim to the underworld by Odin
the Commander of the Dead."
The book The Word Museum tells us that like Odin with
his many names, so too, the gallows or hanging tree had many names, one of which was Tyburn-blossom. "A young
thief or pickpocket, who will in time ripen into fruit born by the 'deadly nevergreen' the great gallows, known as the Tyburn
tree. [Grose, DVT] SEE
figging-law, little snakesman, moon curser, swell-mobsman" (Kacirk, 199).
A
worm or serpent ran at the root of Yggdrasil. This serpent (and probably also dragon) calls to mind the Garden
of Eden and the temptation of the first humans by Satan using the world's first recorded instance of puppetry by speaking
through a snake.
The cult of Odin included a pack of wild men riding with him in the lead
In picturing Odin in the Wild Hunt riding with his men and dogs, The Word Museum tells us about:
"yeth-hounds Hounds without heads, supposed to be animated by the spirits of
children who have died without baptism" (Kacirk, 221).
Beheading was a form of execution and sometimes a cultic practice.
yeth-hounds
The Curse of the Yeth-Hounds
Beheadings in Viking Times
Mimir's severed head
A Pictish Warrior With Severed Heads
Water, Milk, Eviscerated Eyes and Severed Heads
Odin
How did Odin know so much? Legend has it that two ravens
named Huginn and Munnin, one at each ear, whispered to him all they had learned from flying about the earth, observing and
gathering information. In Man, Myth & Magic, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mythology, Religion and the Unknown
it says:
“According to the Prose Edda, while his body lay
sleeping, Odin could take the shape of various creatures, including that of a wild beast or bird. Odin's ravens were not fierce
flesh-eating birds; Huginn and Munnin represented thought and memory - the mind's ability to go roving as in a shaman's trance"
(Cavendish, 497).
In the play Riders to The Sea, Maurya's two daughters
do a lot of low talking and whispering to each other, meaning not to disturb their mother any further. It might be imagined
that they are like Odin's two crows.
"CATHLEEN. Give
me the ladder, and I'll put them up in the turf-loft, the way she won't know of them at all, and maybe when the tide turns
she'll be going down to see would he be floating from the east.
[They put the ladder against the gable of the chimney; Cathleen goes up a
few steps and hides the bundle in the turf-loft. Maurya comes from the inner room.]
MAURYA
(looking up at Cathleen and speaking querulously). Isn't it turf enough you have for this day and evening?
CATHLEEN.
There's a cake baking at the fire for a short space (throwing down the turf) and Bartley will want it when the tide turns
if he goes to Connemara.
[Nora
picks up the turf and puts it round the pot-oven.]"
Irish Turf Lofts - "there is a loft over which is the sloping roof. Here the children sleep."
Babd is The Crow
Where did the origins for many of these beliefs and tales
come from, such as the importance of preternatural light? Some must have been derived from Mother Nature:
"Maurice Maeterlinck, in his classic The Life of the Bee, cited an experiment in which a fly was able to escape
from a bottle in which it was placed more readily than did a bee...Maeterlinck challenged this conclusion, stating: 'Turn
the transparent sphere [bottle] twenty times, if you will, ...and you will find that the bees will turn twenty times with
it, so as to always face the light. It is their love of light, it is their very intelligence, that is their undoing in this
experiment..." (Longgood, 56)".
Clochan na Carraige, stone beehive hut
Dun Aonghusa Bee Keeping
As a traveler,
Odin would sometimes appear in disguise to those he met on the road, one of many reasons why he was known as a trickster,
and possibly, the reason he was considered a shape changer.
In times when
travel was dangerous because of highwaymen, it could be understood that, however dangerous the highway might be, it would
be even more dangerous to venture off the path into a surrounding forest.
Nevertheless, from ancient to modern times, people traveled
the highways, fleeing from bad conditions or seeking better ones.
During the Depression
in America
in the 1930's, many people became hobos and traveled by train and on foot. There was and is a secret culture of these
hobos, with secret signs and campgrounds.
Not
everyone who wandered belonged to that culture.
Johnny
Appleseed became an American legend before the Depression.
Carl
Sandburg, a great American poet, also traveled as a hobo in his early life:
"His
experiences in working and traveling greatly influenced his writing and political views. As a hobo he learned a number of
folk songs, which he later performed at speaking engagements."
Hobo Signs
Odin,
as a legendary magician, might be linked to the magic of abracadabra. This word was written in a triangle. It
can be written without end:
abracadabraabracadabraabracadabraabracadabraabracadabraabracadabra
That
was the Word. In the Bible it was Logos.
The
origin is considered uncertain, but all sources seem to agree that it is mystical and religious. Some sources believe it is
linked to the phrase body of Abraham.
Cadabra
looks and sounds like cadaver.
Cada,
within the word, in Spanish means each, all or everyone.
Part
of the word, abra, from the infinitve abrir meaning to open in Spanish, derived from
the Latin.
As
the word is diminished from its original form down to Abrac, it is clear that there is closure at the final
A.
Rorate Carli Desuper means:
abracadabra
Definition of cadaver
"About ABRACADABRA: As a spell or cure, it was
usually written as a triangle, the full word written out on the topmost line of 11 lines, leaving off the last letter in each
descending line until only the A is left on the last line.
"In the Middle Ages the word was believed to cure fevers...The
idea is evidently that as the word shrinks away to nothing, so will the fever.
Abracadabra resembles, and may be descended from, a
Jewish cure for fever. Another possibility is that Abracadabra is connected with Abraxas, a god who appears on magical charms.
Abracax (is) a demon with snakes for feet, associated with Abracadabra" (Cavendish, 48).
Abracadabant
meant, at one time, "marvelous or stunning; from abracadabra, a magic word used as a spell in the United States
[Barrere]" (Kacirk, 13).
(Note:
Caulacau, like Abracadabra, can be written without end:
caulacaucaulacaucaulacaucaulacaucaulacaucaulacau
Or,
la being equivalent to "=", such that caul=caul
See
definition 2. of caul.
In Scandanavia, a crystal ball was found with inscribed letters of a word that meant "You are our father". This word, ABLANAQANALBA,
was a palindrome much like avracadavra.
A Mysterious Crystal Ball
Open, Sesame, were the magic words in English to
open the entrance to the cave in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.
Open Simsim, Close Simsim, Sewing the body back together
There
are many magical and superstitious beliefs about the caul, which is now called the amniotic membrane which encloses the amniotic
fluid and fetus within.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Burkert says that the pentagram had a secret significance and power to the pythagoreans, and was used as a password or symbol
of recognition amongst themselves.
Star of David: Two Interlocking Triangles
In Celtic Myths, this thought ties the cult of
Odin to Samhain: "one Irish tradition involved the triple killing of a king, by burning,
wounding and drowning, at the feast of Samhain" (Green, 69).
Corpses
found in peat bogs in Europe
might be connected to the cult of Odin or a similar cult. The Tollund Man is commemorated by the poet Seamus Heaney
in his poem in the first link and his photograph in the others:
Tollund Man and Elling Woman
Seamus Heaney and "Tollund Man"
Resurgance of Tolland Man, a forensic artist recreates his face, video.
There is archeological
evidence to support the details given in the myths of Odin that ritual sacrifice to the gods was practiced in the prescribed
rites. One of three or several methods falling into Odinic practice were used: strangling, a blow with a sharp object, and
fire.
For instance,
the famed Lindow Man was found preserved in a bog, having been garroted and struck in the head with a weapon.
Miranda Jane Green
tells us of this in Celtic Myths:
"A clear example is Lindow Man, a young male of Iron Age
date (c. 300 BC ), who suffered severe blows to his head, was garroted and had
his throat cut before being thrust face down in a shallow pool in Lindow Moss, Cheshire; before he died he may have eaten
a ritual meal consisting of a whole meal bread..." (Green, 68).
Gundestrup Caulron
The
idea of human sacrifice didn't begin with the Norse. How the ancients came up with that idea as an appeasement to their
gods is anyone's guess, but it was well established by the time the Bible was written. In The Student Bible, New Revised Standard Version,
Notes by Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford, Zondervand, Grand Rapids, MI, 1994, p790, it says:
"Idols
were far from innocent, however. They stood for vile, angry gods who could hurt you unless you bartered for peace. The highest
sacrifice? Slaughter your own son..."
Since
Odin was associated with anger, it could be that the bog corpses were offerings to calm his anger or that of a similar
deity, but the question asked is, "How could people be intimidated by a legend or a lifeless representation of a mythical
god?"
The
answer would have to lie with the "here and now" of the people of that time. A very real fear of a vile and terrifying representative
or priests of a cult might cause this type of sacrifice.
The story of Christ is a reversal of these sacrifices.
The enemies of God put him to death.
Here
are some examples of senseless and viciously cruel religious practices of the ancients:
"You
who immolate children in the wadies, behind the crevices of the cliffs...Among the smooth stones of the wadi is your portion,
these are your lot."
The
footnote for this text reads:
"...the
people adored slabs of stone which they took from the streambeds in valleys and set up as idols. Therefore, it is implied
that they will be swept away as by a sudden torrent of waters carrying them down the rocky-bottomed gorge to destruction and
death without burial." Isaiah 57:5-6.
Also:
"While
you approached the king* with scented oil, and multiplied your perfumes; While you sent your ambassadors far away, down
even to the netherworld."
The footnote
for this reveals what these figures of speech are about: "The king: the pagan god Molech. Ambassadors: children sent
to him through a sacrificial death." Isaiah 57:9
The Catholic
Bible, Personal Study Edition, New American Bible, New York, Oxford University Press, 1995.
The
Buddhist I Ching by Chih-hsu Ou-i says this on page 30:
"When
good and evil oppose and overthrow each other, this is because of not having realized that the substance of their subtle essential
nature is one, and seeing a mixture or jumble of descriptions of events.
Really
heaven is dark, earth is yellow- the higher development of mind is an endless mystery; physical life on earth succeeds through
balance. These cannot be changed. What is there to disapprove or doubt? What is there to do battle with?
"Weary se'nnights nine times nine"
Byanna's Sunday and the cow skull
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