StJ on the Origins of Odin
Aug. 30th, 2024 11:45 amInteresting little speculative tidbit from Tom Rowsell (Survive the Jive) on the possible origins of Odin/Woden:
"Welunos" sounds a lot like the Slavic god Veles, in both name and speculative attributes. This hints at a very ancient Indo-European theology that had the "Sky Father" bifurcated into Light and Dark aspects. In the archaic Roman religion (prior to its Hellenization), the Jupiter/Veovis pairing may have been another instance of this duality. In the later (Hellenized) Roman religion, most of the archaic Italic elements were memory-holed and this dark aspect was either lost or conflated with other cthonic gods like Dis Pater and Pluto (Hades). In the Greek tradition, I've seen associations of Hades and Dionysus, which may be getting at the same sort of thing; Dionysus being the "dark side" of Zeus makes a lot of sense. As an aside, one thing that bugs me a bit about our modern-day "Germanic" theology that has been cobbled together from loose scraps, is the lack of the "Light side" of the Sky Father; it seems like Thor serves as a proxy for this, though he's more of a son than father figure. A few among the more philologically-inclined Heathens have suggested that Tiw/Tyr once performed this function, but from what I've seen, the evidence seems very lacking for thing, as mere cognates are not really good evidence for theological connections, in my view.
Anyway, this all seems like quite fascinating food for thought.
My current understanding of the development of the cult of Wodanaz is as follows:
In the Bronze age the pre-Germanic people of Scandinavia worshipped a sky father derived from PIE *Dyḗus ph₂tḗr but he merged with and became indistinct from the dark god of the Männerbund, guardian of the cattle herds and the underworld known in PIE as *Welunos.
By the time Proto-Germanic was spoken in 500 BC they called this god *Wōdanaz " one of divine-frenzy" and his worship was probably widespread in all Germanic speaking regions, which by then included the continent (North Germany).
With the influence of Rome on Germania in the common era, and many Germanic folk serving in the Roman military, the cult of *Wōdanaz took on a Roman character - especially in Germany - with the Germanic comitatus being based in part on Roman military culture and *Wōdanaz himself being depicted in Romanised forms, sometimes even with Roman artefacts. The military Germanic elite represented a changing power structure in the region, and with the increased regional power and wealth of Odinic military aristocratic leaders, many of whom had served in the Roman army, there was a corresponding increase in the focus on the cult of *Wōdanaz.
I don't think this means he wasn't the principle deity before Roman influence, but I think that the cults of other gods diminished in importance as the emphasis on these new military elites defined the Germanic culture. This is the time when the duel raven motif starts to proliferate and also the bracteates which seem to depict Germanic kings in the style of Roman emperors on solidi, but surrounded by Odinic imagery; ravens, swastikas, runes, horses. One runic bracteate inscription even says "he is wodnaz's man". The deliberate invention of the purpose built runic script by an elite literate caste coincides with these events around 2000 years ago.
*Wōdanaz retained this status and the association with runes, ravens and war throughout the Germanic world for over 1000 years until his cult was destroyed by Christians.
"Welunos" sounds a lot like the Slavic god Veles, in both name and speculative attributes. This hints at a very ancient Indo-European theology that had the "Sky Father" bifurcated into Light and Dark aspects. In the archaic Roman religion (prior to its Hellenization), the Jupiter/Veovis pairing may have been another instance of this duality. In the later (Hellenized) Roman religion, most of the archaic Italic elements were memory-holed and this dark aspect was either lost or conflated with other cthonic gods like Dis Pater and Pluto (Hades). In the Greek tradition, I've seen associations of Hades and Dionysus, which may be getting at the same sort of thing; Dionysus being the "dark side" of Zeus makes a lot of sense. As an aside, one thing that bugs me a bit about our modern-day "Germanic" theology that has been cobbled together from loose scraps, is the lack of the "Light side" of the Sky Father; it seems like Thor serves as a proxy for this, though he's more of a son than father figure. A few among the more philologically-inclined Heathens have suggested that Tiw/Tyr once performed this function, but from what I've seen, the evidence seems very lacking for thing, as mere cognates are not really good evidence for theological connections, in my view.
Anyway, this all seems like quite fascinating food for thought.