The attested forms of the theonym are traditionally derived from Proto-Germanic *Wōđanaz[1] (in Old Norse word-initial *w- was dropped before rounded vowels and so the name became Óðinn). Adam von Bremen etymologizes the god worshipped by the 11th century Scandinavian pagans as "Wodan id est furor" ("Wodan, which means 'fury'"). An obsolete alternate etymology, which has been adhered to by many early writers includi ...

See also:

Odin, Odin - Etymology, Odin - General characteristics, Odin - Odin and Mercury, Odin - Celtic parallels, Odin - Eddaic Odin, Odin - Attributes, Odin - Names, Odin - Anglo-Saxon Woden, Odin - Worship, Odin - Sacrifices, Odin - Shamanic traits, Odin - Odin and Jesus, Odin - Medieval reception, Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin, Odin - Modern age, Odin - Notes, Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia II - Odin - Etymology

See also:

Odin, Odin - Etymology, Odin - General characteristics, Odin - Odin and Mercury, Odin - Celtic parallels, Odin - Eddaic Odin, Odin - Attributes, Odin - Names, Odin - Anglo-Saxon Woden, Odin - Worship, Odin - Sacrifices, Odin - Shamanic traits, Odin - Odin and Jesus, Odin - Medieval reception, Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin, Odin - Modern age, Odin - Notes, Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia II - Odin - Eddaic Odin

Less is known about the role of Odin as receiver of the dead among the more southern Germanic tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus probably refers to Odin when he talks of Mercury. The reason is that, like Mercury, Odin was regarded as Psychopompos, "the leader of souls". Julius Caesar calls Mercury the "deum maxime" of the Germans in De Bello Gallico 6.17.1. Paulus Diaconus (or Paul the Deacon), writing in the late 8th century, tells that Odin (Guodan) was the chief god of the Langobards and, like earlier southern ...

See also:

Odin, Odin - Etymology, Odin - General characteristics, Odin - Odin and Mercury, Odin - Celtic parallels, Odin - Eddaic Odin, Odin - Attributes, Odin - Names, Odin - Anglo-Saxon Woden, Odin - Worship, Odin - Sacrifices, Odin - Shamanic traits, Odin - Odin and Jesus, Odin - Medieval reception, Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin, Odin - Modern age, Odin - Notes, Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia II - Odin - Odin and Mercury

Odin is considered the highest god in Norse mythology and Norse paganism. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attested as being a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt. His name is, in Old Norse, Óðinn. Although its precise meaning is debated, the name is thought to be related to the word óðr, meaning "excitation" or "fury". Worship of Odin dates to Proto-Germanic paganism, and the names Old English (and Old Saxon) Wōden; Old ...

Including:

Odin - Etymology Odin - General characteristics Odin - Odin and Mercury Odin - Celtic parallels Odin - Eddaic Odin
Odin - Attributes Odin - Names
Odin - Anglo-Saxon Woden Odin - Worship
Odin - Sacrifices Odin - Shamanic traits Odin - Odin and Jesus
Odin - Medieval reception
Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin
Odin - Modern age Odin - Notes Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia - Odin

Odin is considered the highest god in Norse mythology and Norse paganism. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attested as being a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt. His name is, in Old Norse, Óðinn. Although its precise meaning is debated, the name is thought to be related to the word óðr, meaning "excitation" or "fury". Worship of Odin dates to Proto-Germanic paganism, and the names Old English (and Old Saxon) Wōden; Old ...

Including:

Odin - Etymology Odin - General characteristics Odin - Odin and Mercury Odin - Celtic parallels Odin - Eddaic Odin
Odin - Names
Odin - Anglo-Saxon Woden Odin - Worship
Odin - Sacrifices Odin - Shamanic traits Odin - Odin and Jesus
Odin - Medieval reception
Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin
Odin - Modern age Odin - Notes Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia - Odin

Óðr is the husband of Freyja in Norse mythology. Although the precise mythological meaning is uncertain, the word itself means "wit, soul" and is used in compounds to mean "fierce power, energy" (from Proto-Germanic *wōþuz; compare also the etymology of Odin.) Snorri Sturluson describes it in his Prose Edda as follows: "Freyja is most gently born (together with Frigg): she is wedded to the man named Ódr. Their daughter is Hnoss: she is so fair, that those things which are fair and precious are ca ...

Read more here: » Óðr: Encyclopedia - Óðr

In Old Norse, the Æsir (singular Áss, feminine Ásynja, feminine plural Ásynjur, Anglo-Saxon Ós, from Proto-Germanic Ansuz) are the principal gods of the pantheon of Norse mythology. They include many of the major figures, such as Odin, Frigg, Thor, Baldr and Tyr. A second clan of gods, the Vanir, is also mentioned in the Norse mythos: the god Njord and his children, Freyr and Freyja, are the most prominent Vanir gods who join the Æsir as hostages after a war between Æsir and Vanir. The ...

Including:

Æsir - Etymology Æsir - Norse mythology Æsir - The a-rune Æsir - List of Æsir and Vanir Æsir - External link

Read more here: » Æsir: Encyclopedia - Æsir

The word "valkyrie" comes from the Old Norse valkyrja (plural "valkyrur"), from the words "val" (slaughter) and "kyrja" (to choose). Literally the term means choosers of the slain. Cognate forms include the Old English "wælcyrige" and the German "Walküre." Fylgja, Dísir Valkyrie - Introduction. In Norse mythology the valkyries are dísir, minor female deities, who serve Odin. The valkyries' purpose was to choose the most heroic of those who ha ...

Including:

Valkyrie - Etymology Valkyrie - Introduction Valkyrie - Major valkyries Valkyrie - Other Valkyries Valkyrie - Wagner's valkyries

Read more here: » Valkyrie: Encyclopedia - Valkyrie

Berserkers (or Berserks) were Norse warriors who had sworn allegiance to the sky god Odin and worked themselves into a frenzy before a battle. Berserker - Etymology. The term berserker comes from Norse "berserkr", meaning literally "bear shirt" or "bare shirt", alluding either to wearing the "clothes" of a bear, i.e. to be bear-like in rage and strength, usually in battle, or to the habit of berserkers going into battle unarmored, or often, completely naked. Some berserks also took names with bjö ...

Including:

Berserker - Etymology Berserker - Literary references Berserker - Theories regarding the causes of berserker behavior Berserker - Berserkers in popular culture

Read more here: » Berserker: Encyclopedia - Berserker

With the Romantic Viking revival of the early-to-mid 19th century, Odin's popularity increased again. Wotan is a lead character in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, written between 1848 and 1874. His name provides the root for 19th century conceptions of "Od", a hypothetical vital energy that permeates all living things. Odin, along with the other Norse Gods and Goddesses, is worshipped by Germanic pagan reconstructivists (see Odinism). Ásatrú, "faith in the Aesir", is an officially recogni ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Revivals

Less is known about the role of Odin as receiver of the dead among the more southern Germanic tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus probably refers to Odin when he talks of Mercury. The reason is that, like Mercury, Odin was regarded as Psychopompos, "the leader of souls". Julius Caesar calls Mercury the "deum maxime" of the Gauls in De Bello Gallico 6.17.1. Paulus Diaconus (or Paul the Deacon), writing in the late 8th century, tells that Odin (Guodan) was the chief god of the Langobards and, like earlier southern s ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury

The goddess Freya is described as an adept of the mysteries of seid (shamanism), a völva, and it is said that it was she who initiated Odin into its mysteries. In Lokasenna, Loki verbally abuses Odin for practising seid, condemning it as a unmanly art. A justification for this may be found in the Ynglinga saga where Snorri opines that in following the practice of seid, the practitioner was rendered unmanly. Another explanation is that its manipulative aspects ran counter to th ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Shamanic traits

Details of the Migration period of Germanic religion are sketchy, reconstructed from artefacts, sparse contemporary sources, and later the later testimonies of medieval legends and placenames. It was common, particularly amongst the Cimbri, to sacrifice a prisoner to Odin prior to or after a battle. According to Jonas Bobiensis, the 6th century Irish missionary Saint Columbanus is reputed to have disrupted a Beer sacrifice to Wuodan (Deo suo Vodano nomine) in Bregenz, Alemannia. Wuodan was the chief god of the Alamanni, his name appears in the runic in ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Worship

Scandinavian Óðinn emerged from Proto-Norse *Wōdin during the Migration period, Vendel artwork (bracteates, image stones) depicting the earliest scenes that can be aligned with the High Medieval Norse mythological texts. The context of the new elites emerging in this period aligns with Snorri's tale of the indigenous Vanir who were eventually replaced Aesir intruders from the Continent.[9] According to the Prose Edda, Odin was a son of Bestla and Borr and brother of Vé and Vili and together with t ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Viking Age

As the chief god of the Germanic pantheon, Odin received particular attention from the early missionaries. For example, his day is the only day to have been renamed in the German language from "Woden's day", still extant in English Wednesday (compare Norwegian, Danish and Swedish onsdag, Dutch woensdag) to the neutral Mittwoch ("mid-week"), while other gods were not deemed important enough for propaganda (Tuesday "Tyr's day" and Friday "Freyja's day" remained intact in all Germanic languages). "Woden ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Medieval reception

The attested forms of the theonym are traditionally derived from Proto-Germanic *Wōđanaz[1] (in Old Norse word-initial *w- was dropped before rounded vowels and so the name became Óðinn). Adam von Bremen etymologizes the god worshipped by the 11th century Scandinavian pagans as "Wodan id est furor" ("Wodan, which means 'fury'"). An obsolete alternate etymology, which has been adhered to by many early writers includi ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Etymology

The Anglo-Saxon tribes brought their pagan faith to England around the 5th and 6th centuries and continued in that form of worship until nearly all were converted to Christianity by the 8th century. The Anglo-Saxon kings claimed descent from Woden. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Britonum, Woden had the sons Wecta, Baeldaeg, Casere and Wihtlaeg, who in turn were ancestors of the royal houses of the Heptarchy Lombardic Godan appears in the 7th century Origo Gentis Langobardorum. According to the le ...

See also:

Wodanaz, Wodanaz - Etymology, Wodanaz - Odin and Mercury, Wodanaz - Celtic parallels, Wodanaz - Shamanic traits, Wodanaz - Worship, Wodanaz - Migration period, Wodanaz - Viking Age, Wodanaz - Medieval reception, Wodanaz - Revivals, Wodanaz - Notes, Wodanaz - Literature

Read more here: » Wodanaz: Encyclopedia II - Wodanaz - Migration period

Snorri Sturluson's record of the Edda is striking evidence of the climate of religious tolerance in medieval Iceland, but even he feels compelled to give a rational account of the Aesir in his preface. In this scenario, Snorri speculates that Odin and his peers were originally refugees from Troy, etymologizing Aesir as derived from Asia. Some scholars believe that Snorri's version of Norse mythology is an attempt to mould a more shamanistic tradition into a Greek mythological cast. In any case, Snorri's writing (particularly in Heimsk ...

See also:

Odin, Odin - Characteristics, Odin - Origins, Odin - Seid, Odin - Blót, Odin - Edda, Odin - Attributes, Odin - Names, Odin - Odin and Jesus, Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin, Odin - Modern age, Odin - Modern popular culture, Odin - Germanic neopaganism, Odin - Notes, Odin - Literature

Read more here: » Odin: Encyclopedia II - Odin - Persisting beliefs in Odin

The most commonly accepted etymology of the name is ygg "terrible" + drasil "steed". Yggr is taken to be an epithet of Odin, giving a meaning of "Odin's steed", taken to refer to the nine nights Odin is said to have spent hanging from the tree in order find the runes. The gallows are sometimes described in Old Norse poetry as the "horse of the hanged." Another interpretation of the name is "terrible horse", i. e. the association with Odin may be secondary. A third interpretation, with etymological difficulties, is "yew-c ...

See also:

Yggdrasil, Yggdrasil - Etymology and alternative names, Yggdrasil - Yggdrasil in the Edda, Yggdrasil - Popular culture

Read more here: » Yggdrasil: Encyclopedia II - Yggdrasil - Etymology and alternative names

The most commonly accepted etymology of the name is ygg "terrible" + drasil "steed". Yggr is taken to be an epithet of Odin, giving a meaning of "Odin's steed", taken to refer to the nine nights Odin is said to have spent hanging from the tree in order find the runes. The gallows are sometimes described in Old Norse poetry as the "horse of the hanged." Another interpretation of the name is "terrible horse", i. e. the association with Odin may be secondary. A third interpretation, with etymological difficulties, is "yew-c ...

See also:

Yggdrasil, Yggdrasil - Etymology and alternative names, Yggdrasil - Yggdrasil in the Edda

Read more here: » Yggdrasil: Encyclopedia II - Yggdrasil - Etymology and alternative names