Odin

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Image of the one-eyed Odin on Sleipnir with multiple trident (?) From the Icelandic Edda manuscript NKS 1867 4to by Ólafur Brynjúlfsson from 1760

Odin or Wodan ( South Germanic Wōdan , Old Icelandic Óðinn , Old English Wōden , Old Saxon Uuoden , Old Dutch Wuodan , Old High German Wuotan , Longobard Godan or Guodan , common German * Wôðanaz ) is the main god in Nordic and continental mythology . In Eddic poetry he functions as the father of gods , god of war and death , as a god of poetry and runes , magic and ecstasy with clearly shamanic features.

etymology

Depending on the context, both the North Germanic form of the name Odin and the South Germanic forms Wodan or, in New High German, Wotan are common in German . The oldest written evidence of the name is a runic inscription on a bow brooch from Nordendorf from the sixth century AD, which mentions Wodan among other names . The second syllable was converted to -en or -in in North Sea Germanic (Anglo-Saxon Wōden ). In the North Germanic languages, the initial W- (as always before o and u) was omitted. The earliest evidence of the god name Odin from around 725 AD was found in the form uþin on a skull fragment carved with runes.

Both name variants go back to a western form of extension to the Indo-European root * wat "blow on, fanning, inspire", according to others * u̯ā̌t-, * u̯ōt- "be mentally stimulated" or * weh₂t- "angry, excited, inspired", which also the old Indian ápivátati “blows on, inspires”, the Latin vatēs “seer, poet, fortune teller” and old Irish fāith “seer, prophet”. The reconstructed Proto-European archetype of the god's name is * Wōdanaz . The Old High German and Middle High German wuot "violent movement, violent emotional excitement, frenzy" and New High German anger "raging anger", and Dutch woede "anger, frenzy" can be used in common Germanic * wōdaz "possessed, excited" (directly from it, Gothic wods "angry, possessed "and Old English wōd " insane, angry, mad ") can also be traced back to this Indo-European root. Old English wōþ “sound, voice, poetry, song” and Old Norse óðr “excitement, poetry, poetry”, which illuminate further characteristics of the Germanic god (his connection with poetry, song and magic) , also go back to parallel derivatives of the same root . The emotional excitement associated with the god Wodan can relate to poetic poetry as well as to magic and its possible use in war or to the irascible rage of the berserkers . Even Adam von Bremen , in his description of the Temple of Uppsala in his eleventh century Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, summarized the essence of God in this sense: "Wuodan id est furor" ("Wodan, that means anger").

With the second sound shift , the South Germanic Wodan became Old High German Wuotan and Longobard Wotan or in Romansh spelling G (u) odan . In modern times, especially in the course of the Romantic era , the name was taken up again in German. Richard Wagner initially used the West Germanic sound form Wodan (as in Act II of Lohengrin ), but from around 1860 he decided on the spelling Wotan, which mediated between Wodan and Wuotan . This form of name, which in the early Middle Ages is only recorded once in Langobardic, became the common spelling of the South Germanic name due to the influence of his operas.

The name of Wednesday refers to Wodan in other Germanic languages ​​based on the Roman model dies Mercurii "Day of Mercury " (cf. Interpretatio Romana ). The "Wodanstag" or "Odinstag" was in the Netherlands for Woensdag , in English for Wednesday , the Frisian for Wernsdey , in Danish and Swedish for onsdag . The loan is related to the adoption of the Roman seven-day week by the continental Teutons of the second to third centuries. In the German "Wednesday" the name of the highest Germanic god should perhaps be avoided.

presentation

Odin seated on a throne, around 900 AD, find from Gammel Lejre , Denmark ( Viking Ship Museum Roskilde )
Wooden head of Odin from Gamlebyen , 12th or 13th century AD ( Kulturhistorisk Museum , Oslo)

Odin is often depicted as a divine rider on his eight-legged steed Sleipnir . Another characteristic is his one-eyedness, which is explained in a legend to the effect that he left one eye to Mimir as a pledge to be able to see into the future.

In 2009, during excavations in Gammel Lejre in Denmark, a gold-plated figure made of silver 1.75 cm high and 1.98 cm wide was found. The Roskilde Museum dates the unique find to AD 900–1000. It is a representation of Odin and his magical throne Hlidskialf with the ravens Hugin and Munin . The throne enables Odin to see all nine worlds . The fact that the left eye is difficult to see in some of the images does not refer to the eye that Odin sacrificed in order to gain wisdom. The left half of the face was sanded a little brighter afterwards. Small thrones have also been found at other archaeological excavations, including one at Haithabu . However, one person is missing from these. The find at Gammel Lejre is the oldest known representation of Odin and his magical throne Hlidskialf.

interpretation

Metaphysical

The three characters Hárr ( high ), Jafnhárr ( equal high ) and Þriði ( third ) in Snorri's prose Edda , whose roles in the nominal narrative are purely didactic , could be Odin, Vili and Vé , but it is just as likely that they are below three different forms are Odin, as all three names are applied to Odin elsewhere in Old Norse poetry, and he presented himself as Odin, Vili and Vé at the first revelation to the people. This would indicate the Trinity of Odin.

According to the Swiss founder of psychoanalysis Carl Gustav Jung, the first form of Odin or Wotan is the archetype of the “restless wanderer.” This wanderer still exists as a person, and therefore every person can be Odin in his first, physical form. We exist as humans most obviously and coarsely on the physical plane.

The second form of Odin is the spirit . The same level is disembodied, which here indicates the life force , the inspiration behind art and poetry. Odin's names are often translated as "anger", "spirit", " ecstasy ". Ecstasy is translated from Greek as "standing outside of oneself". As such, we begin to realize that our consciousness makes us more than just a biological machine, more than just ultra-sophisticated apes. The Equal Level expresses its nature both through inspired frenzy (combat, artistic creation) and through the integrating experience of true meditation. The word “ equal” in “ equal high” indicates that these two levels are equal. The equal spiritual level inspires the physical vessel of man to go beyond his basic needs .

The third level of Odin is the highest, the supreme, the king of the gods. Here we find the transcendental level, the source and cause of all life. There is nothing into which it splits further, it cannot be further reduced. In this plane we find the polarities of life drawn up, which meet in the transcendental, absorb in it and at the same time are created by it. Total being and total emptiness, ( Sanskrit bodhi ). The metaphorical idea of ​​the god Odin with three different states of being - high, equal high and third - suggests a triangle. That threefold form reflects, among other things, the Christian Trinity . Triune gods are also abundant in the ancient Celtic traditions.

origin

As the earliest evidence of the Germanic concept of God, rock paintings in Scandinavia were interpreted, which show larger-than-life figures in phallic poses and armed with a spear. However, these interpretations are controversial and are based on the late pagan-Scandinavian written and pictorial representations of Odin as a deity attributed with a spear alongside Thor with his hammer and Tyr as god of the sword.

Tacitus names in the ninth chapter of his ethnographic treatise, the commonly abbreviated Germania , the outline of the religious conditions of the Germanic peoples. In the opening he literally quotes Caesar after his Gallic War . Tacitus cites Mercurius as the highest revered deity in the Roman interpretation . From the further naming of the two other main deities Hercules and Mars for Donar / Thor and Tiwas / Tyr , Wodan / Odin is deduced for Mercurius . The introduction of Tacitus, however, is probably not completely congruent with the assumed actual circumstances. The problematic identification of Hercules with Donar / Thor also shows that a differentiated evaluation is imperative.

In the first centuries after Christianity Wodan was honored in the Germania inferior by consecration stones , which were usually donated by Germanic tribes who were in Roman military or state services. The stones bear inscriptions that pair the name of Mercurius with Germanic terms, be it references to localities, to individual tribes or name forms with other references. Exemplary inscriptions are Mercurius Cimbrianus "Wodan of the Cimbri" and Mercurius Leudisius "Wodan of Liège". In particular, the new find of the consecration stone of Mercurius Hranno is associated with the medieval literary evidence of a name of Odin .

The interpretations of the rock art, along with other aspects of research, led to an unresolved issue. On the one hand there is the thesis, based on Georges Dumézil and others, that Wodan / Odin is an all-Germanic god figure from the Indo-European era. On the other hand, there is the thesis of the gradual migration of the Wodan cult, which developed in the Lower Rhine-Northwest German area and the Netherlands before the turn of the century and spread from there, displacing the old high and sky god Tiwaz from his position. This process must then be seen in the context of the conflict with the Roman Empire and the change in internal Germanic conditions. For example, in the Netherlands, the former main settlement area of ​​the Franks dominant in the early Middle Ages , there are certain places that go back to the name of Odin ( Woensel , Woensdrecht and Woensberg ) and striking old Germanic features of the Odinsult can be recognized in the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition . Written documents in the continental Germanic area are sparse, the main evidence here are later sources, some of which were written after Christianization ( Edda ), which reflect the memories of the pagan pre-Christian times and their religious rites and mythologies, which are deeply rooted in customs. In addition, the Icelandic-Eddic writings of the High Middle Ages show the influence of Christianization and both Christian and Greco-Roman ideas, especially in the depiction of Odin. On the basis of the disparate source situation for Odin / Wodan, Otto Höfler determined that this cannot be summarized into a unified anthropomorphic, human-shaped character image , but a unified cult type can be identified over the epoch of Germanic paganism . This manifests itself, as briefly outlined in the etymological interpretation, as follows:

  • the relationship to ecstasy
  • the relation to the dead or the cult of the dead
  • the ability to change
  • warlike, vegetative and demonic traits

Wodan in the West Germanic tradition

Wodan is the best attested god among the Germanic tribes and peoples of the migration period. The generally poor primary source situation must be taken into account when making this statement:

  • Southern Germany, Austria and Northern Italy:
  • Central Germany and the Czech Republic:
    • In the second Merseburg spell , Wodan appears as a skilled magician who healed Balder's injured horse .
    • The legendary mountain spirit Altvater in the Altvatergebirge bears clear traits of Wodan.
  • Northern Germany and England:

Odin in Norse Mythology

Odin as a wanderer as described in the Icelandic texts, illustration from a Swedish edition of the Edda from 1886

Odin is one of the most complex characters in Norse mythology. The numerous epithets that characterize him are characteristic of the Norse-Icelandic mythological writings (cf. list of Odin's epithets ).

Summary from the Song and Prose Edda

The cow Audhumbla licked the giant Bure from the salt-frosted stones ; he had a son, Börr , who married the giant daughter Bestla and fathered Odin, Vili and Vé with her . The latter two are largely lost in the sir history , are seldom mentioned and primarily restricted to a substitute function for their brother; But Odin rules powerfully, creatively, through all time, up to the world fire - the fate of the gods Ragnarök . The first act of the three united brothers was that they went out against the giant Ymir , killed him and made the world out of his corpse. The world was inundated with Ymir's blood, and only one couple saved themselves, the giant Bergelmir and his wife. After the earth was formed, it consisted of two parts: one made of fire only ( Muspellsheim ) and the other made of ice only ( Niflheim ); in between was the ravine, Ymir's grave. Odin populated the earth by creating a human couple , Ask and Embla . But the giant race also reproduced, and so the conflict between good and evil was settled from the beginning, in which Odin himself perishes, since he is only a finite god.

Odin with the ravens Hugin and Munin , sword and lance (?), Illustration by Ólafur Brynjúlfsson

Odin is very wise. He owes his knowledge to two ravens, Hugin and Munin , who sit on his shoulders and tell him everything that happens in the world, which is why he is also called the raven god; furthermore he draws his knowledge from a drink from Mimir's well, for which he lost an eye; hence he is also called the one-eyed one. He knew how to get the delicious Skaldenmet through his cunning and masculine beauty from Gunnlöd , is therefore also the king of poets and is nicknamed Liodasmieder (songwriter, verse maker ).

Odin's wives and lovers are: Jörd (mother of Thor ), Rind (mother of Wali ), the Aesque queen Frigg (mother of Balder ), Grid (mother of Vidar ), nine pure giant maidens of infinite beauty, all nine sleeping on the beach, at the same time became mothers of Heimdall ; Skadi , formerly Njörds wife (of O. mother of the Säming and many other sons), Gritha (mother of Skiold ); Furthermore, the giant daughter Gunnlöd pleased him with her favor . There are no sources about the mothers of Odin's sons Hödur , Bragi and Hermodr . Whether they are sons of Frigg or other mothers remains a mere guess. The traditions give both Odin and Hymir as Tyr's father .

Odin lives in Asgard , where he has two palaces: Walaskialf and Gladsheim with Valhalla . From the first he can see the whole world; the second is intended for the meetings of the council of gods; in this is the hall in which all the heroes of the earth gather around him to fight with him against the forces that bring about the end of the world. These heroes are called Einherjer , are invited by the Valkyries with a kiss to the feast of Odin on the battlefield (Walstatt) and await the fate of the gods ( Ragnarök ) with constant feasts and battles .

Even a friend of carousing and battles, Odin always allows himself to be served with golden trophies by two Valkyries, Rista and Mista , and fights with the Einherjern on his eight-footed horse with a spear Gungnir that never misses the target ; but neither his heroes nor his weapons help him: the end of the world brings death to him too. Yggdrasil , the world ash, is a symbol of immortality. Through Odin's self-sacrifice, Yggdrasil becomes a sacrificial tree, since Odin hangs himself from the tree in order to gain the secret knowledge of the roots of Yggdrasil.

Odin's self-sacrifice

Odin persistently searches for wisdom. He gives an eye as a pledge against a drink from Mimir's well in order to get visionary powers. He steals Odrörir from the giantess Gunnlöd and brings him to the gods in the form of an eagle. According to tradition, Odin envied the Norns for their ability to write runes. Since the runes only reveal themselves to the "worthy", Odin hangs himself on the world tree Yggdrasil with his own spear . He hangs there for nine days and nights ("Wounded by the spear, consecrated to Odin, myself myself, on the branch of the tree, from which one cannot see from which root it sprouted"; from Odin's rune song 138), until the Runes appear. (Odin's rune song in the Hávamál of the Edda of Songs ).

Magical artifacts and companions

Odin on a throne, his spear in hands, flanked by the ravens Hugin and Munin and the wolves Geri and Freki , woodcut by Johannes Gehrts from Valhalla. Germanic sagas of gods and heroes. For old and young at the German stove, told (1883) by Felix and Therese Dahn

Odin rides every morning on his eight-legged steed Sleipnir and with his two faithful ravens Hugin and Munin ("thought" and "memory") across the morning sky and explores the world. His wolves Geri and Freki ("greedy" and "voracious") help him with the hunt. He owns the golden dwarf ring Draupnir and the spear Gungnir , with which he brought the first war into the world when he threw him into the army of the Vanes . He also has the severed head of the giant Mimir , who can predict the future. From his throne Hlidskialf (he is in Valaskjalf ; see also: Sökkvabekk or Gladsheim ) Odin can see everything that happens in the world. Odin wears a wishing coat that brings him to the places where he wants to be and with which he can make himself invisible.

regional customs

In popular belief, the notion that Wodan moves through the sky with the army of the deceased during the autumn storms in the wild hunt (Danish Odins hunt , Swedish Odensjakt , Old Norse also Asgardareid ) has been preserved until modern times . In addition to Odin, Frigg should also participate in the wild hunt. Wodan as the lord of the dead and storms (here especially the autumn storms) played a special role in the pagan autumn festivals. In the old Saxon settlement and language area , the custom of offering thanksgiving sacrifices to the old god at the harvest is still in place today (for example in East Westphalia) . This can be an unmowed corner of the field that is left standing in order to ask for a blessing for the next year by restoring part of the harvest, or as the custom until the 16th century, "Woden" in honor of beer Pour libations and perform dances.

Jacob Grimm showed that especially harvest sayings and blessings connected with them referred to Wodan in this sense. Above all in the former Saxon areas, today's Lower Saxony and Westphalia, but also in the Saxon settlement areas in England, where the vodan cult was deeply rooted in the tribal legends and has an impact on traditional customs up to the present day. Grimm led z. B. from the Mecklenburg and especially from the schaumburg-Lippe countries the following harvest sayings in the respective Low German dialects:

Mecklenburg :

" Wode, Wode,
hal dinen rosse nu voder,
nu thistle and thorn,
ächter jar beter korn!"

" Wode, Wode,
now fetch your horse food,
now thistle and thorn,
next year better grain!"

Schaumburg :

“ Wold, Wold, Wold!
hävenhüne far wat schüt,
jümm hei dal van häven süt.
vulle kruken un sang hot,
upen brought a variety of things: he
is nig barn un worth nig old.
Wold, Wold, Wold! "

“ Wold, Wold, Wold!
Heaven knows what is happening, he always looks down from heaven, He has full jugs and sheaves, many things grow in the forest: He is not born and does not grow old. Wold, wold, wold! "




Clergymen who took part in such rites up until the 19th century received grain offerings from the farmers to protect the crops. There were also similar rites at slaughter. For example, the uterus and vagina of a slaughtered sow were thrown into the branches of a tree as a sacrifice of thanks, "the Wood", so that crows and ravens, Wodan's constant companions, could enjoy it.

At a synod in 813, the Frankish king Ludwig the Pious , son of Charlemagne, put Michael’s Day in the week of the festival for Wodan. The numerous Michaelskapellen in Northern Germany point to presumed previous Wodan shrines or other cult sites. In addition, finds of consecration stones indicate the relationship between Wodan and St. Michael. For example , consecration stones were found on the “Michelsberg”, which is a foothill of the Heiligenberg near Heidelberg , which bear the inscription “Mercurius Cimbrianus” or “Mercurius Cimbrius” and thus point to old vodan cult sites that have been converted for Christian purposes. As a rule, the construction of chapels on site also expressed the Christian claim. During the same period, Christian missionaries began to demonize, as can be seen, for example, in the wording of the Saxon baptismal vow . In the case of Wodan, this was obvious insofar as the shamanic basic trait of God was still present in the religious practice of the early Germans. In addition, Wodan, who was powerless from a Christian perspective , was contrasted with the military leader Christ or the heroic Archangel Michael who defeated the dragon.

See also

literature

Literature / cultural studies

  • Hanns Bächtold-Stäubli : Concise dictionary of German superstition . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Leipzig (1929–1942; 2000 ISBN 3-11-016860-X ).
  • Arthur Cotterell: The Encyclopedia of Mythology . Edition XXL, 1999, ISBN 3-89736-300-3 .
  • Jan de Vries: The spiritual world of the Teutons . WBG, Darmstadt 1964.
  • Anatoly Liberman : A Short History of the God Óðinn. NOWELE 62/63 (2011), pp. 351-430.
  • Rudolf Much : The Germania of Tacitus. 3rd revised and expanded edition, Wolfgang Lange (Ed.) With the collaboration of Herbert Jankuhn . Carl Winter University Press, Heidelberg 1967.
  • Hellmut Rosenfeldt: Culture of the Teutons; Vodan cult. In: Wolf-D. Barloewen (ed.): Outline of the history of ancient marginal cultures. Oldenbourg, Munich 1961.
  • Hermann Schneider (ed.): Edda, Skalden, Saga. Festschrift for Felix Genzmer . Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1952.

Religious studies

  • Jan de Vries : Old Germanic history of religion . 2 volumes. 3rd unchanged edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1970.
  • Karl Helm : Old Germanic history of religion . 2 volumes (1913–1953). Carl Winter, Heidelberg.
  • Karl Helm: Wodan - spread and migration of his cult . W. Schmitz Verlag, Giessen 1946.
  • Anders Hultgård: Wotan – Odin . In: Heinrich Beck, Dieter Geuenich, Heiko Steuer (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . tape 35 . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin - New York 1992, ISBN 3-11-018784-1 , pp. 759-785 .
  • John Lindow: Norse Mythology. A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-19-515382-0 .
  • Ernst Alfred Philippson: Germanic paganism among the Anglo-Saxons (=  Cologne Anglistic works . Volume 4 ). Publishing house Bernh. Tauchnitz, Leipzig 1929.
  • Jens Peter Schjødt : Mercury - Wotan - Óðinn: One or Many? In: Karl Wikström af Edholm (Ed. Et al.): Myth, Materiality, and Lived Religion: In Merovingian and Viking Scandinavia. Stockholm, Stockholm University Press 2019, ISBN 978-91-7635-099-7 , pp. 59 - 86. ( available online )
  • Rudolf Simek : Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .
  • Rudolf Simek: Religion and Mythology of the Teutons . WBG, Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-534-16910-7 .
  • Åke Viktor Ström, Haralds Biezais : Germanic and Baltic religion . W. Kohlhammer Verlag, Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-17-001157-X .

Linguistics

  • Jan de Vries: Old Norse Etymological Dictionary . Brill, Leiden 1962 (from 1997 ISBN 90-04-05436-7 ).
  • Friedrich Kluge , Elmar Seebold: Etymological dictionary of the German language . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-017473-1 .
  • Wolfgang Meid : The suffix -NO- in god names. In: Contributions to name research . 8 (1957), pp. 72-108, 113-126.
  • Wolfgang Meid: Aspects of the Germanic and Celtic religion in the testimony of language . Innsbruck 1991.
  • Stefan Schaffner: The god names of the second Merseburg magic spell. In: Heiner Eichner, Robert Nedoma (ed.): "Insprinc haptbandun". Lectures of the colloquium on the Merseburg magic spells at the XI. Symposium of the Indo-Germanic Society in Halle / Saale (September 17-23, 2000) Part 1. In: The Language - Journal for Linguistics. 41, volume 2 (1999; published 2002), Wiener Sprachgesellschaft. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 1999. ISSN  0376-401X
  • Stefan Zimmer : Wotan's roots. In: Hermann Reichert, Corinna Scheungraber (Hrsg.): Germanic antiquity: sources, methods, results. Files from the symposium on the occasion of the 150th birthday of Rudolf Much Vienna, 28. – 30. September 2012. (= Philologica Germanica 35). Fassbaender, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902575-63-0 , pp. 371–388.

Web links

Commons : Odin  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Odin  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Or Woden . The source for the form Uuoden is the Saxon baptismal vow . The spelling of Old Saxon fluctuates between the East Franconian sound of Old High German and Anglo-Saxon influence. The latter owes the letters Uu for W .
  2. ↑ WJJ Pijnenburg (1980), bijdrage tot de etymology van het Nederlands oudste, Eindhoven, hoofdstuk 7 'Dinsdag - Woensdag'
  3. ↑ See Paulus Diaconus , Historia Langobardorum , 8–9. In: Ludwig Bethmann, Georg Waitz (eds.): Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX. Hanover 1878, pp. 52-53 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized ).
  4. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Norse Etymological Dictionary. P. 416.
  5. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X , p. 310, 311 ff.
  6. ^ A. Hultgård: Wotan-Odin. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Vol. 35. Berlin 2007, pp. 759 f.
  7. ^ Entry "Wut", in: Friedrich Kluge and Elmar Seebold: Etymological dictionary of the German language . De Gruyter, Berlin and Boston 2012.
  8. ^ Entry "Wut" , in: Wolfgang Pfeifer et al .: Etymological Dictionary of German (1993). Digitized version in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language, revised by Wolfgang Pfeifer, accessed on May 4, 2018.
  9. ↑ Entry * weh₂t- in the English Wiktionary.
  10. ↑ Karl Hauck: illuminated Altuppsalas polytheism example. In: Heiko Uecker (Ed.): Studies on Old Germanic. Supplementary volume to the Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde 11. de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1994, p. 224.
  11. ↑ Erika Timm: Frau Holle, Frau Percht and related figures. 160 years after Jacob Grimm from a German point of view. Hirzel, Stuttgart 2003, p. 71.
  12. ↑ W. sign: State Twilight: Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (= Legal History , Small series 15). Berliner Wiss.-Verlag, Berlin 2007. p. 13 ( Google books ).
  13. ^ Edward R. Haymes: Wagner's Ring In 1848: New Translations of the Nibelung Myth and Siegfried's Death. Camden House, Rochester NY 2010, p. 26. ( Vocabulary Lexicon of the University of Leipzig ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. ), query Wotan (frequency class 15) and Wodan (frequency class 20) on May 3, 2012. - See the historical development in the Google Ngram viewer . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wortschatz.uni-leipzig.de
  14. ↑ Tom Christensen: Odin fra Lejre. In: ROMU, museets årskrift. 2009, p. 15.
  15. ↑ Tom Christensen: Odin fra Lejre. ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) In: ROMU, museets årskrift , 2009, pp. 7–25 (Danish), cf. also the English page Odin fra Lejre  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Roskilde Museum; Retrieved April 15, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.roskildemuseum.dk@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.roskildemuseum.dk  
  16. ^ Weber, Gerd Wolfgang: Edda, Jüngere . In: Johannes Hoops (ed.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde / Donar-pórr - dugout . 2nd Edition. tape 6 . De Gruyter, Berlin 1986, ISBN 978-3-11-010468-4 , pp. 394-412 .
  17. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic mythology . In: Kröner's pocket edition . tape 368 . Kröner, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-520-36801-3 , pp. 295 .
  18. ↑ Martin Ninck: Wodan and Germanic belief in fate. E. Diederichs, Jena 1934, OCLC 923572321 , p. 142 ( archive.org - His horse is also described as being three-legged.).
  19. ↑ CG Jung: Wotan. In: Collected Works, Volume 10 , § 374.
  20. ↑ Franz Förschner: The metaphysics and the transcendental reduction. In: Philosophical writings . tape 87 . Duncker & Humblot, 2015, ISBN 978-3-428-14505-8 , pp. 9 .
  21. ^ Rachel Bromwich: the Welsh Triads . Ed .: [ed. and tr.], Trioedd Ynys Prydein. 1st edition. University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1961 ( vanhamel.nl ).
  22. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion. Vol. 2, § 373.
  23. ^ Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology (= Kröner's pocket edition. Volume 368). 3rd, completely revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-520-36803-X .
  24. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion. Vol. 2, § 363 f .; Karl Helm: Old Germanic history of religion. Vol. 1, pp. 209-211.
  25. ↑ Kurt Schier: Scandinavian rock paintings as a source for the Germanic religious history. In: Germanic Religious History. In: H. Beck, D. Ellmers, K. Schier (Ed.): Supplementary volume No. 5 of the Reallexikons der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Berlin - New York 1992, p. 198 f. With regard to the interpretations of Jan de Vries et al. a.
  26. ↑ Among other things, these aspects are the sacrifice of the Semnones to a regnator omnium deus (the all- ruling god), described by Tacitus (chap. 39) , who is interpreted either as Wodan or Teiwaz / Tiuz ( e.g. R. Much in Die Germania des Tacitus . Pp. 437-438). In addition, the missing place name references (theophorisms) to Odin in Scandinavia, which are completely missing in Norway and Iceland, are interpreted differently by the scientific authors mentioned in the article.
  27. ↑ So also Gustav Neckel, Jan de Vries , Åke V. Ström u. a.
  28. ↑ Jan de Vries: Old Germanic history of religion. Vol. 2, p. 374 f.
  29. ↑ So among others Franz Rolf Schröder , Rudolf Much , Karl Helm especially in his writing Wodan ... (see list of literature).
  30. ↑ Otto Höfler: The Sacrifice in the Semnonenhain and the Edda. In: Festschrift for F. Genzmer. (Ed. H. Schneider), Heidelberg 1952, p. 64 f .; Herder Lexicon: Germanic and Celtic mythology. Herder Verlag, Freiburg 1997, ISBN 3-451-04250-9 , p. 186, keyword “Wodan”, supports the migration hypothesis.
  31. ↑ René LM Derolez: [?] , P. 136: through migrations the old spatial structure of the Germanic tribes is abolished and individual dialects emerged from the common Germanic language.
  32. ↑ N. van der Sijs (2002, tweede druk), chronologically woordenboek: De ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen , blz. 137, Veen, Amsterdam / Antwerp, ISBN 90-204-2045-3
  33. ↑ AP Van Gilst: Sinterklaas en het Sinterklaasfeest: Geschiedenis en folklore. Veenendaal, 1969, p. 18.
  34. ↑ Wolfgang Golther: Handbook of Germanic Mythology. Leipzig 1895, new edition Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2004, p. 67: “... in the Odin poetry one arrives first at the direct source, the German Wodans belief, which however is not unchanged, but on the contrary is richly embellished with independent additions of the Nordic skalds appears. "
  35. ↑ The primary mythical motif was mixed up with the secondary myth complex ( Lieder-Edda and Prosa-Edda ). The more the mythological element develops, the weaker the underlying religious density or the reliability of conclusions about the actual religion. Karl Helm: Old Germanic history of religion. Volume 1, pp. 27, 28 ff .; Walter Baetke : Type and belief of the Germanic peoples. Hamburg 1934, p. 18.
  36. ↑ Wolfgang Golther: Handbook of Germanic Mythology. Leipzig 1895, new edition Marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2004, p. 68 f .: “The question really never really revolves around whether Nordic mythology took up foreign elements at all, but only how many and in what way [ from the point of view of recent research if these statements are no longer made in their absoluteness as by Golther ]. The Baldrs saga, Odin on the gallows, the world tree, these myths are explained by Bugge arose under the influence of ancient and Christian ideas that the Nordic Vikings got to know in England and Ireland. ”As before on p. 68:“ The similarity between ancient and Christian legends had long been and ideas with individual features of Nordic mythology have been recognized [...]. "
  37. ^ Otto Höfler: Review of Jan de Vries' Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. In: Otto Höfler: Smaller writings. Edited by Helmut Birkhan . Helmut Buske Verlag, Hamburg 1992, ISBN 3-87548-015-5 , p. 332 f.
  38. ↑ Ivan Stupek: Josef LowAg (1849-1911), 100 years ago a popular Silesia. In: Würzburg medical history reports. 23, 2004, pp. 499-504; here: p. 500.
  39. ↑ a b Rudolf Simek: Lexicon of Germanic Mythology. (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 368), 3rd edition. Stuttgart 2006
    Arnulf Krause: Reclam's lexicon of Germanic mythology and heroic saga. Stuttgart 2010
  40. ^ Wilhelm Vollmer: Dictionary of the mythology of all peoples. 1874, new edition Reprint-Verlag-Leipzig, Holzminden 2002, ISBN 3-8262-2200-8 : Summary of contents on the keyword "Odin".
  41. ^ German mythology by Jacob Grimm. Fourth edition by Elard Hugo Meyer. 1. Volume, Berlin 1875, p. 129 ( digitized from Google Books ). Grimm's sources: “Dav. Franck (Meklenb. 1, 56. 57) ”and“ von Münchhausen in Bragur VI. I, 21-34 ". The translation suggestions are not from Grimm.
  42. ↑ Arno Borst: Life forms in the Middle Ages. Ullstein, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-548-26513-8 , p. 388.
  43. ↑ Reinhard Dzingel: The Wodan Oak in Daerstorf - A pagan sacrificial custom in the middle of the 20th century. (PDF; 294 kB) Moisburg 2013
  44. ↑ Michael, St. Michael. In: Concise dictionary of German superstition. Vol. 6.
  45. ^ Karl Helm : Old Germanic history of religion. Vol. 2, part 2, pp. 124, 150.
  46. ↑ So the representation of Jesus Christ in Heliand in conscious connection to the Saxon-Germanic worldview including the format of the staff rhyming heroic epic. (Jan de Vries: Heldenlied and heroic saga. Francke Verlag, Bern / Munich 1961, pp. 254–256, 341, 342.)