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Wild Huntsman of Northern Europe 173
none more celebrated than St Ulrich, Bishop of Augsburgr
in the tenth century (923-973), and his contemporaries or
immediate successors, Gerhard, Gebehard, and Berns.
Odin may have been successful in his religious crusade,
and have taken a place at first amongst the inferior gods.
Adam of Bremen, as quoted by Grimm, Deutcke Mythologie,
is of opinion that this was the case, because in the temple
at Old Upsala in Sweden, the statue of Thor occupied
the place of honour between Odin and Frey the Sun-god
adding that after a time Odin came to be ranked amongst
the superior gods. In his capacity of superior god Odin
was the storm god, according to Kelly, in his Indo-European
Traditions and Folk-Lore. The name IVoden or IVuotan de-
notes the strong and furious goer :
Gothic,
Wods ;
—
Norwegian,
ddr, enraged. According to this view, the name may therefore
be closely allied to the Lowland Scotch word zviid, mad
or furious. A Jacobite song of 1745 says, "the women are
a' gane wild." There is also a Scotch proverb, " Dinna
put a knife into a zoiid man's hand." Odin, as the storm
god, may well be supposed to have ridden like one wtid:
he has been considered to be the Wild Huntsman of the
German legends. If so, the legend of the Erl King or
Wild Huntsman probably came from the same source as
Odin's Wild Hunt. He, and his wife Freyja, are fabled
to have had two sons, Baldr and Hermond. The tale runs
thus : Freyja had made all created things swear that they
would never hurt Baldr, " that whitest and most beloved of
the gods ;
" however there was one little shoot " that groweth
East of Valhalla, so small and delicate that she forgot to
take its oath." It was the mistletoe, and with a branch of