TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

CHAPTEE VII.
WUOTAN, WODAN (ODINN).
THE highest, the supreme divinity, universally honoured, as we
have a right to assume, among all Teutonic races, would in the
Gothic dialect have been called Vddans ; he was called in OHG.
Wuotan, a word which also appears, though rarely, as the name of a
man : Wuotan, Trad. Fuld. 1, 149. 2, 101-5-8. 128. 158. 161. Woatan
2, 146, 152. The Longobards spelt it Wddan or Guddan, the Old
Saxons Wuodan, Wodan, but in Westphalia again with the g prefixed,
Guddan, Gudan, the Anglo-Saxons Woden, the Frisians Weda from
the propensity of their dialect to drop a final n, and to modify 6
even when not followed by an i. 1 The Norse form is O&inn, in
Saxo Othinus, in the Faroe isles Ouvin, gen. Ouvans, ace. Ouvan.
Up in the Grisons country and from this we may infer the extent
to which the name was diffused in Upper Germany the Romance
dialect has caught the term Vut from Alamanns or Burgundians of
a very early time, and retained it to this day in the sense of idol,
false god, 1 Cor. 8, 4. 2
(see Suppl.).
It can scarcely be doubted that the word is immediately derived
from the verb OHG. watan wuot, ON", va&a, 6&, signifying meare,
transmeare, cum impetu ferri, but not identical with Lat. vadere, as
the latter has the a long, and is more likely connected with OS.
gavitan, AS. gewitan. From watan comes the subst. wuot (our
wuth, fury), as /ue i/o? and animus properly mean mens, ingenium,
and then also impetuosity, wildness ; the ON.- 58r has kept to the
1 A Frisian god Warns has simply been invented from the gen. in the
compound Warnsclei, Wernsdei (Richth. p. 1142), where Werns plainly
stands for ; Wedens, Wodens, an r being put for d to avoid collision with
the
succeeding sd it will ; be hard to find anywhere a nom. Wern. And the
present West Frisians say Wansdey, the North Frisians Winsdei, without
such r.
2
Conradis worterb. 263. CHristmann, pp. 3032.