TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

144 WODAN.
from Troj. 3154. 7569. 19620. 19726 (Straszb. MS.), both the metre
and the strong gen. in -es forbidding. But the whole idea may in
the earliest times have taken far stronger root in South Germany
than in Scandinavia, since the Edda tells next to nothing of Oski,
while our poetry as late as the 1 5th century has so much to say of
Wunsch. That it was not foreign to the North either, is plainly
proved by the Oskmeyjar = Wunschdfrauen, wish-women; by the
Oskasteinn, a philosopher s stone connected with our WunscJielrute,
wishing-rod, and Mercury s staff; by Oskabyrr, MHG. Wunschwint,
fair wind ; by Oskabiom, wish-bear, a sea-monster ; all of which
will be discussed more fully by and by. A fern, proper name Osk
occurs in a few places ; what if the unaccountable Oskopnir, Sa3m.
188 a , were really to be explained as Osk-opnir ? Opnir, Ofnir, we
know, are epithets of OSinn. Both word and meaning seem to grow
in relevancy to our mythology ,
it is a stumbling-block indeed, that
the AS. remains furnish no contribution, even the simple wu.sc
(optio, votum) seeming to be rare, and only wyscan (optare) in
common use ; yet among the mythic heroes of Deira we meet with
a Wfocfred, lord of Wish as it were ; and to the Anglo-Saxons too
this being may have merely become extinct, though previously well
known (see Suppl.).
But to make up for it, their oldest poetry is still dimly conscious
of another name of Wuotan, which again the Edda only mentions
cursorily, though in Ssem. 46 b it speaks of Oski and Omi in a
breath, and in 91 b uses Omi once more for 0(5inn. Now this Omi
stands related to omr, sonus, fragor, as the AS. woma to worn,
clamor, sonitus ;
I have quoted instances in Andr. and El. pp. xxx,
xxxi, to which may now be added from the Cod. exon. : heofonwoma
52, 18. 62, 10; daegredw&ma 179, 24; hildewoma 250, 32. 282, 15;
wiges woma 277, 5 ; wintres woma 292, 22 : in this last, the mean
ing of hiemis impetus, fragor, furor, is self-evident, and we see
ourselves led -up to the thought which antiquity connected with
Wuotan himself : out of this living god were evolved the abstrac
tions wuot (furor), wunsch (ideal), woma (impetus, fragor). The
gracious and grace- bestowing god
was at other times called the
stormful, the terror-striking, who sends a thrill through nature;
even so the ON. has both an Yggr standing for OSinn, and an yggr
for terror. The AS. woma is no longer found as Woma ; in OHG.
wuomo and Wuomo are alike unknown. Thorpe renders the