TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

154 WODAX.
Dommel in N. Brabant ; a remarkable passage on it in Gramaye s
Taxandria, p. 23, was pointed out to me by J. W. Wolf: Imo
amplius supersunt aperte Cymbricorum deorum pagis aliquot, ubi
forte culti erant, indita nomina, nominatim Mercurii in Woensel,
honoris in Eersel, Martis in Roysel. Uti enim Woen Mercurium
eis dictum alias docui, et eer honorem esse omnes sciunt, ita Eoy
Martem a colore sanguineo cognominatum ostendunt illi qui tertiam
hebdomadis feriam Koydach indigitant. In due time I shall
speak of Eersel and Roysel, which lie in the neighbourhood of
Woensel, and all of them in the N.. Brabant district of Oirschot.
This Woensel is like the OSinssalr, Othansale, Onsala named on
p. 158. Wunstorp, Wunsdorf, a convent and small town in Lower
Saxony, stands unmutilated as Wodenstorp in a doc. of 1179, Falke
tradit. corb, 770. Near Windbergen in the Ditmar country, an
open space in a wood bears the name of Wodcnslay, Wonslag. Near
Hadersleben in Schleswig are the- villages of Wonsbeke, Wonslei,
Woyens formerly Wodensyen. An AS. doc. of 862 (Kemble 2, 73)
contains in a boundary-settlement the name Wonstoc = Wodenesstoc,
Wodani stipes, and at the same time betrays the influence of the*
god on ancient delimitation. Wuotan, Hermes, Mercury,
all seem
to be divinities of measurement and demarcation ; conf. Woedens-
spanne, Woenslet, p. 160 (see SuppI).
As these names, denoting the waggon and the mountain of the
old god, have survived chiefly in Lower Germany, where heathenism
maintained itself longest ; a remarkable custom of the people in
Lower Saxony at harvest-time points the same way. It is usual, to
leave a clump of standing corn in afield to Woden for his hwse.
0<5inn in the Edda rides the eight-footed steed Skipnir, the best of
all horses, Seem. 46 a 93 b . Sn. 18. 45. 65. Sleipnis ver&r (food;
poetic name for hay, Yngl. saga cap. 21 : other sagas speak
is a
of a
tall white horse, by which the god of victory might be recognised in
battles (see Suppl.). Christianity has not entirely rooted out the
harmless practice for the Norse any
more than for the Saxon
peasant. In Schonen and Blekingen it continued for a long time
to be the custom for reapers to leave on the field a gift for Oden s
horses. 1 The usage in Mecklenburg is thus described by Gryse :
i
Geyers schwecl. gesch. 1, 110. orig. 1, 123. In the Hognimssoclcen,
Oeland, are some large stones named Odins flisor, Odini lamellae, of which the