TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY. - Centrostudirpinia.it

1C2 WODAN.
jolaveizlu fra Haraldi, cnn O&inn tok fra Halfdani, Fornm. sog.
10, 178. In the popular assembly at Thrandheim, the first
cup is drunk to Offinn, the second to Thdrr, ibid. 1, 35. In the
famous Bravalla fight, Othin under the name of Bruno acts as
charioteer to the Danish king Harald, and to the latter s destruction;
on the Swedish side there fight descendants of Frcyr, Saxo Gram.
144-7. Yet the Eddie HarbarzlioS seems to place OSinn above Thorr.
A contrast between OSinn and Thorr is brought out strongly in the
Gautrekssaga quoted below, ch. XXVIII. But, since Thorr is repre
sented as 0(5in s son, as a rejuvenescence of him, the two must
often resolve into one another. 1
If the three mightiest gods are named, I find Oolnn foremost :
O&inn, Thdr, Freyr, Sn. edda 131. According to Fornm. sog. 1, 16,
voyagers vow money and three casks of ale to Freyr, if a fair wind
shall carry them to Sweden, but to Thdrr or O&inn, if it bring them
home to Iceland (see Suppl.).
It is a different thing, when OSinn in ON. documents is styled
2
in that case he appears not by the side of Thorr
Thridi, the third ;
and Freyr, but by the side of Hdr and lafnhdr (the high and the
even-high or co-equal, OHG. epan hoh) as the Third High* (see
we might imagine,
Suppl.), Sn. 7. Yngl. saga 52. Seem. 46a As .
the grade varies : at other times he is Tveggi (duplex or secundus).
Again, in a different relation he appears with his brothers Vili and
Ve, Sn. 7; with Hcenir and LoSr, Seem. 3 b , or with Hoenir and Loki
Ssem. 180. Sn. 135; all this rests upon older myths, which, as
peculiar to the North, we leave on one side. Yet, with respect to
the trilogy Offinn, Vili, Ve, we must not omit to mention here,
that the OHG-. willo expresses not only voluntas, but votum,
impetus and spiritus, 4 and the Gothic viljan, velle, is closely con
nected with valjan, eligere; whence it is easy to conceive and
1 When OGinn is called Thundr in the songs of the Edda, Ssem. 28b 47 b ,
this may be derived from a lost bvnja = AS. Jmnian, tonare, and so be equivalent
to Donar ; it is true, they explain }mndr as loricatus, from Jnind lorica. But
Wuotan, as Voma, is the noise of the rushing air, and we saw him hurl the
cudgel, as Thorr does the hammer.
2 As Zeus also is rpiror, from which is TptroycVeia more easily explained
than by her birth from his head (see Suppl.).
3 JElfric s glosses 56 a , Altanus : Woden. Altanus, like Summanus, an
epithet of Jove, the Altissimus ; else Altanus, as the name of a wind, might
also have to do with the storm of the wiitende heer .
4 The Greek p.{ vos would be well adapted to unite the meanings of courage,
fury (mut, wut), wish, will, thought.