Óðinn has been scandalized and deified in equal measure by medieval churchmen, demonizing pre-Christian beliefs, and more recently by the romantic idealists and nationalists of the 20th Century, who glamorized them, to the extent that the genuine historical persona of this popular figure is saturated in complex, confusing mythology. Poetic kennings and riddles tease out our deductive processes, pushing beyond rational, logistic exploration to evoke our apprehension of the Other.

Yet the key to Óðinn’s real identity resides in the culture of the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples whose principle values, morals and ethics that maintained the health, welfare and well-being of the community, were in the gift of divinized spirits, ancestral and of the land or hearth. Óðinn, was never thus a ‘god’ of the people; conversely, he represented only the well-being of the lid or fyrd, a primary function for warriors as an elite cult. How that cult emerged, and from what sources and influences, is the quest this book seeks to fulfil.

Because those ideas and beliefs of the past were and are frequently altered to suit the needs of the present in which they are recorded and implemented, we must opt for genuine context rather than hyperbole. Spanning the Romanised Cults of  Mercury and the Matrones and Slavic animisms, my research pushes past conventional boundaries into the totemic practises of Eurasian peoples while remaining faithfully aligned to stringent archaeological and anthropological discoveries.

These pages are nonetheless composed with passion, drama, heroism, romance and pathos.

We have so much to learn from distant, hidden voices whose words convey the values that relate to a different time, and of thoughts sculpted from the minds and skills of artisans and craftsmen whose incredible artifacts have much to teach us about tradition, ancestry, belief, sorcery and faith. Molded by politics and far-reaching world-turning events centered in trade and faith, Óðinn’s presence emerges from a surprising source that many will find challenging to the popular, but wholly false persona so familiar to us.

From Asia to east Anglia, the search for Óðinn is herewith concluded.

~Shani Oates, 2022.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction: Óðinn: Unmasking Accrued Errors of Cultic Assimilation

Foundation: The Elder Gods

• Nomadic Diaspora
• Remnants of the Bronze Age
• The Power of Place
• Iron Age Whispers
• From Hero to God – The Alci (Alce)
• An introduction to Migration and Ethnogenesis
• The Cults of Mercury, Mercurius, and Saint Mercurius
• The Batavians and the Hercules Imperative
• Mythic Giants
• A Hunnic Dynasty in Scandinavia

Artefacts: The Archaeology of Belief

• Art and Artifice
• Mythical Origin for the Rúnes
• Rúnic Literacy: An Elite Tool
• Of Bogs and War Booty
• Historical Rúnic Inscriptions
• Sortes and The Cult of the Mothers
• Apotropaia and Anasyrma
• The Virtue of Alu
• Rúne Magic
• Bracteates: A Prestige Heritage
• Horsemen of the Steppes
• The Mask of Óðinn?
• Early Nobility – Erilaz
• The Frøyhov Figure

The Rise of Kings:

• Elite Burial Traditions
• Rúnes and Royal Dynasties
• A King’s Stone – The Straum Whetstone
• Sutton Hoo
• Helm Plates and Terminals
• The Insignia of Kings
• Gothic Influence on Early Motifs: Fibulae and Buckles
• Raptors and Birds of Prey
• The Noble Hunt

The Age of Conversions:

• The Breza Column
• Avars, Arianism and the Langobardi
• Feasting Vessels and Sacred Cauldrons
• Temple, Shrine, or Early Church
• Post-conversion Rúnes
• Rædbed, Widukind and Boniface
• Charlemagne and Ragnarr Loðbrókr
• Málrúnar, Rúne-stones and Revenants
• Rest, The Vengeful Dead and the Law
• May Þórr Hallow (Bless)
• A Rúnic Legacy

Signa and Cult:

• The Ribe Skull Fragment
• Poetic Tradition: Wolf Warriors in the Afterlife
• Father of Might and Military Glory
• Duty and Reciprocity in the ‘Big Man’ Society
• The Dróttin (Drihten) Lord
• Óðinn Emerges
• Saints, Lords and Heroes
• The Nyd-Stang
• Of Elementals the Gods are Formed
• Óðhr
• Hliðskjálf – The High Seat of Óðinn

Conclusion: Pontic Steppe to Sutton Hoo – Óðinn

• Afterword
• Appendix: Óðinn Etymology
• Bibliography