Northern Antiquities/Chapter 4

by Paul Henri Mallet

CHAPTER IV.

Of Odin, his arrival in the North, his conquests, and the changes which he made.

BEFORE I describe the state of ancient Scandinavia, I must stop one moment. A celebrated tradition, confirmed by the poems of all the northern nations, by their chronicles, by institutions and customs, some of which subsist to this day, informs us, that an extraordinary person named Odin, formerly reigned in the north: that he made great changes in the government, manners and religion of those countries; that he enjoyed there great authority, and had even divine honours paid him. All these are facts, which cannot be contested. As to what regards the original of this man, the country whence he came, the time in which he lived, and the other circumstances of his life and death, they are so uncertain, that the most profound researches, the most ingenious conjectures about them, discover nothing to us but our own ignorance. Thus previously disposed to doubt, let those ancient authors, I have mentioned, relate the story: all their teftimonies are comprized in that of Snorro, the ancient hiftorian of Norway, and in the commentaries and expli- cations which Torfæus hath added to his narrative^[1].

The Roman Common-wealth was arrived to the highest pitch of power, and saw, all the then known world subject to its laws, when an unforeseen event raised up enemies against it, from the very bosom of the forests of Scythia, and on the banks of the Tanais. Mithridates by flying, had drawn Pompey after him into those desarts. The king of Pontus fought there for refuge, and new means of vengeance. He hoped to arm against the ambition of Rome, all the barbarous nations his neighbours, whose liberty she threatened. He succeeded in this at first; but all those people, ill-united as allies, ill-armed as soldiers, and still worse disciplined, were forced to yield to the genius of Pompey. Odin is said to have been of this number. He was obliged to withdraw himself by flight from the vengeance of the Romans; and to go seek in countries unknown to his enemies, that safety which he could no longer find in his own. His true name was Sigge, fon of Fridulph; but he assumed that of Odin, who was the Supreme God among the Scythians: Whether he did this in order to pass among his followers for a man inspired by the Gods, or because he was chief-priest, and presided over the worship paid to that Deity. We know that it was usual with many nations to give their pontiffs the name of the God they worshipped. Sigge, full of his ambitious projects, we may be assured, took care to avail himself of a title so proper to procure him respect among the people he meant to subject.

Odin, for so we shall hereafter call him, commanded the Ases, a Scythian people, whose country must have been situated between the Pontus Euxinus, and the Caspian sea. Their principal city was Asgard^[2]. The worship there paid to their supreme God was famous throughout the circumjacent countries; and it was Odin that performed the functions of it in chief, assisted by twelve other Pontiffs (Diar or Drottar, a kind of Druids) who also distributed justice^[3]. Odin having united under his banners the youth of the neighbouring nations, marched towards the north and west of Europe, subduing, we are told, all the people he found in his passage; and giving them to one or other of his sons for subjects. Thus Suarlami was made king over a part of Russia: Baldeg over the western parts of Saxony or Westphalia: Segdeg had eastern Saxony, and Sigge had Franconia. Many sovereign families of the north, are said to be descended from these princes^[4]. Thus Horsa and Hengist, the chiefs of those Saxons, who conquered Britain in the fifth century, counted Odin or Woden^[5] in the number of their ancestors: it was the same with the other Anglo-Saxon princes; as well as the greatest part of those of Lower Germany and the north. But there is reason to suspect that all these genealogies, which have given birth to so many insipid panegyrics and frivolous researches, are founded upon a meer equivoque, or double meaning of the word Odin. This word signified, as we have seen above, the supreme God of the Scythians, we know also that it was customary with all the heroes of these nations to speak of themselves as sprung from their divinities, especially their God of War. The historians of those times, that is to say the poets, never failed to bestow the fame honour on all those whose praises they sung: and thus they multiplied the descendants of Odin, or the supreme God, as much as ever they found convenient.

After having disposed of so many countries, and confirmed and settled his new governments, Odin directed his course towards Scandinavia, passing through Cimbria, at present Holstein and Jutland. These provinces exhausted of inhabitants, made him no resistance; and shortly after he passed into Funen, which submitted as soon as ever he appeared. He is said to have staid a long time in this agreeable island, where he built the city of Odensee, which still preserves in its name the memory of its founder. Hence he extended his arms over all the north. He subdued the rest of Denmark, and made his son Skiold be received there as king; a title, which according to the Icelandic annals, no person had ever borne before, and which passed to his descendants, called after his name Skioldungians^[6]. Odin, who was apparently better pleased to give crowns to his children, than to wear them himself, afterwards passed into Sweden, where at that time reigned a prince named Gylfe, who persuaded that the author of a new worship consecrated by conquests so brilliant, could not be of the ordinary race of mortals, paid him great honours, and even worshiped him as a divinity. By favour of this opinion which the ignorance of that age led men easily to embrace, Odin quickly acquired in Sweden the same authority he had obtained in Denmark. The Swedes came in crowds to do him homage, and by common consent bestowed the regal title and office upon his son Yngvon and his posterity. Hence sprung the Ynlingians, a name by which the kings of Sweden were for a long time distinguished. Gylfe died or was forgotten. Odin governed with absolute dominion. He enacted new laws, introduced the customs of his own country; and established at Sigtuna (a city at present destroyed, situate in the same province with Stockholm) a supreme council or tribunal, composed of those twelve lords (drottar) mentioned above. Their business was to watch over the public weal, to distribute justice to the people, to preside over the new worship, which Odin brought with him into the north, and to preserve faithfully the religious and magical secrets which that prince deposited with them. He was quickly acknowledged as a sovereign and a God, by all the petty kings among whom Sweden was then divided; and he levied an impost or poll-tax upon every head through the whole country. He engaged on his part to defend the inhabitants against all their enemies, and to defray the expence of the worship rendered to the gods at Sigtuna.

These great acquisitions seem not however to have satisfied his ambition. The desire of extending farther his religion, his authority and his glory, caused him to undertake the conquest of Norway. His good fortune or address followed him thither, and this kingdom quickly obeyed a son of Odin named Saemungve, whom they have taken care to make head of a family, the different branches of which reigned for a long time in that country. If all the sons of Odin were to have been provided for in the same manner, all Europe would not have afforded them kingdoms; for according to some chronicles, he had twenty eight by his wife Frigga, and according to others thirty one, or thirty two.

After he had finished these glorious atchievements, Odin retired into Sweden; where perceiving his end to draw near, he would not wait till the consequences of a lingering disease should put a period to that life, which he had so often bravely hazarded in the field: but assembling the friends and companions of his fortune, he gave himself nine wounds in the form of a circle with the point of a lance, and many other cuts in his skin with his sword. As he was dying, he declared he was going back into Scythia to take his seat among the other Gods at an eternal banquet, where he would receive with great honours all who should expose themselves intrepidly in battle, and die bravely with their swords in their hands. As soon as he had breathed his last, they carried his body to Sigtuna, where conformably to a custom introduced by him into the north, his body was burnt with much pomp and magnificence.

Such was the end of this man, whose death was as extraordinary as his life. The loose sketches which we have here given of his character, might afford room for many curious conjectures, if they could be depended on as well founded. Among those which have been proposed, there is nevertheless one which deserves some attention. Several learned men have supposed that a desire of being revenged on the Romans was the ruling principle of his whole conduct. Driven from his country by those enemies of universal liberty; his resentment, say they, was so much the more violent, as the Scythians esteemed it a sacred duty to revenge all injuries, especially those offered to their relations and country. He had no other view, according to them, in running through so many distant kingdoms; and in establishing with so much zeal his sanguinary doctrines, but to spirit up all nations against so formidable and odious a power. This leven, which he left in the bosoms of the northern people, fermented a long time in secret; but the signal, they add, once given, they all fell as it were by common consent upon this unhappy empire; and after many repeated shocks, intirely overturned it; thereby revenging the affront offered so many ages before to their founder.

I cannot prevail on myself to raise objections against so ingenious a supposition. It gives so much importance to the history of the North, it renders that of all Europe so interesting, and, if I may use the expression, so poetical, that I cannot but admit these advantages as so many proofs in its favour. It must after all be confessed, that we can discover nothing very certain concerning Odin, but only this that he was the founder of a new Religion, before unknown to the rude and artless inhabitants of Scandinavia. I will not answer for the truth of the account given of his original: I only suspect that at some period of time more or less early, either he, or his fathers, or the authors of his Religion, came from some country of Scythia, or from the borders of Persia. I may add, that the God, whose prophet or priest he pretended to be, was named Odin, and that the ignorance of succeeding ages confounded the Deity with his priest, composing out of the attributes of the one and the history of the other, a gross medley, in which we can at present distinguish nothing very certain. New proofs of this confusion will occur in all we shall hereafter produce on this subject; and it will behove the Reader never to lose sight of this observation. I shall now mention some farther particulars recorded of Odin by the Icelandic writers; which will not only confirm what I have been saying, but give us some insight into his character.

One of the artifices, which he employed with the greatest success, in order to conciliate the respect of the people, was to consult in all difficult emergencies the head of one Mimer, who in his life time had been in great reputation for his wisdom. This man’s head having been cut off, Odin caused it to embalmed, and had the address to persuade the Scandinavians, that by his enchantments he had restored to it the use of speech. He carried it every where about with him, and made it pronounce whatever oracles he wanted. This artifice reminds us of the Pigeon^[7] which brought to Mahomet the commands of heaven, and proves pretty plainly, that neither of these impostors had to do with a very subtle and discerning people. We find another feature of great resemblance in their characters, and that is the eloquence, with which both of them are said to have been gifted. The Icelandic chronicles paint out Odin as the most persuasive of men. They tell us, that nothing could resist the force of his words, that he sometimes enlivened his harangues with verses, which he composed extempore, and that he was not only a great poet, but that it was he who first taught the art of poesy to the Scandinavians. He was also the inventor of the Runic characters, which so long prevailed among that people. But what most contributed to make him pass for a God, was his skill in magic. He persuaded his followers, that he could run over the world, in the twinkling of an eye, that he had the direction of the air and tempests, that he could transform himself into all sorts of shapes, could raise the dead, could foretel things to come, could by enchantments deprive his enemies of health and vigour, and discover all the treasures concealed in the earth. The same authors add, that he also knew how to sing airs so tender and melodious, that the very plains and mountains would open and expand with delight; and that the ghosts attracted by the sweetness of his songs, would leave their infernal caverns, and stand motionless about him.

But if his eloquence, together with his august and venerable deportment, procured him love and respect in a calm and peaceable assembly, he was no less dreadful and furious in battle. He inspired his enemies with such terror, that they thought they could not describe it better, than by saying he rendered them blind and deaf; that he changed himself into the shape of a bear, a wild-bull, or a lion; that he would appear like a wolf all desperate; and biting his very shield for rage, would throw himself amidst the opposing ranks, making round him the most horrible carnage, without receiving any wound himself.

Some later historians seem to be a good deal puzzled how to account for these prodigies. In my opinion, the only thing that ought to astonish us, would be the weak credulity of the people whom Odin was able so to impose upon, if so many examples ancient and modern had not taught us how far ignorance is able to degrade all the powers of the human mind. For why need we suppose this famous leader ever really employed the pretended science of magic, when we know in general that mankind hath been at all times and in all countries the dupes of the first impostor, who thought it worth his while to abuse them; that the people who then inhabited Scandinavia were in particular plunged in the thickest clouds of ignorance; that the historians who have transmitted to us the accounts of all these prodigies were Poets, figurative and hyperbolical in their language, fond of the marvellous by profession, and at that time disposed to believe it by habit. That the resemblance of names makes it very easy for us at this time to confound the descriptions given by ancient authors of their supreme Deity, with those which characterize this Asiatic Prince; and finally, that the latter bringing along with him arts before unknown in the North, a luxury and magnificence thought prodigious in that rude country, together with great subtilty, and perhaps other uncommon talents, might easily pass for a God, at a time when there were so few real men; and when the number of prodigies could not but be great, since they called by that name whatever filled them with surprize and wonder.

1. Vid. Snorro. Sturl. Chron. Norveg. in initio. —Torfæus Ser. Dynast. Chap. IV. ac Reg. Dan. c. 11. p. 104. & seq.
2. The teftimony of the Icelandic annalists is confirmed by that of several ancient authors, of whom it is not likely that they had any knowledge. Strabo places a city named Asburg in the very same country. L. 2. Pliny speaks of the Aseens, a people seated at the foot of mount Taurus. L. 6. c. 17. Ptolemy calls them Asiotes. Stephen of Bysantium intitles them Aspurgians [ Aspurgitani. ] Modern relations make mention also of a nation of Ases or Osses seated in the same country; and there is reason to believe, that the city of As-hof derived its name from the same source; this word signifies in the Gothic language, the same as Asgard, or Asburg. [Vid. Bayer. in Act. Academ. Petropol. Tom. 9. p. 387. & Dalin. S. R. Hist. T. 1. p. 101, & seqq.] But notwithstanding all this, it is still doutbtful whether Odin and his companions came so far. Snorro is probably the author of this conjecture founded on the similitude of names. The most eminent chronicles, the poets, and tradition it is likely, said only, that Odin came from the country of the Ases: Now As in the Scythian language signifies a Lord, a God, and this name was in use among many Celtic nations. See Sueton. Aug. c. 97. As-gard then signifies the court or abode of God, and the resemblance of this name may have deceived Snorro. The learned Eccard in his Treatise of the Origin of the Germans, thinks that Odin came from some neighbouring country of Germany, where we find many names of places which are compounded of the word As, and it is possible that he may have sojourned there a long time, and formed establishments; though he or his nation came originally from some country of Scythia.   [Thus far our author in his second Edition: in his first edit. he had observed that there was a striking resemblance between several customs of the Georgians, as described by Chardin, and those of certain Cantons of Norway and Sweden, which have best preserved the ancient manners. The learned Bishop Pontoppidan mentions several of these in his Nat. Hist. of Norway. Tom. 2. c. 10. §. 1, 2, 3. The Georgians (adds our author) possess at present one part of the country, which was inhabited by the Ases, whom Odin conducted into the north.]

3. Among the several nations to whom these men distributed justice, the Turks are often mentioned in the Icelandic chronicles. There was in effect, at the foot of mount Taurus, a Scythian people from the earliest times known by that name. Pomponius Mela mentions them expresly; [Lib. 1. cap. 19. towards the end.] Herodotus himself seems to have had them in his eye. [Lib. iv. p. 22.] One part of the Turks followed Odin into the north, where their name had long been forgotten by their own descendants, when other offshoots from the same root, over-spreading the opposite part of Europe, revived the name with new splendor, and gave it to one of the most powerful empires in the world. Such strange revolutions have mankind in general undergone, and especially such of them, as long led a wandering unsettled life. First Edit.
4. Snorro Sturleson. Chron. Norveg. p. 4.
5. Odin in the dialect of the Anglo-Saxons was called Woden or Wodan. The ancient chronicles of this people, particularly that published by Gibson, expresly assert that Hengist and Horsa, were descended from him. We find there ten or twelve genealogies of the English princes traced up to the same source: and the Author concludes with this reflection: “It is from Odin that all our royal families derive their descent.” V. p. 13.
6. If this name was not rather given them on account of the Shield, which they were accustomed to bear, for this is called Skiold in the Danish language to this day. First Edit.
7. Yet this is now proved to be a fiction. See Sale’s Preface to the Koran. T.