BOOK II.
Odin the
raingiver.
Odin the
Allfather.
Tyr and
Odin.
By his side are the two wolves Gari and Freki, with whom he hunts down his victims, wolves like the Myrmidons whom Achilleus lets loose upon the Trojans, wolves like those from which Phoibos was supposed to derive his name Lykeios. On his shoulders sit the two ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who whisper into his ears all that they see or hear, as the serpents by their mysterious whisperings impart more than human wisdom to the infant lamos.^ They are the ravens who bring to Apollon the tidings of the faithlessness of Koronis, as in the shape of a raven Aristeas tells the Metapontines that he followed Phoibos when he came to their country.^
As the bearded god, Odin becomes the giver of the rain, the Zeus Ombrios of the Greeks, the Jupiter Pluvius or flowing Jupiter of the Latins, as well as their Neptunus or cloud-deity. As such, he is Hnikar, the Anglo-Saxon Nicor or water-god, w^hose offspring are the Nixies or water-sprites, as the Hellenic Naiads are the children of Zeus.* In this character he is the Biblindi, or drinker (the Latin bib-ere) of the Eddas. Like Phoibos again, or Asklepios, he is the healer, who alone can restore strength and vigour to the maimed horses of Baldur ; and as the Muses are the daughters of Zeus, so is Saga the daughter of Wuotan, the source of all poetry, the inspirer of all bards. In his hunts he rides the eight-footed horse Sleipnir, the white steed which bears him also through the thick of battle, like the rudderless and oarless ships which carry the Phaiakians across the blue seas of heaven.
Wuotan, the Allfather^ and the Psychompompos, who takes all souls to himself when their earthly journey is done, has become for the nations of northern Europe a mere name ; but the mark of his name he has impressed on many places. If our Wednesdays remind us of him, he has also left his relics in Onslew,® in the island Odinse, in Odinfors, Odenskalla and Wcdnesbury.
The close connexion of the name Tyr with the several forms developed from the root dyu, to shine, would of itself lead us to expect that the word would remain practically a mere appellative for gods whose names might again betray a relation to the same root.
- Grimm, D. M. 134, traces the
names to hi4gr, thought, and tniair, mind, as in Minera, iv:c. ' Herod, iv. 15.
• So Poseidon becomes St. Nicholas. All these names come from the same root with the Sanskrit sna, the Greek I'^X'^i the Latin nare, to float or swim. With them we must link the common term "Old Nick," as a name for the devil.
- Professor Max Miiller seems in-
clined to trace Christian influence in the description of Odin Allfadir as given, for instance, in the dialogue called Gylfi's Mocking.
- Othanslef, Othini reliquiae.
Grimm, D. M, 144, adds many other instances.
