This article has been written for and was published in the Hexenkunde Winter 2022/23 Magazine.

In Norse Mythology, Odin (or Woutan in Old High German) is the Chief and highest God. His roles, appearances and animal-helpers are many, and just as manifold is the professional literature regarding the cultural evolution of this mysterious and fascinating character. Above all, he is a ritual expert, a shapeshifter and a magician, but additionally he has been honored in agricultural and seasonal rites. We also find an emphasis on his darker side, that of warfare and the fact that he knew the practice of Seidr, which would have been otherwise condemned as Ergi (‘unmanly’ or ‘deviant’).

Is he truly native to the Norse Pantheon or do his parallels to other pre-Christian European mythologies give rise to the question: Does the cult of Odin may have its original roots outside of Scandinavia or even, in fact, outside of Germanic cultures? Scholarly research has raised the hypothesis that the figure of Odin has its roots in the Mithraism of the Roman Iron Age. However, this does not mean that Odin in its entirety derives from the pagan Roman religion. There was most likely a native Germanic version of Odin already existing prior to Roman contact between southern Germanic tribes on the border between Germania and the Roman Empire (Limes). Aside from the linguistic impact of the Roman language on the Scandinavian languages, there are several archaeological sites such hillforts and especially so-called ringforts, on the island of Öland for instance, that demonstrate a Roman influence in Scandinavia. But does this mean that Odin was ‘borrowed’ from the pre-Christian Roman religion? There may have been an exchange not only in cultural and technological ideas, but perhaps also something called ‘religious acculturation’.

One that was native to the Germanic people prior to Roman contact and the other could be a much more recent acculturation that derived from the Roman Mithraic cult, particularly that of Sol Invictus (the ‘unconquerable Sun’) and Emperor cults.

The idea that Odin derived from a southern cult is not without context. We learn in the Ynglinga Saga that some of the gods themselves came from Asia; there is thus a gulf between the Vanir and Aesir gods which results in tremendous conflict. Scholars such as Salin (1903) saw in the Ynglinga Saga a historical component, that these religious ideas really did come from outside the Germanic pantheon. Salin proposed the year 200 – 350 AD as a timeframe when this acculturation may have occurred (Andren, 2006, pp. 212, 216).

For example, in a 1958 article entitled ‘Grímnismál’ Franz Schröder argued that Odin himself is a proto-type of a shaman, with his hanging on Yggdrasil, the world-tree of the Norse world, and his ability to shapeshift being representative of shamanic capabilities. Yggdrasil, as described by Hilda Ellis Davidson, is an example of how shamanic lore may have also existed in Norse mythology, as the motif of a sacred world tree that grows through different layers of the world is also found among many traditionally shamanistic cultures in north Eurasia (Davidson, 1993, p. 69; Dillmann, 1993). Then there is the fact that Odin is capable of changing his appearance. He has many different epithets and can appear in the same guise as his animal-helpers. Shapeshifting is frequently used by the practitioners of Seiðr, as mentioned for instance in the Lokasenna and Voluspá, which may provide deeper insights into the Norse understanding of the soul for both human and non-human beings.

Swedish scholar Åke Ohlmark also asserts that the origins of traditional shamanism are rooted in an Arctic environment and that Scandinavians, with their assumed Indo-European heritage, had little in the way of their own shamanistic elements, making it highly questionable that Odin is a shaman in its traditionally understood Siberian context. Furthermore, there is the theoretical problem of a so-called Indo-European Urheimat which is believed to be near the Caspian Steppe in what is today Ukraine. Likewise, Fleck argues in ‘Griminsmal: The Case against ‘Shamanism’ (1971) that Seidr and Odinic magic is neither related to or linked to Siberian shamanic practice. The basis of these arguments seem to lie in the ‘Steppe Theory’ of Indo-European cultures and, consequently, their beliefs and rituals.

At this point in our investigation, let’s take a closer look at the belief-systems and rituals presented by archaeologists as having been present in the Nordic Bronze Age. Prior to Roman contact, many scholars believe that the predominant deities of the central and northern European Bronze Age were predominantly revolving around the sun, i.e., a solar goddess and solar god and their helpers: the so-called ‘Divine Twins’. The movements of the sun and its journey throughout the agricultural year has been observed since at least the Neolithic in Europe and according to Emilia Pasztor (2008) the solar symbolism on rock-art panels in Scandinavia attest to the fact that the myth of the ‘Divine Twins’ and the ‘Sun’s Journey’ is a widely shared European motif. There are, for instance, eagle-headed figures in Scandinavian rock-art which have been interpreted as representing a sky deity.

In addition, there are myths of how an eagle or bird-shaped deity stole a sacred drink of wisdom, which may provide clues about the existence of a proto-Odin, sometimes representing a sun god in rock art, the body being represented by a sun wheel. One of these eagle/bird-shaped rock-art panels even has one eye radiating light like the sun, the other eye being dark. What we have here might be a prototype of Odin as a predominant solar deity (Bredholt & Christensen et al., 2014 p. 83).

According to Hilda Ellis Davidson, Odin and Mithras share several common features, such as both were held in high regard by aristocratic warriors and were well-suited to fighting men. If there were overlaps between the Celts of the British Isles and Scandinavians in terms of cultural acculturation, the Celtic deity Lug would come closest to the Norse Odin. In an 8th century text, the ‘Orbo Gentis Langobardum’ we learn that, according to Davidson, in the mythologies of the Langobards Wodan was primarily understood as a sky god, especially in connection with the rising sun. The idea of Odin looking down on earth, from which he can oversee everything at once, suggests that he was much more than primarily a deity connected with the Underworld or the realm of the dead. (Davidson, 1993, pp. 77, 78).

In the German academia we find the works of philologist Karl Simrock, who proposes that Odin may indeed have been a solar deity, particularly when one considers his nickname Grani, which is also a horse in Scandinavian legend. The horse Grani is mentioned in the Völsunga Saga (Chapter 13), where the cultural hero Sigurd (German: Siegfried) meets an old bearded man in a forest. Sigurd is on his way to choose a horse for himself and the old man gives him the advice to only choose a horse that is young and strong enough to swim back to land from the Busiltjörn river. Sigurd names the horse Grani, descended from Sleipnir’s kin, Odin’s horse. Simrock describes how, in a German variant of the myth, Grani is the equivalent of the deity Grannus, often identified as the Roman Apollo. In the Roman Empire, Grannus was often referred to as Apollo and vice versa. From Grani’s mane, Simrock says, it is often said that a bright light always shines, as its mane is the sun’s rays. Special powers are said to come from this horse, which emits the bright glare of the sun (Simrock, 1869, pp. 208, 209).

Did Odin shapeshift into the horse, which clearly has associations with the sun? Scholars have argued that the earliest sun-cult of Scandinavia also marked the earliest, or oldest layer of a proto-Odin (Gelling & Davidson, 1969). Its roots may be found in the Nordic Bronze Age and have undergone modifications during the Iron Age (Nordberg, 2013). Perhaps the reason why Odin became not only a chief of the Norse pantheon but also a god of war lies in the socio-cultural change during the Nordic Iron Age. As early as 1771, the Danish scholar Peter Friederik Suhm wrote a thesis entitled ‘Om Odin og den hedniske gudelære og gudstieneste udi Norden’, which became a highly influential work regarding future scholarship into Odin’s history and identity.

The eldest Odin was formerly associated with the sun cult (according to Suhm, the eldest Odin introduced the sun cult) (Anette Lasson, 2011, p. 46). Some archaeologists believe that a famous rock-art site in Sweden may provide further answers. The site of Tanum in Bohuslän covers an area of 51 hectares and hosts many different depictions from the Nordic Bronze and Iron Age. A man shown holding a spear has been given the title of ‘the spear god’ and has often been interpreted as a Nordic Bronze-Age early version of Odin. Its date has been estimated to lie between 920 – 720 BC (Marion Uckelmann et al., 2018, p. 139).

If we take a comprehensive look at all the evidence, we find the possibility that there may have been an ‘older’ variant of Odin and a more recent one. Of course, that doesn’t mean that Odin is an entirely borrowed deity. This has been criticized in the ‘Amsterdamer Beiträge Zur Älteren Germanistik’, Band 74 (2015), edited by Guus Kroonen. There we learn that if Odin was adopted by the Germanic tribes from Roman Mithraism, the only context that this may have been possible would have been during the Iron Age in northeastern Poland, i.e., between Balts and Celts who served as mercenaries in the Roman army. Those would have had to have had a strong contact with Scandinavians and there is very little evidence for such an occurrence. In addition, the Mithraic cult disappeared in these regions before the Migration period (Markey, 2015, p. 15). The question that we are left with concerns the possibility that there might be an older proto-type of Odin and a post-Iron Age Odin. With the evidence currently available, can we distinguish between the two?

References:

Bredholt Christensen, L., Hammer, O., Warburton, D. (2014). The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Davidson H. R. E. (1993). The lost beliefs of northern europe. Barnes & Noble.

Dillmann, François-Xavier. 1993. ‘Seiður og shamanismi í Íslendingasögum’. Skáldskaparmál, 1993, 2, pp. 20-33.

Fleck, Jere. The ‘Knowledge-Criterion’ in the Grimnismál: The Case against ‘Sha- manism,’ ” Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi 86 (1971):

Franz Rolf Schröder, “Grímnismál,” Beitr, 80 (Tiibingen, 1958), pp. 341-78

Hedeager, L. (2011). Iron Age Myth and Materiality: An Archaeology of Scandinavia AD 400-1000. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.

Kaliff, Anders (2006) Odin and Mithras: religious acculturation during the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period.

In: Old Norse religion in long-term perspectives: origins, changes, and interactions : an international conference in Lund, Sweden, June 3-7, 2004 / [ed] Anders Andrén, Kristina Jennbert & Catharina Raudvere, Lund: Nordic Academic Press , 2006, p. 212-217

Lassen, A. (2011). Odin på kristent pergament: en teksthistorisk studie. Denmark: Museum Tusculanums Forlag, Københavns Universitet.

Ohlmark, Åke. 1939, Arktischer Schamanismus und altnordischer Seiðr, in: Archiv für Religionswissenschaft 36, S. 171–180.

Pasztor, Emilia & Roslund, Curt. (2007). An interpretation of the Nebra Disc. Antiquity. 81. 267-78. 10.1017/S0003598X00095168. !

Simrock, Karl. (1869). Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie mit Einschluß der nordischen. Germany: Marcus.

SUHM, PETER FRIDERICH (1771) Om Odin og den hedniske gudelære og gudstjeneste udi Norden. Lynge & Søn ILAB-ABF (Copenhagen, Denmark).

Samplonius, Kees. (2001) The War of the Æsir and the Vanir. TijdSchrift voor Skandinavistiek, vol. 22 (2001), nr. 1 [ISSN: 0168-2148]

Thomas L. Markey, in: Kroonen G. (2015). Amsterdamer beiträge zur älteren germanistik. Brill Rodopi.

Uckelmann Marion, U. Bertilsson (2018.pp. 130, 139), in: Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. (2018). Germany: Springer International Publishing.