Woden of the Wild Wood

Source:​ ​http://mimirsbrunnr.com/woden%20of%20the%20wild%20wood.html

In my first piece on ​Woden​ I wrote of the connections to water hidden within his name.
In this short work I will focus on how again through his name, again “from a word to a
word,” he is linked to woods and the wild places, both external and internal.

To gain the knowledge of the Runes, Woden hung upon a tree, said to be Yggdrasil, for
nine days and nights. Many when looking at this myth put high focus on the actions of
Woden and rightly so, but what of the tree, what significance does it contain? In simple
folk etymology the transition from Woden to Wooden is an easy one, but how deep is
this connection and what does it really represent?

Widu(z)

The Proto-Germanic/Proto-Celtic word Widu(z/s) is given the simple definition of

“wood”, but there are some interesting connections to be found if we delve a little
deeper. Firstly you have the Latvian word Vidus, which means “middle,” but originates
in a word for “Forested area between two homes”. Although it may appear as a simple
transition, a meaning moving over time, the notion of the forested area being wild or
untilled is also present in other words descending from Widu. Take for example Gwydd,
a Welsh word for “trees,” but it can also mean plough. Here again we have a sense that a
wooded area is seen as untamed or untilled. This is probably best seen in the Old Irish
word Fiad, again from the word Widu, meaning uncultivated, wild animal, wilderness.

We can see another interesting connection in the word “Widow”, meaning a woman who
has lost her husband. Although this can bee seen in a crude form as the Woman being
“untilled” by man, if we take a look at the Sanskrit word Vidhava, we may come closer to
its connection. Vidhava not only means widow, but also “a kingdom who has lost its
King.” A kingdom without its king is akin to a man without a master. Although in this
sense it is presented as a loss, it also harkens to the untamed and wild aspects of man
left to his own devices. Also the word spinster, meaning unmarried woman, again a
women without a man, invokes the symbol of the Norns and the spinning wheel. The
Norns, being deciders of the fates of both men and gods, again represent that outside of
man’s control. In another way we see this in the word unbrid(E)led, meaning
uncontrolled, or wild.

Now this may all seem quite obvious, that a forest would be seen as a wild untamed
area, but the link is very important. Wood in its old English form is wode, but it also has
secondary meanings of “to hunt” or to “live within the woods”. In its plural form it
literally is Woden, seeing as Woden (God) is an English word for the deity, this is an
important Homonym. it is also a homonym for wode/wod meaning mad, frenzied,
possessed, which has its root as Wodaz. The word Wodaz, of course, is the most
accepted origin of Wodanaz, the root of Woden. The link here in the English forms of
the words Widu and Wodaz are the most strong. It is easy to imagine an outcast living in
the woods (wode) outside the laws of man being seen as wode (mad), and Woden is the
patron of Outcasts.

There is another link with Wodanaz and the aforementioned spinster. A spinster, as
stated, is represented with the spinning wheel like the Norns. The Norns, being
prophets, gives us direct link to the Latin form of Wodaz, Vates meaning, again, Prophet
or seer. This aspect of Woden, though, I will save for a future article, as it deserves one
in its own right.
A quick look now at a word I have mentioned throughout this piece – the word Wild. It
stems from the Proto Indo-European word welH meaning to turn, coil. whilst this may
seem like a stretch for Widu or wode, it gives us connection to my previous article,
Woden of the flow. From this same root word WelH, we get the word well (water
spring); it is the active movement upwards of water. This word WelH is an exceptionally
important word and connects Woden to many other powerful forces and the Fehu poem,
but again this is something for later articles. For this piece it is important we note this
active movement upwards.

Before I move on, I would like to address the word Odin, as it is the name given to
Woden in the Norse texts. If an idea is to work it must work in all cases, so can we link
the word “wood” to Odin? well in this case it is rather easy, as the given root word for
the proto Germanic Widu is the proto Indo-European uidhu.

So what does all this mean?

Woden, even in mythology, appears as the rebel and often contradictory in his actions.
His motives always appear to us unknown; like the wild wood, his secrets remain just at
the edge of the grasp of man. He stands at the boundary of the civil and the wild, the
conscious and the unconscious. In Norse mythology and that of ancient England, he
stands at the helm of the Gods. He is the Alfather. This, though, is contradictory to the
standard of Indo-European faiths, where this place is normally reserved for the Thunder
God. This we also know to be true of the north, the temple of Uppsalla is said to have
had Thunar at its head. Is it though any wonder that such a deity as Woden, one that
appears outside of the rules of both men and Gods, would usurp this position? Or did
he? Could it be that Woden wandered these lands long before the others, and is only
taking back his rightful place?
Carl Gustav Jung in his essay on Wotan, although with no knowledge of what I present
here, saw this through other means. Whether when dancing around Wandervolgel fires
in his youth, or through psychotic episodes, I do not know, but he saw into the
unconscious and in the darkness he saw Wotan staring back. A lesser man would have
recoiled with horror, but Jung stood the course and through his ordeal gained great
wisdom. He first describes Wotan’s link to water, as he visualises barren river beds once
again begin to fill and flow. He places Wotan upon the shores, as if brought in by a great
wave, as the grip of the false god loosens. Then he likens Wotan’s appearance in the
unconscious to that of Nietzsche’s Blond Beast, pacing and gnawing at its chains in the
dark recesses of the mind. He also foresaw the great trouble this would bring upon the
horizon, but again through his wisdom knew it was a force of liberation, not
enslavement. Wotan cares little for the laws of men and is bound to laws of another
kind. His appearance will always mark internal and external war, as this force is on a
collision course with all that is false.

Through the seemingly simple connection of Woden to Wood, we see Woden in his most
unnerving apparition. He stands at the edge of the wild woods, at the edge of sanity. The
wild places, where before man knew law, he knew only himself. This place, as wild and
unsettling as it is, is the place of our birth and Woden stands at the gates of the mother
of Gods. Just as a spring draws up the waters of the Earthly womb, it is the forest that
draw these waters higher, closer to the burning sun. Woden represents the flow of this
force into our world, and just as a city abandoned by man is overtaken by nature, so too
is the man who opens up to Woden is overtaken by him. These eternal primal forces
flow through him, through the unconscious into the conscious. He is the cold sweat that
wakes you in the terror of what you really are. The chains you so happily carried begin to
irritate, you become restless, sleepless; are you going insane, or becoming sane? He is
the ultimate liberator, but just as he breaks the chains of the false laws, when you enter
his domain he will hunt you down and bind you to the true, the eternal laws of the
Mother. He peers from the edge of the wild places, of the land and your mind,
ceaselessly he will harass you till you awaken to what you really are.