February 28, 2024 • 47 mins
Returning to the topic of the highest god, Odin. First I address why the Romans weren't entirely wrong when they compared him to Mercury/Hermes. Then I present my theory about how Odin learned the nine sacred songs called Galdra and why this is related to his role as the god of the runes. The dankest god, Odin, and esoteric theories go together like runes and galdra.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Why was the Germanic god photan theNorse god Odin linked to the Roman god
mercury. Also, Odin achieved threeforms of magical wisdom, the ruins,
magic chants called golder, and themeed of poetry. But when did Odin
(00:24):
become associated with runes? Because theydidn't always exist? And why is it
that myths are preserved for how heacquired runes and how he acquired the meed
of poetry, but not for howhe acquired golder. You'll find out today
and survive the give We like Odin. Look at this shirt. This is
(00:55):
a bractiat depicting an Odinic king ofsome kind with ruins all around. You
can buy it in my spring storethe links in the description, or it's
even tagged below here. So havea look at this and other t shirts
depicting odin Ich imagery. About sevenyears ago I made a video in which
I described Odin as the dankest ofgods. It's achieved about a quarter of
(01:18):
a million views now, and it'smostly just me sort of detailing the main
sources we have on that god,and then afterwards I sort of make some
speculations about the esoteric interpretations of Odinthat I've reached. Some people still tell
me that they think it's the bestvideo I've done, even though seven years
ago is a long time and I'velearned a lot since then as well,
(01:40):
and it's also sort of changed someof my interpretations. I've made lots of
other videos talking about Odin since then, and I think there are a lot
more fact based and reliable than thatone. Although that one isn't that bad,
it's a lot better than most ofthe ones on the Internet you can
find, and I did make itclear where I'm speculating and where something is
absolutely not. But there's a lotof stuff I didn't even go over.
(02:02):
It was only half an hour longvideo. So today I'm going to talk
about a few other things again,esoteric interpretations. This isn't just me going
over the basic source material, ofwhich many other people have done videos on
that anyway, including myself, Andyou can go through my videos like for
example, on Anglo Saxon and Paganismto learn about Wodin, or on my
(02:23):
video about the Horn Speared Answer,where I specifically talk about archaeological evidence of
Odin. I did a stream withScott Shell recently when we talked about Runic
bratchet evidence such as this on theT shirt, which show an Odin cult
through these connected to kingship. Thereare many videos I've done where the main
(02:44):
topic is in fact, this godwho the Anglo Saxons called Wodin, the
Germans called Votan, but we knowmost of all through medieval Icelandic literature,
where he's called Odin. He isindeed the dankist of God's seventeen humor hasn't
the test of time very well,but that was considered a funny joke seven
(03:05):
years ago. But anyway, first, I'm going to talk about his interpretation
as being Mercury. And some peopleget I've said about this because they say,
why is he Mercury because Mercury isnot the same as Odin. Mercury
is the Roman equivalent of aramis Hermes, and that god is not the main
(03:28):
god of the classical you know,Greco Roman pantheon. He is subservient to
the main god, Zeus. Inmany respects Odin is more like Zeus because
he's the king of the gods,the father of the gods. You know,
he's the chief god. It wasa combination of Germanic people not really
understanding the Roman religion and Roman peoplenot really understanding the Germanic religion, which
(03:50):
led to their being conflated from anearly stage, and that continued for a
thousand years into Christian period, wherelike Christians would refer to Odin as much.
What does Mercury have in common withOdin? Well, Mercury was a
psychopomp that means he led the soulsof the dead, you know, in
the same way that Odin did,you know via his valkyries. Mercury is
(04:11):
also a god of trade, andOdin is called a god of cargoes.
It's not a major aspect of Odin, but it is somewhat hinted at in
his the kennings that are used torefer to him. And also we know
from the Arab even fadl and thatmerchants, Germanic merchants would make sacrifices to
a god, presumably Wotan in orderto get good trade deals when they're out
(04:34):
being merchants in the South. Soyeah, it does seem that this is
a sort of thing. Odin's alsoassociated with war, so obviously the main
kind of Germanic people that are goingto come in contact with foreigners are going
to be merchants and soldiers, andboth of those types of people are going
to be very focused on Wotan Votanas their main god. At surface level,
(04:58):
there is a an apparent equivalence betweenMercury and Odin. After all,
I don't know if I seem tomaybe give the wrong impression in that video
seven years ago that Odin derives fromthe cult of Mercury in some way,
but I don't believe that's true atall. I also said back then,
and I've subsequently repeatedly said I don'tbelieve this anymore, that I think Odin
(05:20):
could have been a secondary god whousurped the primary god of the Germanic pantheon,
being Tyrre. I no longer believethat to be the case. It
was based on a linguistic argument thatTire is the sky Father, and I
made a big video in about threeyears ago about the sky Father, in
which I explicitly stated that I don'tthink Tyr was ever the sky Father.
(05:42):
Even though his name is cognate withthe Indo European word for sky, it
just means Tyr does not mean skyin Germanic at all. It means god,
and he has no paternal roles atall, nor is he married to
the Earth Mother yord Or doesn't havesex with Yord Odin does. He doesn't
father the storm god. He doesn'thave any of the roles associated with the
(06:03):
sky Father that Odin does. Soif you want to attribute the role of
sky Father to a Germanic god,it has to be Votin. Obviously,
Mercury is not the Skyfather. That'sZeus. But that's just because the interpretato
romana is not an accurate way offinding equivalent gods. It just goes on
very surface level attributes rather than likethe entire an analysis of the mythic equivalents.
(06:30):
But at an esoteric level, Ithink that you actually find more compelling
reasons to sort of associate Odin witharemes, and I'd like to talk about
those today because I don't see manypeople talking about it, and it's just
quite an interesting matter for esoteric consideration. And Odin is an esoteric god.
(06:55):
This is all about the relationship withTomes and Prometheus. These are two Greek
gods then, and as I say, Aramis is Mercury. They're both givers
of wisdom and they give wisdom tomankind. Prometheus wants to take the divine
gift of fire and give it toman Aramis teaches mankind certain divine skills.
(07:17):
He's like a divine priest that leadsthe path of for mankind to worship the
gods and become closer to the gods. That's exactly what Odin does. So
I even said in that Odin videofrom twenty seventeen that I thought Odin had
equivalents in the Indic pantheon to Brushpertythe divine priest, because Odin has that
(07:39):
role, but so does Aramis.The crucial differences between Aramis and Prometheus need
to be considered here because they they'rethey're both givers of wisdom, but one's
good and one's bad, and oneposes a challenge to divine order and is
therefore and consequently he bound and tortured, and that's his punishment, right,
(08:05):
the same punishment is given to Loki. So Odin and Loki have this close
relationship. And I think you couldof think about the equivalents of Heremes and
Aramis and Prometheus and Odin and Loki. There's definitely some clear parallels here.
So Loki's bound and punished for hisbetrayal of the gods, so is Prometheus.
(08:31):
Aramis is good because he represents thedivine order. He upholds divine order,
and his gifts to mankind. Hisdivine gifts to mankind reinforce that divine
order by showing them the path tothe divine through sacred arts and rituals.
The same is true for Odin.Aramis Trismegistus is the Greek version of the
(08:52):
Egyptian god Thoth, and he inthis form he also bears close resemblance to
Odin, because Magistus gifted sacred artsto mankind, such as science, alchemy,
and hieroglyphics. Of course, Odingifted runes, and there's an obvious
parallel here of a writing system giftedby the god Aministris, Magistus or Odin
(09:16):
to mankind. Aramis is obedient toZeus, but Prometheus isn't. The obedience
of Hermes to Zeus represents his obedienceto divine order in the Germanic equivalent.
Odin can't be obedient to a highGod because there is no high god.
He is the equivalent of Zeus.He's like Zeus of Mercury combined in that
(09:37):
sense, but he is obedient todivine law, whereas Loki is not.
Both the Greeks and the Germanic peoplesin ancient times valued trickery and deceptiveness as
a kind of wily intelligence, especiallywhen employed against enemies. The ability to
deceive and trick your enemy was seenas a good thing, and therefore we
(10:01):
shouldn't be surprised when you know.Arames and Odin are seen as tricksters or
deceivers in certain ways, and that'snot necessarily negative. Loki and Prometheus are
also tricksters deceivers, but in theircase it is negative. Prometheus is a
very wise Titan whose name means forethought, and he fought in the Titanomachy against
(10:26):
the Titans. Despite himself being aTitan, he allied himself with the gods
in that war between the Titans andthe gods. The Germanic equivalent of the
Titans are the Jurtans or Jutnar,and Loki is of jutin birth. However,
he in most mythic contexts is alliedwith the gods against the Jutna,
(10:54):
just like Prometheus. However, bothPrometheus and Loki eventually revert to kind and
ally themselves with their own race againstthe gods, becoming enemies of the gods.
The same warning seems to be there. Both of them are punished in
pretty much the same way. They'rebound and tortured. Prometheus is bound and
(11:18):
tortured by having an eagle eat athis guts, whereas Loki is bound and
tortured by having venom of serpents strippedon his face. In both cases,
they are seen as having betrayed thegods. This kind of comparative mythology is
useful for just sort of considering themeaning of the myths and how we are
(11:41):
to regard these figures in a religiouscontext, So people who are actually practicing
pagans, it is helpful. Comparativemythology is not generally a religious discipline.
Comparative mythology is done my academics requiredat other reasons, where they're usually trying
to find cultural relationships and forms ofcultural transmission to explain why mythic parallels exist.
(12:03):
I'm not trying to do that rightnow. Whether this is because of
sustained interactions between Greece and Germanic people, or whether it's due to a common
Indo European origin outside the scope ofthis video. I'm talking from an esoteric
perspective. It is useful to knowabout these parallels to help you understand the
(12:28):
nature of Odin and Loki. Somepeople think that you're supposed to worship Loki,
but I think that's a bit likeworshiping Prometheus. Although Prometheus is not
always dealt with, it is notalways considered in ancient sources to be entirely
negative. He isn't the sort ofperson that they are going to worship,
(12:50):
and there's absolutely no evidence that Lokiwas ever worshiped. I don't think that
was the point. He is anuanced character. He isn't entirely evil,
but he is ultimately regarded as anenemy of the divine, and that is
what's crucial. Because Odin represents divineorder. They're both deceivers. They're both
very similar to each other, Odinand Loki, but Odin represents order and
(13:13):
Loki is ultimately opposed to order.That is that's the main takeaway that you
have to have. Aramis is asource of wisdom for mankind. The gifts
he gives help mankind to ascend tothe level of the gods, to reach
the divine. The gift of firefrom Prometheus does not do that, and
(13:35):
it's a gift that helps them tooppose the gods. Think about those,
I think they're very interesting points toconsider. The next thing I'd like to
deal with in this video is thenature of the three special wise arts that
Odin acquires through sacrifice. We knowa lot about two with them. Right
(14:01):
one in Horvermore, he describes howhe hung on a tree and thereby acquired
runs. Not exactly how, hejust says he's he put he took them
up. That's after nine knights ofself sacrifice. He understood these rooms.
Hmmm, who gave them to him? Was it the tree? Was it
the norns at the tree? Doesn'tsay this. The other myth of the
(14:24):
mead of poetry, which is alsoa gift to mankind, although somewhat unintentional,
is acquired. That myths explained indetail how he has to get three
drinks from the vats of mead onthe ground, and then flees with the
mead in the form of an eagleand drops it to earth. But the
(14:46):
third art goulder, which means achant or a song, a say,
could chance or song known the pluralis golder and in Old English it was
called galdore Uh that it's not explained, and I'm going to go over why
I think that is. And thisis a bid esoteric and a bit speculative,
(15:09):
so you'll have to forgive me ifyou think that it's not I'm not
adhering to the evidence strongly enough,but I think it is a point that
needs to be addressed and considered.Because I am an historian and a pagan,
I have two hats to wear whenstudying myth. One of them is
very much evidence based and the otheris more spiritual. I find it's easier
(15:31):
and best to keep them separate becausethey're very different things and you wouldn't want
one to contaminate the other. Christianand Islamic theologians are frequently challenged by historians
who study Islam and Christianity because thehistorical method is not concerned with adherence to
(15:54):
theological doctrine. They're just trying touncover the historical context in which these religions
grew and were constructed. The assumptionis that if you're studying Christianity or Islam
in a university, assumption is thatthis is a belief system that was made
(16:14):
by humans and a certain point inhistory, and that you can look at
the sources and figure out when thatis. But that fundamentally goes against what
Christianity and Islam are. They're likeboth considering that the source of these traditions
is a god. So there's thisconflict. Normally, that conflict doesn't exist
for Heathens because our myths do nottake place within a historical context. The
(16:40):
myths take place outside time, inan eternal time. Some of them are
said to refer, you know,to take place in the past, you
know, the terminology used refers toin the past, and some of them
it's said to take place in thefuture, like Grad and the Rook.
But really they all take place ina sort of outside the historical timeline that
(17:02):
we've acquired since Christianity introduces the conceptof a year zero, so that we
count every year year, one year, twenty twenty four, etc. However,
there are some instances where we arechallenged as Heathens by the historical method
because, for example, Odin learnedthe runes, but we know from linguistics
and archaeology and the development of runicwriting, and we can trace it in
(17:26):
the archaeological record that runes were inventedat some point. There is a historical
date when runs were made, andthere was a previous period where there are
no runes. So we can placeRunic writing into a historical timeline, a
profane timeline, just like Christians placethe birth of Jesus onto a profane timeline.
(17:52):
The problem is the myth of himhanging on the tree. It's not
like we have to say, oh, that's the day Odin hung on the
tree and acquired these runes. Butwhat we need to try and understand is
how did Odin come to be associatedwith this new technology, the system of
writing that we call runs. Sorunes are about two thousand years old,
(18:17):
we can say that with confidence aboutthey could be a bit old, a
few centuries older, maybe a fewcenturies younger, but definitely two thousand ish.
In that period in history, Odinwould have been known as either ward
Naz or ward Naz or Wardnaz somethinglike that. That was the proto Germanic
spoken at the time, which meansthe same thing that Odin and Wodin does,
(18:38):
which is what the prefix ward oror the word in Old English and
or in Old Norse means like adivine frenzy and then ward n n just
means one in one, so he'sthe frenzied one or the one of divine
ecstasy. It's a kind of divinelike a gift of ecstasy from the gods,
(19:03):
and he is the god associated withthat, and so that's reflected in
his earliest name, which can bereconstructed reliably as Wadnas or Wadnas. The
earliest runic writing that we have ison a comb from a bog in Funen
in Denmark, and that's dated toapproximately the second century. But you know,
(19:25):
the dating is a little bit there'san intervals of you know, exactly
how long it could be as acentury or a century off or so,
so it could be first century.But they also recently have discovered a roonstone
from around the same time, soit's somewhere between the first and third century,
(19:45):
so averaging out about the second century. And that's a stone, making
it the earliest ruden stone if youcan call it the runestone, which is
a grave marker in spenerud Runestone it'scalled. It's found near Oslo. Both
of them reveal that there's already asophisticated developed form of writing, so neither
(20:06):
of these are examples of a brandnew system of writing. They're the oldest
we've got on the record, butthey're definitely not the start of runes.
So they're about they're nearly two thousandyears old. But obviously runs are older
than these objects, so we cansay, like that's why we say maybe
it's like two thousand, maybe it'saround the birth of Christ, maybe a
little bit older, could be probablynot much more than two hundred BC at
(20:30):
the earliest the Germanic languages. ProtoGemanic language is generally dated to be around
five hundred BC, so the Runesemerge just a few centuries after Germanic languages
do, and of course Germanic languages, no one ever realized there were suddenly
speaking Proto Germanic. Proto Germanic isjust a different variant of earlier Indo European
(20:52):
languages spoken in the same region thatprobably sounded a lot like Protetmatic or did
sound a lot like Proto Domanic,but we don't have any way of reconstructing
them. It's certain that they werebased on a different script, but we
don't know which. Most people agreeit's either going to be based on the
Latin script, based on the Greekscript, or based on maybe Lapontic or
(21:14):
Etruscan the Lapontic scripts from the Alpsis one opinion, so we don't know
which. But what's certain is thatit doesn't well from what I understand of
what people who are more versed inthe science of linguistics and of development of
(21:37):
script specifically, it does not appearthat the Runic script could possibly have derived
naturally from the usage of any ofthose scripts, like as in like one
day they were writing ABC and thensuddenly they're writing foth arch. It just
can't happen. This runic alphabet calledthe foth arc was deliberately created by someone
(22:02):
who was familiar with another script andbasically was like, I want to invent
a new script, and or agroup of people of either a person or
a group of educated people who knewabout these other foreign scripts, decided to
invent a new script for written madefor purpose for the use of Proto Germanic
language, and that developed over timeinto other runic scripts like that for other
(22:23):
Germanic languages, like Futhorc for OldEnglish and the younger Phothoaric for Norse.
That's interesting because the idea of anelite making the runes fits very closely into
what we know about the elite natureof runic usage early on. So this
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elitism in runes is clear in theearly A lot of the early roomstones refer
to the person speaking the express fromthe perspective of the erlas. So the
erlas, the word erlas is protodramanic. And because the English word earl
the Norse word yall, and itis some kind of like it's not the
(23:07):
same as what earl means. It'ssome kind of high status title that has
some connection to the ability to userunes, but is also a social position.
So they're boasting of this people,I the ralazka of the runes,
or I the you know. Thatis interesting because in the these inscriptions in
protog like Proto Norse for example,sort of prefigure what we see much later
(23:32):
in Icelandic literature, where they wherethey write we have written for sources for
Germanic mythology, and in there,like for example, in the Rugsthula,
it's made very clear that runes areexclusively for an elite. A boy called
Conra is the only one of thesons of y'all which is the same word
(23:55):
as Erlas, who is permitted tolearn the runes And this is like establishing
a sort of caste society. AndConnor. To give you an idea of
what kind of a man Connor is, and con why he was given this,
this privilege of learning ruins. Ishall read the following from Rigsthuler.
Connor rode through swamps and forests,luring birds and shooting them. When a
(24:18):
crow spoke to him, then sangthe crow, sitting lonely on a bow,
Why wilt thou young con tame thebirds? Rather shouldst thou young con
on? Horses ride and armies overcome? The point there is he's an as
military man, he's military aristocracy,and he speaks to a bird. And
(24:41):
we know from the other myths,like the myth of Siegert, who is
you know, descended from Odin's specificbloodline a hero, a dragon slayer,
that he acquires the ability to speakto birds by sucking the blood of a
dragon. And this is like anOdinik skill, and Odinik a bil the
ability to speak to the birds,and it's as is the ability to use
(25:06):
runes. And Odin is also verymuch a martial god not like Mercury,
more like Mars in that respect,like this is a god of war.
So we're associating Runes from the earlieststage with a martial elite aristocracy who have
the runs as a privilege. Mostpeople would not have been able to understand
(25:27):
Runes. And it's important to understandthe explicit connection of the aristocracy with the
cult of Odin. So Odin isa god of aristocrats, and to be
an aristocrat is to be a warrior, a knight. Basically, they didn't
have nights like in the Middle Ages, but it's the social position out of
(25:47):
which the night of the Middle Agescomes from. It's the same thing like
knights were aristocrats basically in many cases. Now I'm going to come to the
other topic of gold, because Ithe connection of God to Runes is what
I'm trying to get at and toexplain it. And to do so,
I'm going to read from the poeticEdda. This edition is from Imperium Press
(26:11):
and it's got a forward by yourstruly, So if you want to hear,
if you want to read what myopinion on the prose editor is,
you should get this version of thepoetic gether which has the text in both
Norse and English, and I willread the English translation of the relevant passages
(26:32):
relating to how Odin won the runes. Now I know that I hung on
the winded tree, hung there fornights full nine with the spear. I
was wounded and offered. I wasto odin myself, to myself on the
tree, that none may ever knowwhat route beneath it runs. None made
me happy with loaf or horn,And there below I looked. I took
(26:57):
up the runes shrieking. I tookthem, and forwith back I fell nine
mighty songs I got from the sonof Bolthorne, Bestler's father, and a
drink I got of the goodly meadpoured out from off Ruri. Right then
(27:18):
I began to thrive, and wisdomto get. I grew and well I
was. Each word led on toanother word, each deed to another deed.
Now Here you've seen he describes themythic self sacrifice, that through which
(27:40):
he acquired rounds. Then he mentionstwo other things he learned, golder and
he and how he got a drinkfrom what this says a drink, But
he in the myth he got threedrinks from Ruri of the sacred meat of
poetry. That in between the referenceto the Nine Mighty Songs he got from
(28:03):
Bestler's father. That's the only referenceto this. We don't know any more
about it. That means it's hiseternal uncle, by the way, his
mother's brother. And in Germanic culture, the relationship between a boy or a
man and his mother's brother is veryspecial. That that is like he a
(28:26):
foster, that's basically like a seconddad. So this person is responsible for
teaching that boy a lot of things. Who is this unnamed person we don't
know, but he is of Jurtonancestry, because Bolthorne is a Jurton.
Some people think that this could beMimir. There's a third myth besides the
(28:49):
rune that acquiring the runes and acquiringthe meta poetry, there is a third
myth that we know about in acquiringsome special wisdom, and that's when he
goes to the well of Mimir.Mimus Brunder sacrifices an eye and in return
he gets to get the wisdom ofthe water of memory from Mimus Brunder.
(29:11):
Now, Mimir could well be aJurtan, and he could be Odin's maternal
uncle, and that would explain whyOdin wanted to preserve his head after the
war when he was killed, Mimawas killed, and he wanted to preserve
this with special herbs and leaks orwhatever, and therefore thereby acquire more wisdom
(29:36):
from mimir aft in death. It'spossible in the myth in which Odin sacrifices
as I at Mimus Brunder, itisn't specifically said that he learns Golder,
So maybe that isn't the myth wherehe learned the Golder. It's upon possible
interpretation. Another is that it's actuallya part of the myth where he he
(30:00):
learns the runes, because immediately afterhe you know, he says he hangs
on the tree and then he feltfalls back, and then the next standard
it says, and I learned ninemighty songs Thimble luf mighty songs. So
and Leuf is the type of Gulderbasically, so it's possible that this that
Runes and Galder are almost the samething in that sense, So like it
(30:25):
doesn't there's no clear explanation for why. Like we know, we have all
this explanation for the media of poetrybeing how he acquires that in scored Scopomol.
But the winning of the nine Galdre, why don't we know more about
it? I really think that there'sa connection between Runes and Gldre, and
I'm going to explore that now tosort of demonstrate why I think this.
I think this connection is as oldas the runes are, that it came
(30:49):
about as soon as runes were invented. So as I said, runs are
about two thousand years old. Ofcourse, the Heathen tradition is much older
to Manic. Heathenisms just invented asa religion when Germanic language was like suddenly
come about. And as I said, Germanic language was never invented. It's
just a variant of an earlier IndoEuropean dialect of language or whatever that became
(31:11):
what now linguists referred to as ProtoGermanic. There was no transition into Proto
Germanic. It's just, you know, it's an arbitrary stage in linguistic development
that we find useful to refer tonow. So heathenr the religion or the
religion of Odin and these gods thatwe associate with the Germanic people is obviously
(31:33):
older even than the Germanic people,because it's clearly with Indo European origins and
continues on. Many of the burialpractices, for example, five thousand years
old and go right back to theIndo Europeans that were used. These are
ones carried on being used by Vikingsonly a thousand years ago, so they're
like, that's four thousand years ofcontinue continuity there. So of course we
(31:56):
can't imagine that the entire myths wereinvented for purpose even when a new technology
like runes was were invented. Soit seems to me that prior to Runic
literacy, Odin or Wordnas as hewas known, was already associated with magic
(32:16):
and specifically with poetry and galdra,and that when the new technology of Runic
writing was invented, it naturally becameassociated with this god, because this is
a god of wisdom, a godof words, of chance, of magic.
You know, runes were like amagical system as well. They were
literally used for magic, but infact writing itself appeared as a kind of
(32:39):
magic to spell, you know,cast spells. And of course, if
they're going to associate this new thingwith a god, it's obviously going to
be Odin, the god of theAristocrats, the god of of magic.
Now, the word rune itself doesn'thave any relationship to writing. It's an
(33:00):
old word that means secret, esotericsecret. So the fact that the Germanic
people decided to apply the word runto these symbols used for writing shows a
lot about what they how they regardedthis system of writing. We can also
get a bit of insight into whatroomed means from Finnish because Finnish language is
(33:23):
not Indo European or Germanic. Ofcourse, Germanic is Indo European, so
it's completely unrelated to Germanic. Butbecause of the fact that Finland is you
know, parallel to Scandinavia and hasso much close contact with it, there
are some very old Germanic loanwords intoFinnish that have been preserved. Whereas the
(33:44):
Germanic languages develop into other languages,you know, Proto Norse becomes Norse,
et cetera, Finnish has like oldwords like the word for king Conninge is
very like Proto Germanic word for king, a very you know, a two
thousand year old Germanic word for king, so the word rune was also lent
into Finish, but it does notmean a system of writing. Runo Runo
(34:07):
in Finnish means a sacred song.Basically, it means goldra. Specifically,
Finnish runo refer to songs that areabout their myths, which is exactly the
sort of thing you would call gelderin a Norse context. I think that
(34:28):
it's unlikely that the Finnish people borroweda word that means writing and then changed
its meaning so that it meant song. I think probably at the time that
the Finns borrowed the word run runointo Finish, it was used by Germanic
people to refer to sacred songs goldra. This can explain why runes and galdra
(34:52):
are so closely associated in magical contextas well as mythic contexts. For example,
in Gretisa the Witch, she firstshe cuts runes onto a tree stump,
and she reddens the runes with herblood to sort of activate them magically,
and then she sings a golder overthem, and the combination of runes
(35:12):
in golder here can be called amagical charm or a magical spell, and
I think very often performing a magicspell involved a combination of runes and golder.
Also in Sigdrifmol, the valkyrie Sigdrifabrings the hero Sigaret, who asks
her for wisdom, good goldre andruins of gladness. So the two gifts
(35:37):
are given together, good golder andruins of joy. That's the way that
they paired. There seems like aformula, an old formula that's been used
in other contexts. In Snorris Sturluson'sLaoser Viser, he refers to Odin as
ein Scorpier Galder, the sole creatorof Galdra, and in engling A Saga
(36:02):
chapter seven, where the many skillsof Odin are listed, it says that
he taught the art of runes andof goldre. The two again are said
together, which is why it saysthe Azir are called golder smiths, the
ones who create gelder. Apparently,the Asir are called that because Odin makes
(36:22):
them, doesn't There's no description ofthe others as actual galdersmiths, but he
says that because of Odin, theAzea can be called goldersmiths. So Odin
taught runes and Goldre. We knowthat, and again the two go together
in the sense that they were givento man by odin both magical systems,
and within magical context we know thatthe two were used simultaneously. They go
(36:45):
together in the magical context too,and they were taught by the same god
in the same way. And inthe mythic description of how Odin acquired Runes,
it seems to say he acquired Golderat the same time. Open to
interpretation, maybe it isn't so that, maybe it's saying he actually got them
from Mimir Nimes Brunner, But Idon't think. I'm not sure about that.
(37:05):
I mean, no one can sayfor certain. But the just juxtaposition
of the two stanzas, it doesseem to be saying that that's where he
got them, although in the samestandsap way it talks about the Goldre,
it says that he won the drinkof mead, which refers to a myth
that it doesn't go into in anydetail. So it could be the same
things happening here. That is justreferring how he got the glder without going
into any detail. But then thethree things combined Runes, Glder and the
(37:28):
poet mood poetry are what he sayscaused him to grow in wisdom and flourish.
And these are the things you needto acquire the knowledge of runes,
gelder and the meat of poetry ifyou want to flourish in this way.
Doesn't say you got the gelder fromMimir, But it doesn't say in the
previous stands that that he got theruns from anyone. It just says he
got them. So it could wellbe that there is no individual person involved
(37:51):
in giving Odin the gulder or therunes. He just acquires them through the
self sacrifice. At the same time, I'm very tempted to think of it
that way, because the way thatgalder and runes are paired in so many
sources as two things combined. They'retaught by Odin simultaneously, they're given by
the Valkyrie simultaneously. They're used bythe wits simultaneously as a heathen. The
(38:15):
myths to me are eternally true.So the profane historical development of runic writing,
which occurred within our profane space,this world, this middle yard,
that does not have any effect onthe ultimate metaphysical truths contained in myth.
And I think Odin's role as thegod of Runes is just a natural extension
(38:37):
of his much much older role asthe god of Galdra chance and prior to
the technology of writing all over theworld, we see that the earlier,
more primitive form of that knowledge preservationand transfer is ritualanting or songs. Because,
(39:01):
as you may know from watching televisionadverts, jingles just stick in your
head. You can probably remember theexact song and all the lyrics to something
you heard in an television advertisement whenyou were a small child because they stick
in your head, and knowing thisfact is quirk of the human mind.
(39:24):
Religious authorities understood that it was necessaryto communicate divine truths in the form of
like chants or songs, and that'show the rig Vader, the oldest text
in India, the oldest actual writtenform of it. It's only about a
thousand years old, but we cantell from the language contained in it that
(39:44):
it is about three and a halfthousand years old and long predates written Indo
European languages in India. So howwas it so well preserved as a Bronze
Age form of language up until thepresent into the modern era, well up
until the invention of writing or IndoEuropean writing, because there were earlier non
(40:08):
Indo European writing scripts there. Butthe answer is through chanting, because that
tradition of chance exists still in India, where young children are taught to chant
the brig Vader the children of Brahm, the Brahmin cast. Like in Germanic
religion, only the higher cast canlearn the sacred things. The lower casts
are actually forbidden from hearing the rigVader recited. The Rigvader was too sacred
(40:30):
for the lower cast, so theyhad to learn it, and they have
these head movements to help them rememberall the verses learn really really large texts
in this way quite effectively can belearned the same thing you should imagine for
the Homeric epics in Greece, thesewere not entirely invented by Homer. Lots
of them are from stories, olderstories that date back to the time of
(40:52):
the Trojan War probably and would havebeen preserved long before Greek literacy through chants
or songs. And because that isbasically like writing before writing, and it
helps you to memorize quite your It'shard for us with our short attention spans
constantly scrolling on our phones and stuff. To imagine having this ability to just
(41:13):
memorize an entire book like this error. Definitely people would have been able to
recite these poems off by heart.A single school could have done that,
But that's just because they didn't havethese distractions, technological distractions, and even
writing even books represent a technological developmenton the path to our mobile phones now
(41:35):
where like that's why the Celtic Druidsand indeed the Brahms in India were initially
opposed to writing, because they sawas a corruption preventing people from learning to
pass on sacred knowledge in the formerway, which is through these chants.
Of course, these chants weren't justprofane forms of information sharing. They were
sacred. They were passing on sacredknowledge, and that although most systems of
(42:01):
writing, when they initially are invented, are not sacred, usually especially like
we can think, the earliest examplesof writing are quite quite profane usage like
counting stocks and stuff like that.But Germanic ruines seem to be an exception
because they appear to have been deliberatelybe invented by a religious elite and have
(42:39):
always had a religious connotation from thevery beginning, which makes it quite special,
I think. And this association,I believe, is because they were
being deliberately used to convey things thathad formerly been magical spells expressed through chance
Galdre. And that is my beliefwhy gold and Runes are so closely tied
(43:05):
together, and why it was sonatural for Odin to just assume the role
of the god of Runes. Andyou can imagine therefore, that this god
hanging on a world tree and acquiringa divine magic thereby is much older than
two thousand years. And I've proventhat as much in my video on the
World Tree that grows from Hell,when I show that there are not only
(43:30):
across the Indo European world called relatedmyths of this world tree growing in the
underworld, that there are even relatedmyths of a divine priest hanging on the
roots of this tree among Native Americans. So it could well be that the
(43:52):
Odin myth goes back even earlier thanIndo Europeans, right back to the Ice
Age, where Europeans and Native Americanshave a common ancestor living in Siberia,
really really old. So I certainlydo not believe that it was invented the
idea of a god sacrificing himself onthe world tree in two thousand years ago,
(44:14):
just to explain Runes that that's implausible. What I think is they just
grafted on the knowledge of Runes tothe existing knowledge of Gilder which Odin was
associated with. And then of coursethe use of runic magic naturally was integrated
into the pre existing use of magicalchants. Hence why we see they are
(44:37):
so clearly connected within magical contexts.Do you agree with me? Have I
missed out some important insight into thedevelopment of Runes or Galded or that would
render invalid my interpretation. If so, please let me know in the comments.
I have lots of things to sayabout Odin, and I could make
(45:00):
lots and lots of videos about them, but maybe I'll have to wait another
seven years before I do another onelike this. But I felt like doing
this because I thought this is worthconsidering. And the intersection between is,
you know, academic historical learning andesoteric interpretation. I think a lot of
people who are actually practicing pagans canarrive at, you know, quite wise
(45:25):
conclusions through religious insights just from regularpractice use of the runs use of calder
Well. One thing for sure.Both Golder and Runer are sacred and associated
with Odin, and they're part ofour religious tradition. I will be soon
(45:46):
releasing a special online learning course calledStarting Heathenry, which has been especially developed
using a method called micro learning,so that it is perfect for you to
absorb the information in small chunks ofsmall videos are combined with reading, and
(46:09):
this method has been proven to bethe best way for learning now and with
many people today are very busy andthey are bombarded with information on all sides,
and so it's important to have aform of information exchange that facilitates learning
that sticks in your mind. StartingHeathenry as a course will teach someone,
(46:30):
even from the earliest stage, howto practice heathenry. It is not like
this video an interpretation of mythology.I do not discuss mythology in it.
Every book and like video talking abouthow to be Heathen seems to focus on
mythology and how to interpret edit texts. You don't need to pay for that.
(46:52):
But people keep coming to me andsay, how do I actually do
it? Like what do I doday to day to be a Heathen?
How do I actually perform a blooked. How do I actually get the gods
to accept my sacrifices? How canI have them answer my prayers? What
do I need to do? Thesequestions I've been asked over and over again
(47:12):
for years, and I decided thatthe best thing to do was to make
a proper learning course, a distancelearning course that you can access via your
phone. You can do the lessonson your phone, you can do them
on your computer, and it willyou do it in your own time in
increments until you compete the course.So keep an eye out for starting Heathenry.
It will soon be available online.Watch this space In the meantime,
(47:43):
I really appreciate everyone who watches Survivethe Jive. And if you feel like
you can help me, I dourge you to become a patron on Patreon
or subscribe Star, because this channelcan only go on with your generous donations
to fund me. You get inreturn, access to exclusive videos that no
one else can see, lots ofcontent. Additionally, you get to join
(48:07):
the Telegram voice chat, which happenssometimes where we all get together and I
chat with my patrons and answer theirquestions. And if you can't make that,
you also get priority for your questionsto be answered for the jive Talk
Ama. Jive Talk is my secondchannel and that is devoted to interviews and
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(48:29):
make sure you subscribe to jive Talkas well. You'll find the links
on my channel the link to theother channel as well, so please like,
please subscribe. Please share this videowith anyone you think might have some
useful insights about the nature of odinhis relationship to Mercury, Galdra and Rooms.
Keep Surviving the Jive and goodbye.
Why was the Germanic god photan theNorse god Odin linked to the Roman god
mercury. Also, Odin achieved threeforms of magical wisdom, the ruins,
magic chants called golder, and themeed of poetry. But when did Odin
(00:24):
become associated with runes? Because theydidn't always exist? And why is it
that myths are preserved for how heacquired runes and how he acquired the meed
of poetry, but not for howhe acquired golder. You'll find out today
and survive the give We like Odin. Look at this shirt. This is
(00:55):
a bractiat depicting an Odinic king ofsome kind with ruins all around. You
can buy it in my spring storethe links in the description, or it's
even tagged below here. So havea look at this and other t shirts
depicting odin Ich imagery. About sevenyears ago I made a video in which
I described Odin as the dankest ofgods. It's achieved about a quarter of
(01:18):
a million views now, and it'smostly just me sort of detailing the main
sources we have on that god,and then afterwards I sort of make some
speculations about the esoteric interpretations of Odinthat I've reached. Some people still tell
me that they think it's the bestvideo I've done, even though seven years
ago is a long time and I'velearned a lot since then as well,
(01:40):
and it's also sort of changed someof my interpretations. I've made lots of
other videos talking about Odin since then, and I think there are a lot
more fact based and reliable than thatone. Although that one isn't that bad,
it's a lot better than most ofthe ones on the Internet you can
find, and I did make itclear where I'm speculating and where something is
absolutely not. But there's a lotof stuff I didn't even go over.
(02:02):
It was only half an hour longvideo. So today I'm going to talk
about a few other things again,esoteric interpretations. This isn't just me going
over the basic source material, ofwhich many other people have done videos on
that anyway, including myself, Andyou can go through my videos like for
example, on Anglo Saxon and Paganismto learn about Wodin, or on my
(02:23):
video about the Horn Speared Answer,where I specifically talk about archaeological evidence of
Odin. I did a stream withScott Shell recently when we talked about Runic
bratchet evidence such as this on theT shirt, which show an Odin cult
through these connected to kingship. Thereare many videos I've done where the main
(02:44):
topic is in fact, this godwho the Anglo Saxons called Wodin, the
Germans called Votan, but we knowmost of all through medieval Icelandic literature,
where he's called Odin. He isindeed the dankist of God's seventeen humor hasn't
the test of time very well,but that was considered a funny joke seven
(03:05):
years ago. But anyway, first, I'm going to talk about his interpretation
as being Mercury. And some peopleget I've said about this because they say,
why is he Mercury because Mercury isnot the same as Odin. Mercury
is the Roman equivalent of aramis Hermes, and that god is not the main
(03:28):
god of the classical you know,Greco Roman pantheon. He is subservient to
the main god, Zeus. Inmany respects Odin is more like Zeus because
he's the king of the gods,the father of the gods. You know,
he's the chief god. It wasa combination of Germanic people not really
understanding the Roman religion and Roman peoplenot really understanding the Germanic religion, which
(03:50):
led to their being conflated from anearly stage, and that continued for a
thousand years into Christian period, wherelike Christians would refer to Odin as much.
What does Mercury have in common withOdin? Well, Mercury was a
psychopomp that means he led the soulsof the dead, you know, in
the same way that Odin did,you know via his valkyries. Mercury is
(04:11):
also a god of trade, andOdin is called a god of cargoes.
It's not a major aspect of Odin, but it is somewhat hinted at in
his the kennings that are used torefer to him. And also we know
from the Arab even fadl and thatmerchants, Germanic merchants would make sacrifices to
a god, presumably Wotan in orderto get good trade deals when they're out
(04:34):
being merchants in the South. Soyeah, it does seem that this is
a sort of thing. Odin's alsoassociated with war, so obviously the main
kind of Germanic people that are goingto come in contact with foreigners are going
to be merchants and soldiers, andboth of those types of people are going
to be very focused on Wotan Votanas their main god. At surface level,
(04:58):
there is a an apparent equivalence betweenMercury and Odin. After all,
I don't know if I seem tomaybe give the wrong impression in that video
seven years ago that Odin derives fromthe cult of Mercury in some way,
but I don't believe that's true atall. I also said back then,
and I've subsequently repeatedly said I don'tbelieve this anymore, that I think Odin
(05:20):
could have been a secondary god whousurped the primary god of the Germanic pantheon,
being Tyrre. I no longer believethat to be the case. It
was based on a linguistic argument thatTire is the sky Father, and I
made a big video in about threeyears ago about the sky Father, in
which I explicitly stated that I don'tthink Tyr was ever the sky Father.
(05:42):
Even though his name is cognate withthe Indo European word for sky, it
just means Tyr does not mean skyin Germanic at all. It means god,
and he has no paternal roles atall, nor is he married to
the Earth Mother yord Or doesn't havesex with Yord Odin does. He doesn't
father the storm god. He doesn'thave any of the roles associated with the
(06:03):
sky Father that Odin does. Soif you want to attribute the role of
sky Father to a Germanic god,it has to be Votin. Obviously,
Mercury is not the Skyfather. That'sZeus. But that's just because the interpretato
romana is not an accurate way offinding equivalent gods. It just goes on
very surface level attributes rather than likethe entire an analysis of the mythic equivalents.
(06:30):
But at an esoteric level, Ithink that you actually find more compelling
reasons to sort of associate Odin witharemes, and I'd like to talk about
those today because I don't see manypeople talking about it, and it's just
quite an interesting matter for esoteric consideration. And Odin is an esoteric god.
(06:55):
This is all about the relationship withTomes and Prometheus. These are two Greek
gods then, and as I say, Aramis is Mercury. They're both givers
of wisdom and they give wisdom tomankind. Prometheus wants to take the divine
gift of fire and give it toman Aramis teaches mankind certain divine skills.
(07:17):
He's like a divine priest that leadsthe path of for mankind to worship the
gods and become closer to the gods. That's exactly what Odin does. So
I even said in that Odin videofrom twenty seventeen that I thought Odin had
equivalents in the Indic pantheon to Brushpertythe divine priest, because Odin has that
(07:39):
role, but so does Aramis.The crucial differences between Aramis and Prometheus need
to be considered here because they they'rethey're both givers of wisdom, but one's
good and one's bad, and oneposes a challenge to divine order and is
therefore and consequently he bound and tortured, and that's his punishment, right,
(08:05):
the same punishment is given to Loki. So Odin and Loki have this close
relationship. And I think you couldof think about the equivalents of Heremes and
Aramis and Prometheus and Odin and Loki. There's definitely some clear parallels here.
So Loki's bound and punished for hisbetrayal of the gods, so is Prometheus.
(08:31):
Aramis is good because he represents thedivine order. He upholds divine order,
and his gifts to mankind. Hisdivine gifts to mankind reinforce that divine
order by showing them the path tothe divine through sacred arts and rituals.
The same is true for Odin.Aramis Trismegistus is the Greek version of the
(08:52):
Egyptian god Thoth, and he inthis form he also bears close resemblance to
Odin, because Magistus gifted sacred artsto mankind, such as science, alchemy,
and hieroglyphics. Of course, Odingifted runes, and there's an obvious
parallel here of a writing system giftedby the god Aministris, Magistus or Odin
(09:16):
to mankind. Aramis is obedient toZeus, but Prometheus isn't. The obedience
of Hermes to Zeus represents his obedienceto divine order in the Germanic equivalent.
Odin can't be obedient to a highGod because there is no high god.
He is the equivalent of Zeus.He's like Zeus of Mercury combined in that
(09:37):
sense, but he is obedient todivine law, whereas Loki is not.
Both the Greeks and the Germanic peoplesin ancient times valued trickery and deceptiveness as
a kind of wily intelligence, especiallywhen employed against enemies. The ability to
deceive and trick your enemy was seenas a good thing, and therefore we
(10:01):
shouldn't be surprised when you know.Arames and Odin are seen as tricksters or
deceivers in certain ways, and that'snot necessarily negative. Loki and Prometheus are
also tricksters deceivers, but in theircase it is negative. Prometheus is a
very wise Titan whose name means forethought, and he fought in the Titanomachy against
(10:26):
the Titans. Despite himself being aTitan, he allied himself with the gods
in that war between the Titans andthe gods. The Germanic equivalent of the
Titans are the Jurtans or Jutnar,and Loki is of jutin birth. However,
he in most mythic contexts is alliedwith the gods against the Jutna,
(10:54):
just like Prometheus. However, bothPrometheus and Loki eventually revert to kind and
ally themselves with their own race againstthe gods, becoming enemies of the gods.
The same warning seems to be there. Both of them are punished in
pretty much the same way. They'rebound and tortured. Prometheus is bound and
(11:18):
tortured by having an eagle eat athis guts, whereas Loki is bound and
tortured by having venom of serpents strippedon his face. In both cases,
they are seen as having betrayed thegods. This kind of comparative mythology is
useful for just sort of considering themeaning of the myths and how we are
(11:41):
to regard these figures in a religiouscontext, So people who are actually practicing
pagans, it is helpful. Comparativemythology is not generally a religious discipline.
Comparative mythology is done my academics requiredat other reasons, where they're usually trying
to find cultural relationships and forms ofcultural transmission to explain why mythic parallels exist.
(12:03):
I'm not trying to do that rightnow. Whether this is because of
sustained interactions between Greece and Germanic people, or whether it's due to a common
Indo European origin outside the scope ofthis video. I'm talking from an esoteric
perspective. It is useful to knowabout these parallels to help you understand the
(12:28):
nature of Odin and Loki. Somepeople think that you're supposed to worship Loki,
but I think that's a bit likeworshiping Prometheus. Although Prometheus is not
always dealt with, it is notalways considered in ancient sources to be entirely
negative. He isn't the sort ofperson that they are going to worship,
(12:50):
and there's absolutely no evidence that Lokiwas ever worshiped. I don't think that
was the point. He is anuanced character. He isn't entirely evil,
but he is ultimately regarded as anenemy of the divine, and that is
what's crucial. Because Odin represents divineorder. They're both deceivers. They're both
very similar to each other, Odinand Loki, but Odin represents order and
(13:13):
Loki is ultimately opposed to order.That is that's the main takeaway that you
have to have. Aramis is asource of wisdom for mankind. The gifts
he gives help mankind to ascend tothe level of the gods, to reach
the divine. The gift of firefrom Prometheus does not do that, and
(13:35):
it's a gift that helps them tooppose the gods. Think about those,
I think they're very interesting points toconsider. The next thing I'd like to
deal with in this video is thenature of the three special wise arts that
Odin acquires through sacrifice. We knowa lot about two with them. Right
(14:01):
one in Horvermore, he describes howhe hung on a tree and thereby acquired
runs. Not exactly how, hejust says he's he put he took them
up. That's after nine knights ofself sacrifice. He understood these rooms.
Hmmm, who gave them to him? Was it the tree? Was it
the norns at the tree? Doesn'tsay this. The other myth of the
(14:24):
mead of poetry, which is alsoa gift to mankind, although somewhat unintentional,
is acquired. That myths explained indetail how he has to get three
drinks from the vats of mead onthe ground, and then flees with the
mead in the form of an eagleand drops it to earth. But the
(14:46):
third art goulder, which means achant or a song, a say,
could chance or song known the pluralis golder and in Old English it was
called galdore Uh that it's not explained, and I'm going to go over why
I think that is. And thisis a bid esoteric and a bit speculative,
(15:09):
so you'll have to forgive me ifyou think that it's not I'm not
adhering to the evidence strongly enough,but I think it is a point that
needs to be addressed and considered.Because I am an historian and a pagan,
I have two hats to wear whenstudying myth. One of them is
very much evidence based and the otheris more spiritual. I find it's easier
(15:31):
and best to keep them separate becausethey're very different things and you wouldn't want
one to contaminate the other. Christianand Islamic theologians are frequently challenged by historians
who study Islam and Christianity because thehistorical method is not concerned with adherence to
(15:54):
theological doctrine. They're just trying touncover the historical context in which these religions
grew and were constructed. The assumptionis that if you're studying Christianity or Islam
in a university, assumption is thatthis is a belief system that was made
(16:14):
by humans and a certain point inhistory, and that you can look at
the sources and figure out when thatis. But that fundamentally goes against what
Christianity and Islam are. They're likeboth considering that the source of these traditions
is a god. So there's thisconflict. Normally, that conflict doesn't exist
for Heathens because our myths do nottake place within a historical context. The
(16:40):
myths take place outside time, inan eternal time. Some of them are
said to refer, you know,to take place in the past, you
know, the terminology used refers toin the past, and some of them
it's said to take place in thefuture, like Grad and the Rook.
But really they all take place ina sort of outside the historical timeline that
(17:02):
we've acquired since Christianity introduces the conceptof a year zero, so that we
count every year year, one year, twenty twenty four, etc. However,
there are some instances where we arechallenged as Heathens by the historical method
because, for example, Odin learnedthe runes, but we know from linguistics
and archaeology and the development of runicwriting, and we can trace it in
(17:26):
the archaeological record that runes were inventedat some point. There is a historical
date when runs were made, andthere was a previous period where there are
no runes. So we can placeRunic writing into a historical timeline, a
profane timeline, just like Christians placethe birth of Jesus onto a profane timeline.
(17:52):
The problem is the myth of himhanging on the tree. It's not
like we have to say, oh, that's the day Odin hung on the
tree and acquired these runes. Butwhat we need to try and understand is
how did Odin come to be associatedwith this new technology, the system of
writing that we call runs. Sorunes are about two thousand years old,
(18:17):
we can say that with confidence aboutthey could be a bit old, a
few centuries older, maybe a fewcenturies younger, but definitely two thousand ish.
In that period in history, Odinwould have been known as either ward
Naz or ward Naz or Wardnaz somethinglike that. That was the proto Germanic
spoken at the time, which meansthe same thing that Odin and Wodin does,
(18:38):
which is what the prefix ward oror the word in Old English and
or in Old Norse means like adivine frenzy and then ward n n just
means one in one, so he'sthe frenzied one or the one of divine
ecstasy. It's a kind of divinelike a gift of ecstasy from the gods,
(19:03):
and he is the god associated withthat, and so that's reflected in
his earliest name, which can bereconstructed reliably as Wadnas or Wadnas. The
earliest runic writing that we have ison a comb from a bog in Funen
in Denmark, and that's dated toapproximately the second century. But you know,
(19:25):
the dating is a little bit there'san intervals of you know, exactly
how long it could be as acentury or a century off or so,
so it could be first century.But they also recently have discovered a roonstone
from around the same time, soit's somewhere between the first and third century,
(19:45):
so averaging out about the second century. And that's a stone, making
it the earliest ruden stone if youcan call it the runestone, which is
a grave marker in spenerud Runestone it'scalled. It's found near Oslo. Both
of them reveal that there's already asophisticated developed form of writing, so neither
(20:06):
of these are examples of a brandnew system of writing. They're the oldest
we've got on the record, butthey're definitely not the start of runes.
So they're about they're nearly two thousandyears old. But obviously runs are older
than these objects, so we cansay, like that's why we say maybe
it's like two thousand, maybe it'saround the birth of Christ, maybe a
little bit older, could be probablynot much more than two hundred BC at
(20:30):
the earliest the Germanic languages. ProtoGemanic language is generally dated to be around
five hundred BC, so the Runesemerge just a few centuries after Germanic languages
do, and of course Germanic languages, no one ever realized there were suddenly
speaking Proto Germanic. Proto Germanic isjust a different variant of earlier Indo European
(20:52):
languages spoken in the same region thatprobably sounded a lot like Protetmatic or did
sound a lot like Proto Domanic,but we don't have any way of reconstructing
them. It's certain that they werebased on a different script, but we
don't know which. Most people agreeit's either going to be based on the
Latin script, based on the Greekscript, or based on maybe Lapontic or
(21:14):
Etruscan the Lapontic scripts from the Alpsis one opinion, so we don't know
which. But what's certain is thatit doesn't well from what I understand of
what people who are more versed inthe science of linguistics and of development of
(21:37):
script specifically, it does not appearthat the Runic script could possibly have derived
naturally from the usage of any ofthose scripts, like as in like one
day they were writing ABC and thensuddenly they're writing foth arch. It just
can't happen. This runic alphabet calledthe foth arc was deliberately created by someone
(22:02):
who was familiar with another script andbasically was like, I want to invent
a new script, and or agroup of people of either a person or
a group of educated people who knewabout these other foreign scripts, decided to
invent a new script for written madefor purpose for the use of Proto Germanic
language, and that developed over timeinto other runic scripts like that for other
(22:23):
Germanic languages, like Futhorc for OldEnglish and the younger Phothoaric for Norse.
That's interesting because the idea of anelite making the runes fits very closely into
what we know about the elite natureof runic usage early on. So this
(22:44):
elitism in runes is clear in theearly A lot of the early roomstones refer
to the person speaking the express fromthe perspective of the erlas. So the
erlas, the word erlas is protodramanic. And because the English word earl
the Norse word yall, and itis some kind of like it's not the
(23:07):
same as what earl means. It'ssome kind of high status title that has
some connection to the ability to userunes, but is also a social position.
So they're boasting of this people,I the ralazka of the runes,
or I the you know. Thatis interesting because in the these inscriptions in
protog like Proto Norse for example,sort of prefigure what we see much later
(23:32):
in Icelandic literature, where they wherethey write we have written for sources for
Germanic mythology, and in there,like for example, in the Rugsthula,
it's made very clear that runes areexclusively for an elite. A boy called
Conra is the only one of thesons of y'all which is the same word
(23:55):
as Erlas, who is permitted tolearn the runes And this is like establishing
a sort of caste society. AndConnor. To give you an idea of
what kind of a man Connor is, and con why he was given this,
this privilege of learning ruins. Ishall read the following from Rigsthuler.
Connor rode through swamps and forests,luring birds and shooting them. When a
(24:18):
crow spoke to him, then sangthe crow, sitting lonely on a bow,
Why wilt thou young con tame thebirds? Rather shouldst thou young con
on? Horses ride and armies overcome? The point there is he's an as
military man, he's military aristocracy,and he speaks to a bird. And
(24:41):
we know from the other myths,like the myth of Siegert, who is
you know, descended from Odin's specificbloodline a hero, a dragon slayer,
that he acquires the ability to speakto birds by sucking the blood of a
dragon. And this is like anOdinik skill, and Odinik a bil the
ability to speak to the birds,and it's as is the ability to use
(25:06):
runes. And Odin is also verymuch a martial god not like Mercury,
more like Mars in that respect,like this is a god of war.
So we're associating Runes from the earlieststage with a martial elite aristocracy who have
the runs as a privilege. Mostpeople would not have been able to understand
(25:27):
Runes. And it's important to understandthe explicit connection of the aristocracy with the
cult of Odin. So Odin isa god of aristocrats, and to be
an aristocrat is to be a warrior, a knight. Basically, they didn't
have nights like in the Middle Ages, but it's the social position out of
(25:47):
which the night of the Middle Agescomes from. It's the same thing like
knights were aristocrats basically in many cases. Now I'm going to come to the
other topic of gold, because Ithe connection of God to Runes is what
I'm trying to get at and toexplain it. And to do so,
I'm going to read from the poeticEdda. This edition is from Imperium Press
(26:11):
and it's got a forward by yourstruly, So if you want to hear,
if you want to read what myopinion on the prose editor is,
you should get this version of thepoetic gether which has the text in both
Norse and English, and I willread the English translation of the relevant passages
(26:32):
relating to how Odin won the runes. Now I know that I hung on
the winded tree, hung there fornights full nine with the spear. I
was wounded and offered. I wasto odin myself, to myself on the
tree, that none may ever knowwhat route beneath it runs. None made
me happy with loaf or horn,And there below I looked. I took
(26:57):
up the runes shrieking. I tookthem, and forwith back I fell nine
mighty songs I got from the sonof Bolthorne, Bestler's father, and a
drink I got of the goodly meadpoured out from off Ruri. Right then
(27:18):
I began to thrive, and wisdomto get. I grew and well I
was. Each word led on toanother word, each deed to another deed.
Now Here you've seen he describes themythic self sacrifice, that through which
(27:40):
he acquired rounds. Then he mentionstwo other things he learned, golder and
he and how he got a drinkfrom what this says a drink, But
he in the myth he got threedrinks from Ruri of the sacred meat of
poetry. That in between the referenceto the Nine Mighty Songs he got from
(28:03):
Bestler's father. That's the only referenceto this. We don't know any more
about it. That means it's hiseternal uncle, by the way, his
mother's brother. And in Germanic culture, the relationship between a boy or a
man and his mother's brother is veryspecial. That that is like he a
(28:26):
foster, that's basically like a seconddad. So this person is responsible for
teaching that boy a lot of things. Who is this unnamed person we don't
know, but he is of Jurtonancestry, because Bolthorne is a Jurton.
Some people think that this could beMimir. There's a third myth besides the
(28:49):
rune that acquiring the runes and acquiringthe meta poetry, there is a third
myth that we know about in acquiringsome special wisdom, and that's when he
goes to the well of Mimir.Mimus Brunder sacrifices an eye and in return
he gets to get the wisdom ofthe water of memory from Mimus Brunder.
(29:11):
Now, Mimir could well be aJurtan, and he could be Odin's maternal
uncle, and that would explain whyOdin wanted to preserve his head after the
war when he was killed, Mimawas killed, and he wanted to preserve
this with special herbs and leaks orwhatever, and therefore thereby acquire more wisdom
(29:36):
from mimir aft in death. It'spossible in the myth in which Odin sacrifices
as I at Mimus Brunder, itisn't specifically said that he learns Golder,
So maybe that isn't the myth wherehe learned the Golder. It's upon possible
interpretation. Another is that it's actuallya part of the myth where he he
(30:00):
learns the runes, because immediately afterhe you know, he says he hangs
on the tree and then he feltfalls back, and then the next standard
it says, and I learned ninemighty songs Thimble luf mighty songs. So
and Leuf is the type of Gulderbasically, so it's possible that this that
Runes and Galder are almost the samething in that sense, So like it
(30:25):
doesn't there's no clear explanation for why. Like we know, we have all
this explanation for the media of poetrybeing how he acquires that in scored Scopomol.
But the winning of the nine Galdre, why don't we know more about
it? I really think that there'sa connection between Runes and Gldre, and
I'm going to explore that now tosort of demonstrate why I think this.
I think this connection is as oldas the runes are, that it came
(30:49):
about as soon as runes were invented. So as I said, runs are
about two thousand years old. Ofcourse, the Heathen tradition is much older
to Manic. Heathenisms just invented asa religion when Germanic language was like suddenly
come about. And as I said, Germanic language was never invented. It's
just a variant of an earlier IndoEuropean dialect of language or whatever that became
(31:11):
what now linguists referred to as ProtoGermanic. There was no transition into Proto
Germanic. It's just, you know, it's an arbitrary stage in linguistic development
that we find useful to refer tonow. So heathenr the religion or the
religion of Odin and these gods thatwe associate with the Germanic people is obviously
(31:33):
older even than the Germanic people,because it's clearly with Indo European origins and
continues on. Many of the burialpractices, for example, five thousand years
old and go right back to theIndo Europeans that were used. These are
ones carried on being used by Vikingsonly a thousand years ago, so they're
like, that's four thousand years ofcontinue continuity there. So of course we
(31:56):
can't imagine that the entire myths wereinvented for purpose even when a new technology
like runes was were invented. Soit seems to me that prior to Runic
literacy, Odin or Wordnas as hewas known, was already associated with magic
(32:16):
and specifically with poetry and galdra,and that when the new technology of Runic
writing was invented, it naturally becameassociated with this god, because this is
a god of wisdom, a godof words, of chance, of magic.
You know, runes were like amagical system as well. They were
literally used for magic, but infact writing itself appeared as a kind of
(32:39):
magic to spell, you know,cast spells. And of course, if
they're going to associate this new thingwith a god, it's obviously going to
be Odin, the god of theAristocrats, the god of of magic.
Now, the word rune itself doesn'thave any relationship to writing. It's an
(33:00):
old word that means secret, esotericsecret. So the fact that the Germanic
people decided to apply the word runto these symbols used for writing shows a
lot about what they how they regardedthis system of writing. We can also
get a bit of insight into whatroomed means from Finnish because Finnish language is
(33:23):
not Indo European or Germanic. Ofcourse, Germanic is Indo European, so
it's completely unrelated to Germanic. Butbecause of the fact that Finland is you
know, parallel to Scandinavia and hasso much close contact with it, there
are some very old Germanic loanwords intoFinnish that have been preserved. Whereas the
(33:44):
Germanic languages develop into other languages,you know, Proto Norse becomes Norse,
et cetera, Finnish has like oldwords like the word for king Conninge is
very like Proto Germanic word for king, a very you know, a two
thousand year old Germanic word for king, so the word rune was also lent
into Finish, but it does notmean a system of writing. Runo Runo
(34:07):
in Finnish means a sacred song.Basically, it means goldra. Specifically,
Finnish runo refer to songs that areabout their myths, which is exactly the
sort of thing you would call gelderin a Norse context. I think that
(34:28):
it's unlikely that the Finnish people borroweda word that means writing and then changed
its meaning so that it meant song. I think probably at the time that
the Finns borrowed the word run runointo Finish, it was used by Germanic
people to refer to sacred songs goldra. This can explain why runes and galdra
(34:52):
are so closely associated in magical contextas well as mythic contexts. For example,
in Gretisa the Witch, she firstshe cuts runes onto a tree stump,
and she reddens the runes with herblood to sort of activate them magically,
and then she sings a golder overthem, and the combination of runes
(35:12):
in golder here can be called amagical charm or a magical spell, and
I think very often performing a magicspell involved a combination of runes and golder.
Also in Sigdrifmol, the valkyrie Sigdrifabrings the hero Sigaret, who asks
her for wisdom, good goldre andruins of gladness. So the two gifts
(35:37):
are given together, good golder andruins of joy. That's the way that
they paired. There seems like aformula, an old formula that's been used
in other contexts. In Snorris Sturluson'sLaoser Viser, he refers to Odin as
ein Scorpier Galder, the sole creatorof Galdra, and in engling A Saga
(36:02):
chapter seven, where the many skillsof Odin are listed, it says that
he taught the art of runes andof goldre. The two again are said
together, which is why it saysthe Azir are called golder smiths, the
ones who create gelder. Apparently,the Asir are called that because Odin makes
(36:22):
them, doesn't There's no description ofthe others as actual galdersmiths, but he
says that because of Odin, theAzea can be called goldersmiths. So Odin
taught runes and Goldre. We knowthat, and again the two go together
in the sense that they were givento man by odin both magical systems,
and within magical context we know thatthe two were used simultaneously. They go
(36:45):
together in the magical context too,and they were taught by the same god
in the same way. And inthe mythic description of how Odin acquired Runes,
it seems to say he acquired Golderat the same time. Open to
interpretation, maybe it isn't so that, maybe it's saying he actually got them
from Mimir Nimes Brunner, But Idon't think. I'm not sure about that.
(37:05):
I mean, no one can sayfor certain. But the just juxtaposition
of the two stanzas, it doesseem to be saying that that's where he
got them, although in the samestandsap way it talks about the Goldre,
it says that he won the drinkof mead, which refers to a myth
that it doesn't go into in anydetail. So it could be the same
things happening here. That is justreferring how he got the glder without going
into any detail. But then thethree things combined Runes, Glder and the
(37:28):
poet mood poetry are what he sayscaused him to grow in wisdom and flourish.
And these are the things you needto acquire the knowledge of runes,
gelder and the meat of poetry ifyou want to flourish in this way.
Doesn't say you got the gelder fromMimir, But it doesn't say in the
previous stands that that he got theruns from anyone. It just says he
got them. So it could wellbe that there is no individual person involved
(37:51):
in giving Odin the gulder or therunes. He just acquires them through the
self sacrifice. At the same time, I'm very tempted to think of it
that way, because the way thatgalder and runes are paired in so many
sources as two things combined. They'retaught by Odin simultaneously, they're given by
the Valkyrie simultaneously. They're used bythe wits simultaneously as a heathen. The
(38:15):
myths to me are eternally true.So the profane historical development of runic writing,
which occurred within our profane space,this world, this middle yard,
that does not have any effect onthe ultimate metaphysical truths contained in myth.
And I think Odin's role as thegod of Runes is just a natural extension
(38:37):
of his much much older role asthe god of Galdra chance and prior to
the technology of writing all over theworld, we see that the earlier,
more primitive form of that knowledge preservationand transfer is ritualanting or songs. Because,
(39:01):
as you may know from watching televisionadverts, jingles just stick in your
head. You can probably remember theexact song and all the lyrics to something
you heard in an television advertisement whenyou were a small child because they stick
in your head, and knowing thisfact is quirk of the human mind.
(39:24):
Religious authorities understood that it was necessaryto communicate divine truths in the form of
like chants or songs, and that'show the rig Vader, the oldest text
in India, the oldest actual writtenform of it. It's only about a
thousand years old, but we cantell from the language contained in it that
(39:44):
it is about three and a halfthousand years old and long predates written Indo
European languages in India. So howwas it so well preserved as a Bronze
Age form of language up until thepresent into the modern era, well up
until the invention of writing or IndoEuropean writing, because there were earlier non
(40:08):
Indo European writing scripts there. Butthe answer is through chanting, because that
tradition of chance exists still in India, where young children are taught to chant
the brig Vader the children of Brahm, the Brahmin cast. Like in Germanic
religion, only the higher cast canlearn the sacred things. The lower casts
are actually forbidden from hearing the rigVader recited. The Rigvader was too sacred
(40:30):
for the lower cast, so theyhad to learn it, and they have
these head movements to help them rememberall the verses learn really really large texts
in this way quite effectively can belearned the same thing you should imagine for
the Homeric epics in Greece, thesewere not entirely invented by Homer. Lots
of them are from stories, olderstories that date back to the time of
(40:52):
the Trojan War probably and would havebeen preserved long before Greek literacy through chants
or songs. And because that isbasically like writing before writing, and it
helps you to memorize quite your It'shard for us with our short attention spans
constantly scrolling on our phones and stuff. To imagine having this ability to just
(41:13):
memorize an entire book like this error. Definitely people would have been able to
recite these poems off by heart.A single school could have done that,
But that's just because they didn't havethese distractions, technological distractions, and even
writing even books represent a technological developmenton the path to our mobile phones now
(41:35):
where like that's why the Celtic Druidsand indeed the Brahms in India were initially
opposed to writing, because they sawas a corruption preventing people from learning to
pass on sacred knowledge in the formerway, which is through these chants.
Of course, these chants weren't justprofane forms of information sharing. They were
sacred. They were passing on sacredknowledge, and that although most systems of
(42:01):
writing, when they initially are invented, are not sacred, usually especially like
we can think, the earliest examplesof writing are quite quite profane usage like
counting stocks and stuff like that.But Germanic ruines seem to be an exception
because they appear to have been deliberatelybe invented by a religious elite and have
(42:39):
always had a religious connotation from thevery beginning, which makes it quite special,
I think. And this association,I believe, is because they were
being deliberately used to convey things thathad formerly been magical spells expressed through chance
Galdre. And that is my beliefwhy gold and Runes are so closely tied
(43:05):
together, and why it was sonatural for Odin to just assume the role
of the god of Runes. Andyou can imagine therefore, that this god
hanging on a world tree and acquiringa divine magic thereby is much older than
two thousand years. And I've proventhat as much in my video on the
World Tree that grows from Hell,when I show that there are not only
(43:30):
across the Indo European world called relatedmyths of this world tree growing in the
underworld, that there are even relatedmyths of a divine priest hanging on the
roots of this tree among Native Americans. So it could well be that the
(43:52):
Odin myth goes back even earlier thanIndo Europeans, right back to the Ice
Age, where Europeans and Native Americanshave a common ancestor living in Siberia,
really really old. So I certainlydo not believe that it was invented the
idea of a god sacrificing himself onthe world tree in two thousand years ago,
(44:14):
just to explain Runes that that's implausible. What I think is they just
grafted on the knowledge of Runes tothe existing knowledge of Gilder which Odin was
associated with. And then of coursethe use of runic magic naturally was integrated
into the pre existing use of magicalchants. Hence why we see they are
(44:37):
so clearly connected within magical contexts.Do you agree with me? Have I
missed out some important insight into thedevelopment of Runes or Galded or that would
render invalid my interpretation. If so, please let me know in the comments.
I have lots of things to sayabout Odin, and I could make
(45:00):
lots and lots of videos about them, but maybe I'll have to wait another
seven years before I do another onelike this. But I felt like doing
this because I thought this is worthconsidering. And the intersection between is,
you know, academic historical learning andesoteric interpretation. I think a lot of
people who are actually practicing pagans canarrive at, you know, quite wise
(45:25):
conclusions through religious insights just from regularpractice use of the runs use of calder
Well. One thing for sure.Both Golder and Runer are sacred and associated
with Odin, and they're part ofour religious tradition. I will be soon
(45:46):
releasing a special online learning course calledStarting Heathenry, which has been especially developed
using a method called micro learning,so that it is perfect for you to
absorb the information in small chunks ofsmall videos are combined with reading, and
(46:09):
this method has been proven to bethe best way for learning now and with
many people today are very busy andthey are bombarded with information on all sides,
and so it's important to have aform of information exchange that facilitates learning
that sticks in your mind. StartingHeathenry as a course will teach someone,
(46:30):
even from the earliest stage, howto practice heathenry. It is not like
this video an interpretation of mythology.I do not discuss mythology in it.
Every book and like video talking abouthow to be Heathen seems to focus on
mythology and how to interpret edit texts. You don't need to pay for that.
(46:52):
But people keep coming to me andsay, how do I actually do
it? Like what do I doday to day to be a Heathen?
How do I actually perform a blooked. How do I actually get the gods
to accept my sacrifices? How canI have them answer my prayers? What
do I need to do? Thesequestions I've been asked over and over again
(47:12):
for years, and I decided thatthe best thing to do was to make
a proper learning course, a distancelearning course that you can access via your
phone. You can do the lessonson your phone, you can do them
on your computer, and it willyou do it in your own time in
increments until you compete the course.So keep an eye out for starting Heathenry.
It will soon be available online.Watch this space In the meantime,
(47:43):
I really appreciate everyone who watches Survivethe Jive. And if you feel like
you can help me, I dourge you to become a patron on Patreon
or subscribe Star, because this channelcan only go on with your generous donations
to fund me. You get inreturn, access to exclusive videos that no
one else can see, lots ofcontent. Additionally, you get to join
(48:07):
the Telegram voice chat, which happenssometimes where we all get together and I
chat with my patrons and answer theirquestions. And if you can't make that,
you also get priority for your questionsto be answered for the jive Talk
Ama. Jive Talk is my secondchannel and that is devoted to interviews and
live streams. So if you can'tget enough Survive the Jive on this channel,
(48:29):
make sure you subscribe to jive Talkas well. You'll find the links
on my channel the link to theother channel as well, so please like,
please subscribe. Please share this videowith anyone you think might have some
useful insights about the nature of odinhis relationship to Mercury, Galdra and Rooms.
Keep Surviving the Jive and goodbye.
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