Whittled wooden Woden weohs!

Small Woden carvings with pyrographed faces. I made these to be offerings to the fire, or to be left at sacred sites.

Tolkien had Woden in mind when he created Gandalf. In a letter to Sir Stanley Unwin in 1946 he discussed the subject of the German edition of The Hobbit and described his idea of Gandalf as being an Odinic Wanderer.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us"

Remembering JRR Tolkien,
3rd January 1892 - 2nd September 1973.

image source

Your fate is woven,
Your life-thread is spun.
Your wyrd is a song-
That will now be sung.
By Urd, who knows;
How your path begun.
By Verðandi, who chooses;
How your worth is won.
By Skuld who decides,
How your death will come.

poem by Hāmasson

Sunday (7th September) is the full moon, it’s also a Blood moon, turning red due to a lunar eclipse starting at18.30 for us in England to see.

Given all the current events in England at the moment, this could well be seen as an omen but we should consider September was once our ninth and sacred month, Haliġmōnaþ or Holy Month. Lets hope the blood moon symbolises the birth of newer and greater things to come.

As with every full moon, my family hearth give thanks to our gods and ancestors, this month we will be performing our rites during the eclipse. Hāl the Awaking English Spirit and the stirring White Dragon. Hāl Englaland!

Moon over Thor’s Hill last night.

Anglo-Saxon era stone carved fylfot pattern from Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire.

Some sources claim the word fylfot means 'four footed' but this is debatable. Here the prefix fyl- is said to be a corruption of fēower, OE for ‘four’. Other suggestions are that it means 'filler' (page filler) from OE fyllan and ‘foot’ due to the symbol being a decorative design used to fill the foot of written documents. Either way, the fylfot is a symbol of Woden for many English heathens.

Interesting horned Green Man from a church in Garwick, near the Welsh border. Thought to be based on Cernunnos, which would cement Him as a god of nature and fertility; could also be based on Woden giving the breath of life. ᚩ

What's really interesting about the post above is that there's some similarity with the 'Woden' carvings in the church at Great Canfield Essex, especially the 'feathered ends' which appear on the tails of the serpents in the Essex church.

Gale winds blew across England last night, which are Woden’s song. Jacob Grimm had this to say on gale winds-

The phenomenon of howling wind is referred to Odin's wagon, as that of thunder is to Thor's. On hearing a noise at night, as of horses and carts, they say in Sweden 'Oden far forbi' - Odin drives close by.

The words Gale (the wind) and Gale (to sing) are connected and both come from the OE Galan, meaning 'to sing, enchant' or 'to scream'. This word is loaded with spiritual connotations and shares a root with OE gælð ‘to chant’, which gave us 'galdor', the magical chants still used today at blots and during rituals.

The Danish ‘gal’ meaning madness and fury, these being aspects of Woden, is also cognate with gale – the blowing wind.

Woden’s song carries on the wind.

J M Kemble, in his 1876 book The Saxons in England suggests the name Hacleberend for Woden. Hacle from the word Hackle was a style of cloak and Hacleberend means the cloak-bearer. In the Story of Norna-Gest (Nornagests þáttr) a man with a spear and green cloak is described as a heklumaðrinn (the cloaked man). This heklumaðr (man in the cloak) is later revealed to be Woden himself.

Art - Odin, Huginn and Muninn by Loïc Canavaggia

Woden in his role as Wish-Lord from 'The Saxons in England, Volume 1 (1876) by John Mitchell Kemble'

One of the names of Odin in the Old-Norse mythology is Osk, which by an etymological law is equivalent to the German Wunsch, the Anglo Saxon Wisc, and the English Wish. Grimm has shown in the most convincing manner that Wunsch may be considered as a name of Wuotan in Germany; and it is probable that Wúsc or Wísc may have had a similar power here. Among the names in the mythical genealogies we find Wúscfreá, the lord of the wish, and I am even inclined to the belief that Oisc, equivalent to Ésk, the founder of the Kentish line of kings, may be a Jutish name of Wóden in this form,—ésc, or in an earlier form óski, i. e. Wunsch, Wýsc.

Weddings were traditionally held on Frīg’s day and in Anglo-Saxon England, the groom’s keys were often given to the bride as part of their wedding vows. The flowers of the cowslip (Primula veris) are said to represent these keys and to many folk cowslips are held sacred to Frīg, hence why cowslips are also called ‘lady’s keys’. In Iceland the giant cowslip is still known as friggjarlykill (Ice. Frīg's keys).

Sunne rising over the Uffington castle on the horizon. I took this photo this morning from the ancient Ridgeway, the pre-historic route that connects Avebury, Wittenham Clumps, Barbury castle, Wayland Smithy, the Uffington White Horse, Grim's Ditch and a number of other sacred sites.

A happy even-night (equinox) to you all. Tonight my family hearth will hold a rite to mark the change in the year, when the nights become longer.

I took this photo of the entrance to the Wayland Smithy over the weekend as my family joined other heathens to mark the Winter-Finding.

Normally referred to as Tiw, this figure is one of two found on the Sutton Hoo purse lid. Tiw is known for placing his hand in the mouth of the Fenris wolf. Woden however is known as the Wolf-god and I believe that this figure more likely represents Woden.