Woden the Mighty: Difference between revisions

*"Woden" is the {{w|Old English|Anglo-Saxon}} cognate of Óðinn.<ref>[http://www.behindthename.com/name/woden Behind the Name: Meaning, origin and history of the name Woden]</ref> It ultimately developed from the {{w|Germanic languages|early Germanic}} *Woðanaz, which in turn comes from {{w|Germanic parent language|pre-Germanic}} *Wātónos. Woden’s name can be translated as 'Master of Ecstasy'. His Old Norse name, Óðinn, is formed from two parts: first, the noun óðr, 'ecstasy, fury, inspiration', and the suffix -inn, the masculine definite article, which, when added to the end of another word like this, means something like 'the master of' or 'a perfect example of'. The eleventh-century historian Adam of Bremen confirms this when he translates 'Odin' as 'The Furious'. Óðr can take countless different forms. As one saga describes Odin, "when he sat with his friends, he gladdened the spirits of all of them, but when he was at war, his demeanor was terrifyingly grim."<ref>[http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/ Odin - Norse Mythology for Smart People]</ref>