This has been brought up on the livejournal forum I frequent, and is bugging the hell out me. We've had someone swearing blind that Woden is a Celtic God, worshipped by Druids and that christmas trees were put up in his honour. So far so fluffy, and been appropriatley dismissed. Which was good sport. General consensus is that maybe they meant Odin (you know, the Norse God). Now I have heard of Woden, but only from Raymond Buckland in relation to Saex-wicca. So either way not Celtic, ergo not a Druids affair. Still have to wonder though; where did this Woden come from, what's the history, patheon, info etc? So shall throw it open to you, my most esteemed friends and experts. Anybody have anything to help clarify this issue?
LMAO! Woden, a Celtic God? Woden is a variation of Odin, or vice versa. He took on many different names and attributes as people migrated and their needs changed according to region.I suppose some of the norsemen who raided in Scotland and Ireland could have settled there, and continued to follow Woden/Odin/Odhinn/Wodan, but that doesn't make hime "Celtic". (There's a word that's been tortured out of all semblace to it's meaning.) Woden is an Anglo Saxon god.
Could have? By the 11th century, most of the coastal villages of Ireland and some in Scotland were more Norse than anything else. These settlements stretched into Wales, France, Britain, Man, North Africa and yes, even North America.
Yeah, guess I should have said they did, but I don't know as much about the extent of those settlements as I'd like, so I thought I'd leave it open for discussion.:&
The term Celts refers to any of a number of ancient peoples in Europe using the Celtic languages, which form a branch of Indo-European languages, as well as others whose language is unknown but where associated cultural traits such as Celtic art are found in archaeological evidence. Historical theories were developed that these factors were indicative of a common origin, but later theories of culture spreading to differing indigenous peoples have recently been supported by genetic studies. and that does most assuradly includes the norseman, and druidic people. there is evidence people have been worshiping odin for more than 40,000 years
and on the questian, the tree has been the major religous icon for many celtic people, the tradition of santa claus seems to be post christen, in old tradition it was comman to stay indoors on the soltice and then party your ass off for a week or so, this tradition endured untill very recent times and taken to extremes in france, somewhere along the line the reason for not going out was odin was riding around wreaking havok along the country side, a very unodinlike thing to to. it has been sugested that this was the origens of santa claus
Celtic also refers to the modern decendents and cultures as well. As to Odin and 40,000 years, there is no evidence beyond speculation. Even all the "evidence" of the Mother Goddess cults of 40,000 years ago are largely speculative as well. Arguably, Odin could be the Germanic version of an older Indo-European father deity, but that isn't accurate either. "Woden" was the concept of Divine wisdom, and "Woden" the man was the great tribal leader who personified that wisdom, therefore becoming Woden the god, not the divine concept. Woden hung himself from the tree to find himself.
yep speculation, only based on the oldest representation of the runes, very flimsy evidence indeed. I have also read that the term refers origenaly to the people of Kel, and that does make some sense since "ic' means of, just like galic refers to the people of Gal. not sure where nord ever was
Pretty good observation Steffan K and G are the same "sound" pronounced with different parts of the mouth, so Kel and Gel would be the same word with different dialect. Thus is the way language goes.
