Re: Woden/Odin/Cerrnunos/Herne/Horned God - are they all the same or what?
Good start. The poem was transcribed most likely by Christian clergy/monks, long after the period when England was supposed to have converted. So first of all, we have to ask ourselves why Woden was not only included in the charm but is actually named. Obviously there is no single answer to that, but we do know that Woden was particularly loathed by the early missionaries and also that he was very difficult to eradicate. So his appearance here is hardly surprising.
You also picked up on the spear - well done! For the Spear was one of Woden's symbols, and you will find it in unlikely places. For example, there is Bede's account of the conversion of Coifi, who throws a spear into a heathen temple. And there is the heathen King Penda who cut up the dead bodies of his defeated enemies after battle and displayed them on stakes/spears.
The Christianisation of the charm is a bit ambiguous... when you get a line such as 'These herbs the wise Lord created,' bear in mind that it was not necessarily Christ who was being referred to. Likewisse, look at the line : 'Holy in heaven, while hanging [on the cross]' the use of square bracket means that these words do not appear in the original AS text. In other words, the scribe/translator put them in because he thought they belonged there. But actually they're not part of the charm at all. Now re-read and you will be probably surprised how different it seems.... and of course this is one good example of a link with Woden aND Odin, because of the Norse stories of how Odin hung on the windswept tree.... was there a link? We can't be sure.
Hope you can see (there is a huge amount more in this charm that we can look at if you wish) that Anglo-Saxon heathenism hides discreetly in the shadows, just waiting to be tempting back out again!
Good start. The poem was transcribed most likely by Christian clergy/monks, long after the period when England was supposed to have converted. So first of all, we have to ask ourselves why Woden was not only included in the charm but is actually named. Obviously there is no single answer to that, but we do know that Woden was particularly loathed by the early missionaries and also that he was very difficult to eradicate. So his appearance here is hardly surprising.
You also picked up on the spear - well done! For the Spear was one of Woden's symbols, and you will find it in unlikely places. For example, there is Bede's account of the conversion of Coifi, who throws a spear into a heathen temple. And there is the heathen King Penda who cut up the dead bodies of his defeated enemies after battle and displayed them on stakes/spears.
The Christianisation of the charm is a bit ambiguous... when you get a line such as 'These herbs the wise Lord created,' bear in mind that it was not necessarily Christ who was being referred to. Likewisse, look at the line : 'Holy in heaven, while hanging [on the cross]' the use of square bracket means that these words do not appear in the original AS text. In other words, the scribe/translator put them in because he thought they belonged there. But actually they're not part of the charm at all. Now re-read and you will be probably surprised how different it seems.... and of course this is one good example of a link with Woden aND Odin, because of the Norse stories of how Odin hung on the windswept tree.... was there a link? We can't be sure.
Hope you can see (there is a huge amount more in this charm that we can look at if you wish) that Anglo-Saxon heathenism hides discreetly in the shadows, just waiting to be tempting back out again!
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