MITHOTHYN AS ODIN OF THE
TREE/GALLOWS
In
Book 1 of Saxo Grammaticus’s HISTORY OF THE DANES (Elton translation), we are
told about a certain sorcerer named Mithothyn who takes over rule of the gods
upon Odin’s exile:
“At
this time there was one Odin, who was credited over all Europe with the honour,
which was false, of godhead, but used more continually to sojourn at Upsala;
and in this spot, either from the sloth of the inhabitants or from its own
pleasantness, he vouchsafed to dwell with somewhat especial constancy. The
kings of the North, desiring more zealously to worship his deity, embounded his
likeness in a golden image; and this statue, which betokened their homage, they
transmitted with much show of worship to Byzantium, fettering even the effigied
arms with a serried mass of bracelets. Odin was overjoyed at such notoriety,
and greeted warmly the devotion of the senders. But his queen Frigga, desiring
to go forth more beautified, called smiths, and had the gold stripped from the
statue. Odin hanged them, and mounted the statue upon a pedestal, which by the
marvellous skill of his art he made to speak when a mortal touched it. But
still Frigga preferred the splendour of her own apparel to the divine honours
of her husband, and submitted herself to the embraces of one of her servants;
and it was by this man's device she broke down the image, and turned to the
service of her private wantonness that gold which had been devoted to public
idolatry. Little thought she of practicing unchastity, that she might the
easier satisfy her greed, this woman so unworthy to be the consort of a god;
but what should I here add, save that such a godhead was worthy of such a wife?
So great was the error that of old befooled the minds of men. Thus Odin,
wounded by the double trespass of his wife, resented the outrage to his image
as keenly as that to his bed; and, ruffled by these two stinging dishonours,
took to an exile overflowing with noble shame, imagining so to wipe off the
slur of his ignominy.
When
he had retired, one Mit-othin, who was famous for his juggling tricks [‘a
famous illusionist’ in the Peter Fisher translation], was likewise quickened,
as though by inspiration from on high, to seize the opportunity of feigning to
be a god; and, wrapping the minds of the barbarians in fresh darkness, he led
them by the renown of his jugglings [or ‘reputation for magicianship’] to pay
holy observance to his name. He said that the wrath of the gods could never be
appeased nor the outrage to their deity expiated by mixed and indiscriminate
sacrifices, and therefore forbade that prayers for this end should be put up
without distinction, appointing to each of those above his especial
drink-offering. But when Odin was returning, he cast away all help of juggling
[or ‘conjuring’], went to Finland to hide himself, and was there attacked and
slain by the inhabitants. Even in his death his abominations were made manifest,
for those who came nigh his barrow were cut off by a kind of sudden death; and
after his end, he spread such pestilence that he seemed almost to leave a
filthier record in his death than in his life: it was as though he would extort
from the guilty a punishment for his slaughter. The inhabitants, being in this
trouble, took the body out of the mound, beheaded it, and impaled it through
the breast with a sharp stake; and herein that people found relief.
The
death of Odin's wife revived the ancient splendour of his name, and seemed to
wipe out the disgrace upon his deity; so, returning from exile, he forced all
those, who had used his absence to assume the honours of divine rank, to resign
them as usurped; and the gangs of sorcerers that had arisen he scattered like a
darkness before the advancing glory of his godhead. And he forced them by his
power not only to lay down their divinity, but further to quit the country,
deeming that they, who tried to foist themselves so iniquitously into the
skies, ought to be outcasts from the earth.”
The
problem has been an inability to determine exactly whom Mithothyn is – and this
is because no good etymology has been proposed for his name. It has long been suspected that the –othyn
component of this name does preserve that of “Odin”. Other gods in Norse myth take Odin’s place,
including Ullerus (probably Ullr) and Odin’s brothers, Vili and Ve.
The
three leading etymological theories are:
1)
A derivation from Old Norse mjotudr, ‘dispenser of fate, ruler, judge’; ‘bane,
death’
2)
An otherwise non-extant Norse form of Old Indian mithu, ‘false’, for a ‘False
Odin’
3)
Old Norse med, ‘with’, plus Odin, thus an error for a phrase reading ‘with
Odin’, thought to be a reference to another deity who regularly accompanied
Odin, such as Loki, who was known for getting the gods into and out of bad
predicaments
None
of the proposed derivations are particularly attractive.
Would
the following work better, perhaps? If
we bear in mind we are getting this name from Saxo's rather late medieval
Latin, could this not me 'Meid(r)-Odin'?
From Norse myth we know well of the Mimameidr or Mimi's (Mimir's) Tree,
another name for Odin’s Yggdrasill. We
also find Mimir, Hoddmimir and Sokkmimir.
Odin is brought into close connection with Mimir, especially the
latter's head; in fact, I have elsewhere made a case for Mimir being but an
aspect of Odin himself. Certainly, Odin
(who even bears the name of Yggr) is linked to Yggdrasill the world tree, and
to gallows-trees as vehicles of human sacrifice. Like Mimir, Mithothyn is decapitated. One cannot help but wonder (the obvious
draugr motif parallel aside) if the stake with which Mithothyn is impaled may
not be the pole or tree, ritually speaking, and thus be symbolically representative
of Mimameidr/Yggdrasill.
Mimir
is also part of the story of the Aesir and the Vanir, and some (see Dumezil)
have thought Mithothyn's role may have some bearing on that particular
myth.
That
the Mithothyn in Saxo Grammaticus who takes Odin's place is actually
Meid(r)-Odin or Tree/Gallows Odin receives some additional support from the
ancient Old Icelandic Eddic poem, Havamal (strophe 138):
Veit
ek, at ek hekk
vindga
meiði á
nætr
allar níu,
geiri
undaðr
ok
gefinn Óðni,
sjalfr
sjalfum mér,
á
þeim meiði,
er
manngi veit
hvers
af rótum renn.
Here
Odin himself tells us he has hung on the windy tree, ‘vindga MEIDI’, for nine
nights, a sacrifice to himself. This
sacrifice is performed so that he may win the runes.
It
may be that the form of Odin worshipped at Odense or ‘Odin’s Ve’, Odin’s
Shrine, on Fyn was none other than Meidr-Odin, i.e. Odin of the Gallows-Tree. I
would note in passing that the Ve who is called Odin’s brother is the same word
for “shrine” or “temple” as that found in the Odense place-name.
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