On the Naming of Gods

An essay in the form of an introduction and three parts, identifying some of the processes involved in the naming of gods and suggesting ways of thinking about the underlying identities implied, using mainly the Celtic religion as a model. (See previous blog for Introuction)

Part One:

The Gods as Archetypes

Gods may be seen and named as archetypes. In a sense this function comes closest to telling us who these gods really are, in that it brings us closest to their real sociological significance. But even when their social role is patent, such as that of Father or Mother, we should avoid being too literal. An element of metaphor is inevitable, as archetypes are used to represent not just specific community members, living or dead, but wider social realities, such as aspects of cultural, ethnic, political, family, technical or trading relations that would be discussed as abstractions today, the type of relations studied by anthropologists, sociologists, economists and politologists alike. Examples of archetypical configurations include:

A) Constellations of characters:

Gods are often imagined in terms of their relationships to each other.

It is difficult to ascribe an individual identity to such Gods apart from these relationships, although they necessarily develop characteristics which distinguish their functions within the grouping. The point is that whatever degree of independent identity they achieve, its characteristics are constrained by their functions in relation to the grouping. Examples of such groupings are:

                        Father-Mother-Son, Father-Daughter, Yin-Yang

A particular example of the dangers of misinterpretations that can arise from considering these gods as if they were fully independent figures can be seen among those who insist that either the Father God or the Mother Goddess are supreme and primary. In reality the male and female principles only carry meaning in relation to each other. If the Universe is seem as beginning in a primal Sea, that sea – which gives birth to the life-giving Gods – can be seen as female, but on deeper reflection, this can be seen to be a misidentification: the Primal Sea is before and beyond gender. and the birth of the Gods marks the creation of gender.

B) Progressions:

Gods are, by nature, eternal, but this does not mean that they are incapable of displaying progressive changes. On the contrary, Gods whose myths we know almost always perform functions related to particular transitions in state. The earlier state of the God is to be imagined as a precondition to the later state or states, a feature often symbolized by prefiguring of later acts, and the later state or states likewise are the necessary products of the earlier states that have been transformed or have evolved.

The result is that the process of change is itself elevated to mythic status, and given personification in the life-story of the God concerned. What today would be seen as an abstract process is thus made immediately understandable in a holistic and real manner, and the necessity of change (say, in the turning of the seasons, sunrise and sunset and so on) is embodied in the inevitable destiny of the God, thus representing what we would today explain as a law of nature. Examples include the transitions:

                         Boy-Hero-King-God, Girl-Wife-Mother-Goddess

Thus: Maponos (The Divine Son), Ollathair (The All-Father), Kore (The Girl) Matrona (The Divine Mother)

The process by which a man is raised to the status of ritual king illustrates a core function of mythic progressions: they sanctify human actions and identify the ceremonials involved with the sacred progression of the myth. In Christianity the Baptism of Jesus creates a model for christening as a sacrament.

Making a ritual king of a known mortal man meant that he had to be seen as reborn, and make an unusually rapid transition from this re-birth to adulthood. Thus we have images of Gods conceived and born in 24 hours (Aonghus), and born with evidently adult features, such as significant body hair (Mongan) or the ability to speak (Vindos, reconstructed) and perform feats of cunning (Hermes) and strength (Herakles).

Progressions are particularly associated with the changing seasons, often with an agricultural (presumably in earlier times a hunting-related) message. The Eastern Mediterranean myth of the Mourning of Demeter (Corn-Mother) for her daughter (Kore = girl) reflects a corn-growing culture, and elevates the culture of bread-making rather than merely the changing of the seasons per se. (Compare the British John Barley- corn, a beer god)

One tradition of analysis indicates the rise and fall of two annual kings; the Summer King and the Winter King respectively, but there is also considerable evidence to suggest a different pan-European mythic structure identifying the winter as female and the summer as male, with each 6-monthly season being symbolized by the birth, rise to maturity and decline into old age of a Godhead of the relevant gender.

C) Socially Important Functions:

                           i) Healer, Craftsman, Trader, Midwife etc.

Gods similarly provide models for professions and crafts, whereby those who follow the craft concerned put themselves under the tutelage of the Gods concerned. In a sense priests themselves formed a profession, and their craft god was, logically, the God of Priesthood, that is the God of the Divine and of all the tellings and associations of the divine.

Thus, a universal ancestor God (say, of the Sky) may be given a particular name to identify him or her as a Seer, a God of rituals or judgements, as a reflection of the various functions of the priestly cast. Similarly the same Ancestor God may be seen as King of the Gods and reflect the functions of the ritual king.

                                    ii) God of the Sacrifice

Particularly interesting is the manner in which certain Gods, such as Odin or Jesus, are said to sacrifice themselves or engage in disfiguring rituals to gain wisdom, eternal life and so forth. In this the Gods may be seen to represent the function of the sacrificial victim, sacrificed to himself.

Part Two: Ways of Naming Gods

By titles

It is easy to mistake a title with a proper name, as the example of Vercingetorix       (Over-Infantry-King) illustrates. Julius Caesar refers to this Gallic leader as if this were his personal name, whereas the translation (possibly unknown to Caesar) confirms that it was a military title. Examples include:

Toutatis (Tribe-Father – the Ancestor of all Tribes, Deiwos/Devos, the Daytime Sky)

Brigantia (High Woman – the seat of druidic wisdom, the Moon Goddess)

Esus (Lord – almost certainly Lugus – the Binder, compare “Baal” = Lord)

A God may have many such titles, including those associated with different descriptions of the same function and those associated with different functions.

By relation to other religions

(interpretatio romana/graeca/celtica/germanica/catolica):

A God may have different local designations, whereby their name in one culture effectively becomes a title when applied to Gods of another, just as Caesar began as a name and later became a title for any Emperor, or as in “Zeus Kasios” = Zeus (i.e. Sky-God) of mount Kasios, where the Greek form of the name of the Indo-European God of the daytime sky Deiwos, Zeus, reverts back to meaning Sky God in general.

In this way what has long been accepted as a proper name (e.g. Zeus, Jupiter - originally titles, becoming names through usage) can regain their function as titles, thereby creating an interpretatio, or a reading of a local deity.

As a further extention of this, Gods of different origins can be identified with or surplant each other. Thus:

Melqert (Phoenician Lord of the City of Tyre, later identified with Herakles)

Herakles (Greek Hero of travelers, identified with Ogmios in Gaul)

Mercury (Roman God of trade, identified with Hermes and probably Lugus)

Dis Pater (Roman Ancestor God, probably identified with Toutatis)

Wodinaz (Germanic Warrior God, identified with/or derived from Lugus)

Thor (Germanic Thunder-God identified with or derived from Jupiter Taranos)

St. Michael (Christian Archangelic Hero, identified with Lugus)

By kennings and epithets

Kennings, are poetic ways to identify a God by reference to a detail from a story told about them or by using a conventional and well-established metaphoric reference to some characteristic of the God. This second type can be called an epithet. Knowledge of the linguistic traditions, legends and images referring to the God make these references into a kind of short-hand retelling of the story, or re-establishment of his or her imagined powers, much enjoyed by those familiar with the full cultural context.

Kennings can make a wide variety of literary references. These may refer to:

a) an action the God famously engaged in (as in the “Giant-Killer” also known as Jack),

b) a famous attribute, such as a weapon or other tool they typically use,

c) an animal which they are totemically identified with, or which they hunt or use,

and, importantly, one of the simplest and most widely used form of kenning refers to

d) physical peculiarities of a God which can be either:

i) extraordinary bodily features or

ii) dramatic physical abilities.

These physical peculiarities (d) necessarily also figure in the tales told of the God, typically as permanent identifying features, thereby reaching the status of titles.

Examples of which are:

The One-Eyed ( = Aonsúil, the Sun)
The Fast-Coursing ( = Dian Cecht, God of Medicine)

The Blazing God ( = Belenos, God of Summer)

The Full/Pregnant Lady ((P)iveria, Goddess of the Land)

The Intoxicator (Meduva, Goddess of Sovereignty)

The Divine Horned One (Cernunnos, God of the Hunt/Animal Husbandry)

By specific manifestations in place or time

The God of the Mountain (Breandan)

The God of the Goat Festival (Ailill Molt = Spirit of the Wether God)

and

By proper names

Any of the above that have become fixed by usage and are taken to refer to a specific individual, independent of the meaning of the words.

Cu Roi ( = Roaring Warrior)

Dagda ( = Good God)

Aongus ( = True Strength)

Part Three: Lists of Celtic Divine Names

This provisional list features names for the Father God, the Mother God and the Divine Son, illustrative of the Sacred Succession, a core myth of Sacred Kingship. It is constantly under review and open to correction and extention. Each list refers to only one God.

List 1

The Father God: The Great Ancestor (Deiwos)

As the Sun:

DEVOS/DIA : The Shining One

AED ÁILIND : The Beautiful Fire (King of the Otherworld)

DELB-ÁEDH : Fire-shaped

As One-Eyed:

ÁNCHEANN AONSÚLA : The One-eyed Fire-head

As Eternal Ancestor:

SENOS : The Ancient Man

DIS PATER : The God Who Is Father

As Fertile:

OLLATHAIR : The All-Fathering

DÁIRE : The Fertile One

As a Mighty Horse:

RÓ-EACH : The Great Stallion

EKWOMAROS : The (One-eyed) Great Hors(-man of the Sky)

As a Mighty Bull:

DEVOTAROS : The Bull God

As the Bull of Day:

FIND (The White)

As Powerful God:

SUNDOS DAGO-DEVOS/AN DAGDA : The Effective God

SUCELLOS : The Good Striker

As a Nobleman:

EOCHU/EOCHAID : The (Eternal) Horse/man (of the Skies)

EOCHU BRES : The Beautiful Horseman

As Chief Warrior:

CON AIRE : Warrior-Lord

As a Jealous Husband:

ELCMHAR : The Envious One

As a Farmer:

EOCHAIDH AIREAMH : Horseman Ploughman

As a Herdsman:

EOCHAIDH FEIDHLEACH : Horseman Herdsman

AILILL MOLT: The Ram-Spirit, protector of flocks

As a Seasonal Protector of Animals & Agiculture:

BELENUS : The Bright One?

As God of Summer:

APOLLO GRANNUS : Apollo of the Corn?/Shining?

As a Wise Judge:

RUADH RO-FHEASA : The Lord of All Knowledge

CONDOS/CONN : Wise-Head

As an Old King:

MEDROS/MIDHIR : He who is Judge/Measures

LIATH : The Grey-haired One

As a Reincarnating/Shape-shifter/Druid:

VINDO-SENOS : White-haired Old Man

VINDONNUS : The Divine Illuminated One

FINTÁN MAC BÓCHNA : The Divine Illuminated Son of the Sea

As God of the Sky/Weather:

TARANIS : The Thunderer

As a Spirit King: 

EILILL/AILILL : Phantom/Spirit

As a Fire-breather:

ELLÉN TRÍCHEANND /AILLÉN MAC MIDNA: Little (3-headed) Phantom/Spirit

As a Tyrant:

BOLEROS/BALOR : The Flashing One

GOLL : The One-eyed

As The Dragon:

AILEN : Little Phantom

At Sunset:

DEARG (The Red)

As Host of the Dead: 

DONN/DHUOSNOS (The Dark)

As the Bull of Night:

DONN (The Dark)

As Roman Dis Pater:

JUPITER (DIV PATER)

As a Roman Sky God:

VULCAN (Originally a Sun God)

List 2

The Son of God: The Young Champion (Maponos)

As a Child:

VINDOS : The Illuminating One

As a Precocious Child:

MONGÁN : The Hairy One

As a Healthy Youth:

AN MAC ÓC/MAPONOS: The Youthful Child/The Divine Child

As a Lover:

AONGHUS : Real Vigor

FERGUS : Manly Vigor

As a Skilled Champion:

ELATHA : Science/Art/Craft

LUGOS SAMILDÁNACH: He who swears/(binds by sworn oath) of All Sciences (The Master)

As a Dragon-killer:

FIONN MAC UMHAILL :

AMERGHIN :

As a Beserkr/Venitor:

CÚ : The Wolf-man

As a Hunter:

SMERTULUS : The Provider

VINDONNOS : The Divine Illuminator

As a Virile Woodcutter:

ESUS : Divine Lord (of the Mistletoe)

As a God of Animal Regeneration:

CERNUNNOS : The Divine Horned One

As a Sacred Tree:

IVOGENOS/Eoghan : (Son of the Yew)

As a Sacred Ram:

OVOGENOS : (Son of the Molt)

As a Battle-King:

CATUVEROS : (Battle-Man)

As a Ritual Inauguree:

EKWOMEDUOS : Horse-Mead (Horse Broth)

As a Warrior Chief:

CONCHOBER : Beloved of Warriors

As a Ritual Symbol:

MAC GRÉINE: Son of the Sun (Kingly/Warrior Icon) wed to Fódla

MAC CÉCHT : Son of the Plough-share (Land-owner Icon) wed to Banba

MAC CÚILL : Son of Hazel (Druidic Icon) wed to Eriú

As a Roman Lugos:

MERCURY

As a Roman Esus:

MARS

List 3:

The Mother God: The Great Provider (Piveria)

As a Tribal Queen:

DANUVA : Broad River?

As The Earth:

(P)IVERIA/ÉVERIJU/ÉIRIU: The Fat One

ALBIU : Land

As a Queen:

MEDUVA : She Who Intoxicates (Sovereignty)

MORRIGAN : The Great Queen

RIGATONA : The Divine Queen

RIGANI: (Eye/Owl) Queen

As a Mistress:

ÉTAÍN : She Who Inspires Jealousy

As a Divine Nurse:

BRIGID : The Most Exalted (Maid of the Hearth Fire)

SULIS MINERVA : Minerva (She of the Menses), the Eye Goddess…

BORMO : Bubbling Spring

As a Source of Milk:

FLIDAIS : Flowing (with Milk)

As a Sacred Cow:

DAMONA : The Divine Cow

BO VINDA : Bright (i.e. Sacred) Cow

BOÍ (Sacred) Cow

As a Source of Honey and Wine:

NANTOSUELTA : Sunny Valley

As a Healing River: 

SEQUANA

SABRINA
SOUCONNA
VERBEIA

As a Horsewoman:

EPONA : The Divine Mare (Female Champion)

MACHA : (Enclosed Land)

RHIANNON : ?

As a Death Goddess:

LEITHDEARG : Red-Side

As a Warrior: 

BODUVA : The Raven Woman (Battle Queen)

As a Matron:

SENA: The Ancient Woman

MATRONA: The Divine Mother

As a Witch: 

AN CHAILLEACH : The Hag (Witchcraft & Death)

MONGFHIND : The White-haired One

© Mícheál úa Séaghdha, Praha 2013

On the Naming of Gods

An essay in the form of an introduction and three parts, identifying some of the processes involved in the naming of gods and suggesting ways of thinking about the underlying identities implied, using mainly the Celtic religion as a model. 

Introduction:

Anyone studying any polytheistic religion may well be tempted at times to ask just how many Gods people thought there really were. This is particularly true when it comes to Celtic religion, the remains of which are so fragmentary. The problem is not helped by the fact that there are many sacred names about which we know little other than a name - which may have been a local title of an otherwise widely revered figure, refer to an aboriginal spirit of the locality, be an otherwise unrecorded deity of particular note or a combination of any of these. If we are to understand the symbolic meanings of the Celtic religion, or of paganism in general, there is a need to classify these deities based on how and why they were identified as they were. The naming of the Gods comes at the end of a complex creative social process and should never be taken at face value.

The Linguistic Base

It should go without saying that a key issue in the interpretation of the names of the Celtic gods, as with those of any other tradition, is the correct identification of the root meanings of their names as they are known to us or can be confidently reconstructed. Once we can do this, we often see that the linguistic content of what appears at first sight to be “simply a name” often reveals these “names” to be a range of epithets, titles and other descriptive devices, illustrative of various layers of religious thought and practice. It is clear that many different “names” can refer to the same God or Goddess using different forms of identification, and what appears to be a plethora of multiple deities turns out to be a complex, but ultimately methodical system of referring to the various ways that we can interact with a core of divine functions and personalities.

Which, if any of these names, is to be seen as the basic name of the God or personage concerned is not easy to decipher without a thorough knowledge of the religious beliefs and practices involved. The question may perhaps best be addressed by asking which name is the most independent of context in reference to that entity.

It is worth noting that names of legendary figures in particular may be given at or before birth, or adopted or imposed later in life, or even after death, each time reflecting changing social functions, as when a Pope or King adopts a ruling name on coronation, or a warrior adopts a totemic name on his initiation, or is attributed a sacred title after a heroic death. While it is normal to use the latest name given as if it were the one valid name, earlier names continue to be used to refer to the prior career of the person, and may reflect an important aspect of their real identity.

Difficulties of Working in the Celtic Environment

Working through this is all the more complicated in the case of the Celtic languages, where there is a often lack of expertise among many non-Celticist commentators, and when even the most knowledgeable can disagree on fundamental questions of interpretation. Despite the difficulties, a considerable amount is known about Celtic language and culture, and, if anything, this store of scientifically trustworthy information is increasing rather than diminishing as time goes by.

In the case of the insular Celtic languages there is a vast range of linguistic sources from across the centuries, including usage in the living languages, which can be compared with the results of on-going archeological research and recorded or living local traditions. Together, these sources can reveal a remarkable amount about early beliefs and traditions. Once again, it bears repetition that careful consideration of the evidence, ancient and modern, is required to avoid misinterpretations. All of this is highly demanding, and easily mishandled.

Problematic Theoretical Approaches

Particularly problematic is the role of theories of the development and content of Celtic belief that are adopted by modern interpreters. These range from the academically respectable, but nonetheless questionable (such as the theory that Celtic civilization was essentially an Iron Age phenomenon), and the dubious assertions of feminist anthropology and archeology (in the tradition of Joseph Campbell and Marija Gimbutas) that a matriarchy must have lain at the base of all early European religion, to the attempts of reconstructionists (especially in the UK) to link Celtic religion with notions of nature worship dating from amateur enthusiasts of the 18^th Century, with their desire to link the Celts to the most significant Neolithic monuments, such as Stonehenge, and their known associations with sun worship. It is worth taking a moment to look at some of these more popular claims.

Feminist Archeology

Feminist archeology suffers from being politically correct at a time when the rights of women are at last beginning to receive the status they deserve in the modern world. The welcome nature of its central thesis - that matriarchy preceded patriarchy, and was forcibly suppressed by it - makes it highly popular among enthusiasts of a Golden Age and has resulted in the widespread contemporary belief that the earliest religions imagined the divine force as female. Thus Neopagans typically worship “The Goddess” as their supreme being, and argue that male Gods were originally her lovers, of whom she disposed as she willed, a view enjoyed by some men, no less than by women. 

Attractive as this is to many today, there is little, if any, reason to believe it true. In brief, it is a priori unlikely that females were considered symbols of strength in Hunter-gatherer societies, seeing as how the Hunt was quintessentially a male preserve, and male animals almost universally represent strength and dominance both in the wild and in hunting societies that live there; while in early agricultural societies the evidence from archeology (such as at Newgrange in Ireland), iconography (kingship seen as the source of fertility), myth (such as that of the castration of Ouranos), and early rituals (such as the hieros gamos) is plain; the male principle was seen as the sole impregnating force, literally planting life in water, land or flesh. Wherever gender was distinguished as such, virgin birth was impossible without male divine intervention. 

Put simply, it was not properly understood that conception required a 50:50 genetic input, and the female was viewed as “vessel” whose role was to feed and nurture the male-implanted seed to adulthood, much as we might view a Petri dish used to culture bacteria! The fact that this is biologically incorrect did not stop anyone believing it for a very long time. As late as the 1670's so called “animalculists” and “ovists” were still arguing if you could or could not see a tiny pre-formed baby inside the human sperm viewed through a microscope, and happily provided illustrations to “prove” it. (Wonderfully discussed by Jonathan Miller in The Body in Question.)

In such a gender-biased context, it is unimaginable that women were seen as the source of life, as feminists claim. Rather were they the source of the food and love that make life thrive. Early images of Goddesses were symbols of plenitude and love - as symbolized by the old names Piveria (The Full One) and Priya (Beloved) - adored by boys and men, but they were not symbols of female rule. As throughout the subsequent history of art, the female nude, whether fulsome or lithe, was created, even at the dawn of history, for the benefit of the dominant male gaze.

Neopaganist Beliefs

Lately, Neopagans have adapted to the feminist perspective, raising the status of the Great Mother, who is now often cited as the ultimate Celtic deity, in defiance of evidence to the contrary. Early in their history, 18^th Century enthusiastic Neopagans had a more male-centred view, insisting that equinoxes and solstices, so obviously linked to early “British” monuments such as Stonehenge, had to have played a major part in “Celtic” religion. Again, this was despite the lack of evidence from the real Celtic literary and folk traditions, of which they were often ignorant or dismissive. In their eyes the Celtic religion (in typical 18^th Century Romantic fashion) was a religion of Nature, and in particular of Sun worship, with its implicit orgiastic imagery of naked revels at dawn on the great solar feasts. Enough to make a grown man faint with sentiment!

The fact is that the native Celtic tradition completely ignores the solstices and equinoxes, however important they must have been in Neolithic times, and instead celebrates the evidently druidic festivals of the start of the seasons: Samhain (31^st Oct/Ist Nov – start of Winter, believed to have been the druidic New Year), Imbolc (31^st Jan/1^st Feb – Spring), Bealtain (30^th April/1^st May – Summer) and Lughnasa (31^st July/1^st Aug – Autumn), each of which was associated with changes in agricultural activity, appropriate to the seasons concerned. Even the mythology of kingship, the most likely arena for Solar worship by far, seems to circle around these farming festivals rather than, say Mid-Summer. Neopagans have compromised by combining these two traditions – Neolithic and Celtic into a composite calendar, but have still not fully abandoned their commitment to 18^th Century Solarism.

Open to New Evidence

All these theories, respectably derived or otherwise, create tendencies in interpretation that result in the manipulation of evidence to suit the particular theory. In as much as some theoretical approach, explicit or implicit, is needed in all forms of interpretation, it is logically impossible to avoid falling into this trap. But if we are to be scientific about it, it is vital to stay open to new evidence as it becomes available and to be aware that any theoretical interpretation, however established, must be open to correction.

A good example on the highest academic level is provided by the implications of Prof. John Koch's recent translation of Tartessian funeral inscriptions as Q-Celtic. Together with Prof. Barry Cunliffe's theoretical suggestions of a Bronze Age Celtic spread along the Atlantic coast, this research has the potential to replace the accepted paradigm of Celtic origins, and is set to confirm the spread of Celtic culture across Europe as a mostly Bronze Age phenomenon, and not Iron Age as has previously been argued.

What are Names?

Before we look at divine “names”, it is worth noting that many personal and family names used today originally served a variety of functions before being adopted as “simply a name”.

Names can:

1. Indicate titles, such as those referring to a profession or position in society

        e.g. Thatcher, Carter, Butler, Smith,

2. Show affiliation to family and ancestors

        e.g. Mac Néill – Son of Niall, a clan descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages,

3. Show affiliation to locality and nationality

        e.g. Scharzenegger, Holm, Welsh, English etc.,

4. Invoke protective spirits and deities

        e.g. Ivogenos - later Eoghan - now Eoin - Yew-Born, an ancestral tree god,

5. Express ideals of vigor, character and fortune (often illustrated in heraldry)

        e.g. Armstrong, Richard (Ric-hard = Rule-Strong), Blessed

6. Refer to physical features

        e.g. Brown, Cruickshank,

or

7. Refer to well-known acts or habits attributed to an individual or expected from them

        e.g. Dances with Wolves!

We should expect most of these functions to apply equally to divine names. What follows, then, are suggestions about what the original framers of Celtic religion and pagan religion in general may have been doing when they devised the names and titles for their deities. To start with I want to discuss a critical function that gods play and that, quite often, represents the core identity that lies behind the various titles and designations that we hear...

                                                                                 Parts 1 - 3  to follow

© Mícheál úa Séaghdha, Praha 2013

The Role of Kenning in IE mythology

An article in two parts explaining the use of metaphor and literary reference instead of proper names in Indo-European legends and poetry. (A contribution to the topic how Gods get their names.)

                                                                               Dublin, December 2012

Part 2:

The Example of Sleipnir, the Eight-legged Horse of Odin

It is vital to recall that kennings, in both earlier and later forms, are cultural artefacts and require an understanding of the culture that produced them to decode them – that is to understand them in the manner in which they were originally intended to be understood, and to perceive them as a source of pleasure. As illustrated by the example of Cú Chulainn (in Part 1 of this essay), kennings can survive for millennia and during that time there is every possibility that the usage would be understood in different ways at different times, leading later mythic constructions to take the original metaphor or reference out of context and explain it in new, highly creative, but often rather literal ways. Later thinkers would then take these secondary myths to represent the original tradition and use these linguistically more literal tales to explain something that was once only a highly-pointed ironic or heroic metaphor.

Thus, if we look at Norse mythology, we are given the name Sleipnir, “The Slider”, for Odin’s famous eight-legged Horse. It is another example of what seems to have been a simpler early form of kenning that later tale-makers re-imagined in legendary terms. How are we to understand this bizarre feature of Odinic lore?

To start with, it is useful to note that Odin, also called Woden and earlier Wodan(az) – the “Frenzied One”, came to take on the role of the Indo-European Sky-Father, originally called Tiw(az) in Germanic. This sky god could be seen personally as a Bull, a Horse or any other potent, swiftly traveling animal: an eagle, since it flies and sees all, a Ram or a Stag, since they are symbolic of the fertility of the herds or the hunt, the salmon, since it travels far, is full of sexual vigour and famous for its skyward leaps, and so on. Whether transformed into the animal itself or as an aristocrat aboard the animal or on an animal-drawn vehicle, the Sky Father was often associated with a prize horse or horses in Indo-European society.

We can safely say that in as much as he was identified with the role of the Sky-god, Odin would have been seen as a swift celestial traveler, and one explanation of the eight-legged Sleipnir is simply this: that in as much as any horse with eight legs is clearly symbolically faster than a normally-endowed horse with only four legs, such a super-swift horse would be perfectly suited to be the mount of a sky-god. So illustrators gladly show Odin aboard a patently ridiculous horse with eight legs. (Quite how these were attached to the horse it is hard to imagine, and one is reminded of the various multi-armed Hindu gods whose arm-pits must have resembled a highway turnpike! Clearly, in the Indian case, the idea of a god having many arms is a metaphor for the diverse reach of their powers, and equally clearly we are not expected to think about such details where excess limbs are concerned, be they human or equine.)

The identification of Odin with the Sky-Father suggests a further possible explanation of the origin of the eight-legged horse: it could be a reference to a two-horse chariot, illustrations of which (as on coins) might show what looked like an eight-legged horse to anyone from a horse-riding culture. Odin was probably associated with whatever was the swiftest form of travel currently available, be that a four-wheeled cart, a two-wheel chariot or a war-horse, as military technology and the travel habits of the elite changed over the ages. Since the golden age of the chariot was the Bronze Age, and the golden age of the war-horse was the Iron age that succeeded it, it is easy to imagine how a bronze-age image of a chariot riding God could be transformed into a rider on a single, albeit eight-legged, horse.

Different suggestions for the possible underlying meaning of the eight-legged horse Sleipnir have centred on the role of Odin/Woden not as sky-god, but on his function as a psychopomp, a god figure that leads the souls of the dead on their journey into the other world, the messenger-god Hermes in Greek myth, the God of Trade, Mercury, in Roman myth. One such explanation of the eight legged horse refers to the idea that the funeral bier, on which the dead were carried to burial, was eight-legged, as four men carry the four corners of the bier in a funeral procession. If correct, Sleipnir would refer to the funeral bier as “the Horse of Odin”. The meaning of Sleipnir as “Slider”, on the other hand, could suggest a boat, rowed by 4 men, equipped with 8 oars, prior to a ship burial or sea funeral pyre, as in the tradition of Baldr, the boat being an “eight-legged horse” that “slides” through the waves, brining the soul into the next world. This would be a double-kenning, a form much loved in later Icelandic verse.

Attractive as these readings are, there is yet another possible allusion hidden in Odin's “eight-legged horse” that is potentially more likely: to a traditional Nordic form of gallows, made of two upright poles with a cross-bar forming the arm to which the ropes were attached. Such gallows an be called “the horse of the hanged” or, more poetically “The horse of Odin”, since those who “rode on it” went to the other world to join Odin as “Hangaguð” God of the Hanged. In this reading, the gallows were “eight-legged” for the reason that both the support poles needed to be secured in two directions and, depending on the exact design, each pole would have needed 3 struts at the base, connected to the central pole by pieces of timber running along the ground. Including the central poles, there would have been four “legs” that held the gallows in place at each end. Thus, or with similar structures, we get an “eight-legged horse of Odin” = the gallows used for either for execution and/or sacrifice.

The name Sleipnir, “Slider”, could possibly refer to the transportable nature of such a construction, but it would seem more likely that it was thought of a “sliding” people into the other world, since it is in the nature of ropes, especially those on gallows, to “slide” as they tighten around a person’s neck. Indeed the hangman's rope itself might be the true identity of Sleipnir, with its eight legs referring to the stand that kept the gallows erect. The title “Slider” would then be a euphemism – a euphemistic kenning – for “rope”, and an “eight-legged rope” would be another double-kenning for the gallows. The fact that later tellers of tales took up the image of an eight-legged horse and created what we might call sub-myths to explain the origins, and expound the deeds of this fine animal should not distract us from the fact that Sleipnir quite possibly got his name and eight legs, as well as his owner, from the construction of a gallows.

This interpretation need not be seen to be in total conflict with the above explained image of Odin, as a horse-loving sky-father. Clearly, for the kenning “Odin’s Horse” for the gallows to make any sense in the first place, there had to have existed the tradition that Odin rode on or used a horse (or horses), particularly so as a psychpomp, so as to allow of the reference to both a horse and the dead in one kenning. Is there any evidence to make this connection?

In fact, just such a tradition is indeed seen in later Germanic times where Odin/Woden is the Hariking, (“Army king”) Head of the Wild Hunt in which he gathers or drives the souls of the dead to Hel(l) and – at least in Icelandic tradition - assembled the Einherrjar in Valhalla to the Heroes' feast, a role notably performed in Irish and British tales by Fionn Mac Cumhaill/Gwynn ap Nudd. There seems every reason, then, to see Odin as linked as a psychopomp both to horses and to the dead, independent of his links to the image of gallows, which in English we can refer to (using a modern kenning) as the gallows' tree.

Odin is, of course, most famously linked to another tree in the Nordic tradition, the world tree that grows up to reach the sky, thereby acting as a ladder between the worlds of men and immortals, thereby establishing an axis mundi or navel. That tree is called Yggdrasil. While there are different possible interpretations of the name, they all seem to imply a link to Odin and to death. The most frequently cited is Yggr's drasil , “The Horse of The Terrible One”. This is understood to refer to Odin, addressed as Yggr when seen as a god that inspires terror, either in war, during the Wild Hunt or to those victims about to be hung, possibly sprung skywards by the neck from traps, speared with javalins, or otherwise tortured, from his sacred tree, be that an oak or an ash tree. A second proposed interpretation of Yggdrasil meaning “Horse/Tree of Terror” clearly makes a direct reference to gallows. (A third is “Yew Pillar”, referring to another tree sacred to the sky father.) Whether one was hanged on a tree or from a specially constructed gallows, the God invoked in the ceremony of execution was Woden, and while Yggdrasil may refer to the original myth that explains the cult of hanging victims on trees to Odin, Sleipnir refers to the more practical business of hanging from a specially (and easily) constructed gallows as part of the same cult, while both kennings reference Woden’s trajectory as Sky Father, and Head of the Wild Hunt.

Implications for the Modern Interpreter

The fact that the metaphorical Sleipnir is later imagined as an actual horse to whom a highly convincing array of legends are attached should act as a warning to any modern interpreter that many of the tales handed down to us may have had their origins in the desire of poets to explain names and phrases that had intellectual origins in early kennings - whose vivid imagery invited explanation in the form of adventurous and colourful tales; tales that, however, were not part of the original logic of the myths and the kennings involved. The case of Sleipnir, in all probability, closely reflects that of the reinterpretation of the name Cú Chulainn in the Gaelic tradition from a metaphorical name for a chariot warrior to that of a legendary hound-killer.

The problem is particularly relevant to the reading of Celtic literature, where the earlier kenning tradition of the Indo-Europeans seems to have had most of its metaphoric and symbolic character transformed into literal, medieval, legendary romance. It is all too easy to take names and images that have come down to us at face value, when in fact they refer to very specific beliefs and practices. Often it is only by reconstructing (lost) metaphors and cultic practices that we can hope to extract the original significance of the kennings.

What seems unintelligible and self-contradictory to us (such as an eight-legged horse, or a young boy acting as a guard dog) can in fact be a clue to a deeper cultural reference and imaginative word-play. Without useful theories about the original kenning/metaphorical values of names, by-names and key phrases, we cannot hope to understand many of the texts which have survived in various Indo-European traditions, nor reach anything like a realistic appraisal of their mythic or cultural world. Even the most famous of modern interpreters are prone to fall at one of these many hurdles, and nothing written today can be taken for granted as representing the original meanings or associations of these religious terms. That said, culturally sensitive study and deep linguistic analysis can open many locked doors.

© Mícheál úa Séaghdha, Praha 2013