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Sunday, February 03, 2019

beglued



"N the 11th century, chronicler Adam of Bremen
 recorded in a scholion of his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum that a statue of Thor
 whom Adam describes as "mightiest",
 sat enthroned in the Temple at Uppsala 
(located in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) 
flanked by Wodan (Odin) and "Fricco".
 Regarding Odin, Adam defines him as "frenzy"
 (Wodan, id est furor) and says that he
 "rules war and gives people strength 
against the enemy" and that the people 
of the temple depict him as wearing armour, 
"as our people depict Mars". 

According to Adam, the people of Uppsala had appointed priests (gothi) to each of the gods, who were to offer up sacrifices (blót), and in times of war sacrifices were made to images of Odin

A 10th-century manuscript found in Merseburg, Germany, features a heathen invocation known as the Second Merseburg Incantation, which calls upon Odin and other gods and goddesses from the continental Germanic pantheon to assist in healing a horse:

Phol ende uuodan uuoran zi holza.
du uuart demo balderes uolon sin uuoz birenkit.
thu biguol en sinthgunt, sunna era suister,
thu biguol en friia, uolla era suister
thu biguol en uuodan, so he uuola conda:
sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki:
ben zi bena, bluot si bluoda,
lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin![20]

Phol and Woden travelled to the forest.
Then was for Baldur's foal its foot wrenched.
Then encharmed it Sindgund (and) Sunna her sister,
then encharmed it Frija (and) Volla her sister,
then encharmed it Woden, as he the best could,
As the bone-wrench, so for the blood wrench, (and) so the limb-wrench
bone to bone, blood to blood,

limb to limb, so be glued.

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