The dark-age tales that inspired a modern classic

Blood of Woden is a groundbreaking work which showcases the forgotten world of the pre-Christian English.  The tale it tells is new, but to countless generations, its cast of characters would have been household names. 

So much has been lost that we have only fragments to sift through.  But the fragments we do have hint at a world of startling complexity, a parallel multiverse where gods, elves and giants vied for control of a number of worlds. 

The fragments sit in an ocean of darkness, but when slotted into the sagas of the vikings - who shared their faith with the English - they match the jigsaw almost exactly.

It has been said that the English have no folklore.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gathering the shards of a little-known folklore

The characters and concepts in the Blood of Woden books are drawn from the faith and beliefs of the heathen English.  These beliefs were widespread until the end of the seventh century, but from then on they were gradually replaced by the teachings of the Church.  Open worship of the old gods probably ended in the eighth century, but belief in elves and giants lasted far longer, as did the memory of the old ways.  A belief in the Wyrd - the hand that twisted fate - has never truly ended.

The names and ideas in this modern-day adventure are presented as faithfully as they can be from the surviving information.  The problem is that so little has survived.  Most of what is known of the old faith has been pieced together from place names, archaeology and the odd scrap of written evidence from poems such as Beowulf.  This dearth of information is down to three things: firstly, the pre-Christian English seldom wrote anything down; secondly, they carved mostly in wood, so little of their work has survived; thirdly, the church rewrote or rebranded much of the lore that remained. 

We do know that the English believed in a number of worlds, a range of supernatural beings, a pantheon of gods and an all-powerful, all-controlling fate.  That said, the evidence is scant, often no more than a single passing mention. 

Thankfully, the English shared their faith with their fellow Germanic nations, including those in Iceland and Norway.  In these northern lands, at the very end of the heathen era, two books were written which, between them, contain almost all the tales we have of the old gods.  These books are known as the Eddas.  The Poetic Edda is a collection of tales and poems brought together in the eleventh century (although some say as late as the thirteenth).  The Prose Edda is a single work by a man named Snorri Sturluson, written in Iceland around 1220. 

What is interesting is that the few English sources which do show or mention the gods match these Icelandic tales almost exactly.  For example,  Beowulf was composed in England around the year 800.  It contains the following fleeting reference to someone named Hama.

This is the only mention of Hama in the whole of Beowulf.  It is included in the poem purely to make the point that the treasure the writer is describing is almost as good as the jewel called Brosingamen, which Hama brought to the "bright borough" i.e. the home of the gods.  That Hama is mentioned only as an aside implies the listeners knew who he was and, furthermore, that they had heard the tale of Hama and Brosingamen many times before. 

In the Prose Edda, Sturluson tells us that the Norse god Heimdallr swam out to an island to fight Loki, who had stolen Freyja's necklace, Brisingamen, and hidden it on the island.  Heimdallr won and returned to Asgarthr (the "bright borough") with the gem, which he then gave back to Freyja. 

This is almost certainly the same tale.  Hama and heim are the words for 'home' in Old English and Old Norse respectively.  From this one reference in Beowulf, we know that the English both knew Hama as a god and knew at least some of the legends surrounding him. 

Likewise, the Norse poem Volundarkvith tells the tale of how master smith, Volundr, was imprisoned by an evil king.  In revenge, he killed his captor's sons and made drinking cups out of their skulls, which he then presented to the king as a gift.  When the boys' sister came to call, he hid their bodies under his bellows. 

This very scene appears on the side of the Franks Casket, an eighth century whalebone box carved with runes and with scenes from Germanic folklore.  Just as in the poem, Volundr (known as 'Weland' or 'Wayland' in English) is shown holding a boy's head in his tongs while hiding the rest of his body under the bellows.  What is interesting is that this box was made in England some three hundred years before Volundarkvith was written down. 

If these tales could survive unaltered for so long then who is to say that others could not do the same?  What is frightening is that, were it not for these happy survivals, we would have not a shred of evidence that the English knew any of the later Norse tales. 

As it is, a glimpse may have to be enough.

Mapping the heathen cosmos

The heathen Germanic nations believed in a number of worlds, each home to one kind of intelligent being (if one counts mankind as intelligent).  Exactly what these worlds were is nowhere explained.  The nature of the planets was not known at the time, so the worlds were unlikely to have been imagined in the heavens.  More likely is that they were thought of as unexplored parts of our own planet.  The Norse creation myth, which has the world of men between zones of extreme heat and cold, lends weight to this.  Blood of Woden imagines the worlds as Earth in different dimensions. 

As with so much of the old faith, the Norse accounts give by far the most information.  The Eddas refer to nine worlds, though there is no complete list of these.  Furthermore, the stories they contain appear to contradict one another.  The names of eight worlds may be gleaned from the Eddas.  They are: Asgarthr, Vanaheimr, Alfheimr, Mithgarthr, Jotunheimr, Svartalfaheimr, Niflheimr and Muspellsheimr.  Modern references to Asgarthr and Mithgarthr often use the spellings 'Asgard' and 'Midgard'.  As for the endings, Garthr shares a root with the English words 'yard' and 'garden', while heimr is Old Norse for 'home'. 

Asgarthr and Vanaheimr were home to the Æsir and Vanir, the two kindreds of gods worshipped by the Norsemen.  Alfheimr was the home of the elves, while Mithgarthr was the 'middle yard' and the world of men.  (In common with other cultures, the Germanic nations believed their own world to be at the heart of things.)  The jotuns of Jotunheimr were a race of giants who appear in the Blood of Woden books under their English name of ettins.  Svartalfaheimr was home to the swarthy elves, the shadowy cousins of the elves of Alfheimr.  Niflheimr, also called Niflhel, was a cold, dark world ruled by the creature, Hel.  Muspellsheimr was home to a race of fiery giants, but appears only in the lore surrounding the creation and destruction of the world. 

Other realms are mentioned.  Utgarthr was another name for Jotunheimr, although it could also denote anywhere outside the two 'safe' worlds of Asgarthr and Mithgarthr.  (It is used in this latter sense in the Blood of Woden books.)  There is also a single mention of a world called Nithavellir, which is given as the home of the dwarves.  Many authors, however, consider the dwarves and swarthy elves to be one and the same, in which case this would not be a separate world. 

Of these worlds, only Mithgarthr is recorded in Old English (as Middangeard).  As in Old Norse, it was the world of men.  The only English source to refer to the heathen cosmos mentions seven worlds rather than nine.  Middangeard would have been one of these, but the other six are open to speculation.  Blood of Woden takes them to be the following, applying what is known of English beliefs to the nine Norse worlds. 

Esyard:    home of the gods (Esa being the English version of Æsir)

Elfhome:    home of the elves

Dwarrowhome:    home of the dwarves

Midyard:    home of men

Ettinhome:    home of the ettins (the same beings as the Norse jotuns)

Swarthelhome:    home of the swarthy elves

Nivelhome:    home of Hel

The names are shown as they might appear in modern English had the Old English names survived.  As such, poetic license has been applied.  There is no evidence that the English believed in swarthy elves, nor in Hel as a creature, but there is nothing to suggest they did not.  Dwarves, elves, ettins and the Esa are all mentioned in Old English sources. 

In the Blood of Woden books, Esyard, Midyard and Elfhome are protected from outsiders by a kind of supernatural firewall.  The four worlds beyond them are known collectively as the Outyard (an updated form of the Norse word 'Utgarthr').  Here, the ettins are free to terrorise whomever they find.  In the Eddas, the Æsir are recorded as having built a wall of stone around their world to keep the jotuns out.  This is why their homeworld is known as Asgarthr rather than 'Asheimr'.  Garthr (modern English 'yard') denotes an enclosed area.

In terms of positioning, Blood of Woden imagines six worlds in a multi-dimensional hexagon around Midyard.  Esyard and Elfhome are above, Dwarrowhome and Ettinhome lie to either side, while Swarthelhome and Nivelhome lie beneath.  Each world is Earth in a different dimension, each with its own landscape, wildlife and countries.  Travel between them is restricted to gods, elves and ettins, although the souls of the dead may leave their homeworlds at the behest of the Esa.

The Norsemen also imagined the worlds being held together by a giant ash tree, which they named Yggdrasil.  Although not mentioned by name in the Runatal, this tree is generally believed to be the one Woden hung himself from when gathering the runes (see 'A Kind of Magic').  There is plenty of evidence that trees were held to be holy by the heathen Germanic nations, and many believe this veneration to be the origin of the Northern European custom of maypoles.  In The Runemaster, Yggdrasil appears on the cover of the book of runes.

"In the beginning was the Wyrd.  And the Wyrd was as God."

The heathen Germanic nations believed not in an almighty and all-knowing god but in an all-consuming and inescapable fate.  In English, this was known as the Wyrd, from which we get the modern word 'weird'.

The Wyrd was not a being but a process: a vast and unfathomable set of rules which used the events of the past to shape the course of the future.  Every thought and deed fed into the Wyrd, which twisted and reworked them according to its rules then dealt them out as future events.  In this way, all things and all times were connected.

This provided the basis of the heathen moral code.  Everybody had to take responsibility for their deeds; if they did not, they could alter their future in ways they dared not imagine.  When the unexpected came to pass, that was simply Wyrd running its course.  We still say "that's weird" when something odd happens.

Nobody was exempt from the Wyrd, not even the gods.  The only way to change it, for men and gods alike, was to dabble with runes and hope for a good result.  Each rune was believed to control a different aspect of Wyrd, and it seems the runes needed to be carved rather than spoken.  We know this from a number of references in the Norse sagas, notably Sigrdrifumal and Egil's Saga.

To modern thinking, Wyrd might appear as something akin to the laws of physics, or perhaps as a cosmic computer, churning endlessly over every shred of data that came its way.  In heathen times, however, it was thought of as a web made up of countless tiny threads, each representing one life.  Everything you did would cause your thread to shift, sometimes more, sometimes less.  The Wyrd would then weave your thread back into the web, binding your destiny to those around you.  It is because of this belief in fate as a web that we speak of magicians "weaving their magic" even today.

The later Norse sources also describe Wyrd as a well.  They go on to say that this well is tended by three women whose job it is to interpret its outcomes.  Other sources speak of these women as being the ones who actually spin the threads that go into the web of Wyrd.  Whichever version you prefer, there was clearly more than one way of explaining things.

The Blood of Woden books combine elements of both these traditions.  Wyrd is all powerful, and is viewed by the characters as the web which binds them together.  In the book which bears its name, the Well of Wyrd is a holy place where the outcomes of Wyrd may be glimpsed before they occur.  It is portrayed as described in the Prose Edda, a notable feature being that its water turns everything it touches to purest white.  In the books, access to the Well is forbidden to all but the most powerful Esa.

Belief in the Wyrd was so deep-seated among the Germanic nations that it outlasted all other heathen beliefs.  For years after the conversion to Christianity, it was believed that God was bound to the whims of Wyrd in the same way as everybody else.  Even when this notion fell from favour, God never displaced the Wyrd: He simply became it.  Indeed, one of the great appeals of Christianity to the Germanic nations was that it offered a chance to speak to the ruler of fate.

In many ways, a belief in Wyrd is still with us today.  If something happens against the odds, we speak of a twist of fate.  If something happens we do not like, we might say that fate has dealt us a cruel hand.  This harks back directly to the idea of an unseen process working away in the background.  But perhaps best of all is this poetic warning: "Oh what a tangled web we weave when we first we practice to deceive."

Shining a torch on the lost gods of England

The heathen English believed in many kinds of beings, all of which were subject to the Wyrd.

Foremost among these were the Esa, the kindred of gods who ruled the highest world, Esyard.  They were the characters about whom most of the surviving tales were written.  The singular of Esa is 'Os', which is the name of the O rune in English and occurs in names such as 'Oswald' and 'Osbourne'.  In modern culture, this kindred is more widely known by its Norse name of Æsir.  Some of the later Norse sources name a second kindred of gods called the Vanir, but there is no direct evidence that the heathen English believed in more than one kindred.

The Norse gods Odin and Thor are well known in modern western culture.  What is less well known is that these two gods, along with a host of others, were worshipped all over the Germanic world, including by the English.  In Britain, these two particular gods went by the names Woden and Thunor.  Wednesday and Thursday bear their names.  Tuesday and Friday are also named after members of the Esa: the god Tiw and the goddess Frige respectively.  More detailed information than this is scant, however, and most of what we know is inferred from Norse tales and poems.  These tales are widely available online.

The Esa were powerful beings, able to alter the outcome of events for the good or ill of mankind.  As may be expected for a warlike race from northern Europe, most of the Germanic gods were linked to warfare or the weather.  The Esa were not almighty though.  While they could dabble in the Wyrd, they could no more control it than men could.  And, like men, they fought, argued and fell in love.  The best way to think of them would be as immortal superheroes, doing their bit to save the world but also showing a very human side.

Below them ranked the elves.  They far outnumbered the Esa and it was believed they visited the world of men more often.  However, the elves of the old faith were not the angelic beings of The Lord of The Rings; they were actually rather tricksy.  Loca and Landeris, who feature in the Blood of Woden books, are typical elves in this respect.  In Old English sources, the elves were said to shoot people with darts.  In order to keep them onside, offerings would be left for them in the home.

The elves were occasionally referred to as 'light elves'.  In this, they had a counterpart in the swarthy elves.  These creatures are described in the Prose Edda as being 'blacker than pitch' and as dwelling underground, but few tales otherwise mention them.  They are not mentioned at all outside Scandinavia, but they do feature as antagonists in the Blood of Woden books.

The great foes of the gods were the ettins, a race of giants who lived beyond the ordered worlds of gods, men and elves in a chaotic and frightening realm called the Outyard ('Utgarthr' in Old Norse).  This name means "outside the yard", as in "beyond the pale", and their realm included several distinct worlds.  There are no surviving tales of ettins in Old English, but the word (originally spelt eoten) has come down to us.  In Blood of Woden they are shown as intelligent and elemental beings with a major grudge against the gods.

As with other beings, tales of dwarves come mostly from Scandinavia, although dwarves were certainly known to the heathen English.  They are often described as skilled metalworkers, and were said to have made many of the gods' finest weapons and gems.  In some tales, they appear to have been conflated with the swarthy elves, placing them underground and portraying them as unfriendly.  This may be why the swarthy elves are not mentioned in Old English.

One creature without a world of its own was the thurse.  Its name shows up in most Germanic tongues with a meaning of 'fiend' or 'monster', and it was certainly known to the heathen English.  The rune known as Thorn in Old English was called Thurs in Old Norse, and placenames such as Thursford, Norfolk and Thursden, Lancashire show locations where such creatures were believed to exist.  There are no surviving descriptions of thurses, so they may or may not have looked as portrayed in this series of books.  Their treelike appearance in The Runemaster was inspired by a statue at the Custard Factory in Birmingham.

One point worth making is that the heathen Germanic faith did not believe in absolute good and evil.  All beings were capable of good and bad deeds, while Wyrd was unrelentingly neutral.  The Esa generally looked kindly upon men, but their kindness was not guaranteed, and they always looked after their own interests first.  Likewise, the ettins were not a paradigm of evil.  Though they were the sworn foes of the gods, they were capable of mercy and reason.  Whether or not you got to dine with the Esa after death depended not upon whether you had led a virtuous life but whether you had done anything worthwhile. 

Gods of the Heathen English

Woden is the best-attested English god.  Wednesday is named after him, as are several towns and villages, including Wednesbury and Wednesfield, which feature in the books.  Old English poems link him to magic and healing, and most Anglo-Saxon royal houses claimed descent from him, even after Christianisation.  (This includes the present British royal family, which can trace its descent to the West Saxon house.)  In Old Norse sources, Woden was often shown in a cloak and a wide-brimmed hat - the classic image of the wizard.  He owned two ravens, who brought news to him each day, two wolves and an eight-legged horse.  Most significantly to this series, he was said to have discovered the runes while in a trance, and to have gathered them in for the use of his kin. 

Frige (pronounced Fry) is poorly-attested in Britain, but she has given her name to Friday.  Several places are likely named in her honour, among them Freefolk, Hampshire and Fretherne, Gloucestershire.  Old Norse sources name her as the wife of Woden and queen of Esyard.  She is linked to childbirth, wedlock, spinning and good housekeeping - very much the perfect medieval housewife.  She is also said to have had the gift of foresight, though she generally kept what she saw to herself.

Thunor is the famous Thor of popular myth and legend.  Though few written English sources mention him by name, his hammer appears as a symbol on grave goods, and the word 'thunder' comes from his name.  It has been suggested he was the hero of the common man (whereas Woden was the hero of nobles and kings).  Thursday bears his name, as do towns such as Thundersley, Essex.  In the later Norse sources, he features in many adventures, usually as a slayer of ettins.  Much is made of his hammer and great strength, and he is shown riding a wain drawn by goats.  He is often portrayed as bearded and bare-chested.

Tiw is unattested in Old English prose, but Tuesday bears his name, and there are several places named after him, such as Tuesley, Surrey.  In the Midlands, he was known as Ty, as found in the placenames Tysoe and Tyseley.  The T rune is named after him.  His name is the eldest of any Germanic god, coming from the ancient Indo-European word for 'god', and sharing a root with the Greek name Zeus.  To the Norse, he was a war god and bringer of victory, noted for his bravery and strength.  The only tale in which he plays a large part sees him placing his hand in a wolf's mouth to earn the creature's trust, only to have it bitten off when the gods break their word and bind the wolf.

Ingui is attested only once in Old English.  The Ing rune bears his name, and its verse in the Rune Poem describes him faring across the waves in a wain.  Ingestre, Staffordshire may well bear his name.  In the Norse sources, his full name is Ingui-Freyr, which is usually shortened to Freyr, meaning 'lord'.  The Eddas reckon him one of the Vanir kindred, along with his father, Njord, and his sister, Freyja, and he has lordship over Elfhome.  Ingui represents manhood, fruitfulness and harvest, and is usually portrayed as younger than the other gods.  He owns a golden boar, a fold-up ship and a sword which can fight by itself.  He has a footman named Skirnir, whose name means 'Shiner' in English.

Nerth was the first English deity to be recorded, being described by a Roman travel writer in the first century AD.  The Roman account describes a festival in which a goddess named Nerthus is drawn around the country in a wain then led across a lake to be cleansed.  In Old Norse, Nerth is a god known as Njord (compare firth / fjord and earth / jord).  The description of the wain going over the water mirrors Ingui's verse in the Rune Poem.  Like Ingui, Nerth is listed as a Vanir god in the Norse accounts, so the business with the wain may well have been a Vanic ritual.  If it was, this would suggest the Vanir were known to the English.  Nerth may originally have been two distinct characters, perhaps brother and sister.

Eoster is mentioned in Bede's book The Reckoning of Time as a goddess who was worshipped in April.  This month was named Eosturmonath in the Old English calendar, and the festival of Easter bears her name to this day.  Eoster's name comes from the word 'east', so she may well have been a dawn goddess.  She is not mentioned outside England, but evidence from Germany, where April was once known as Ostermonat, suggests she was known there too.  In the Blood of Woden books, Eoster is cast as Ingui's sister, taking the place of the Norse goddess, Freyja, who is unattested in English.  This is, however, poetic license on the part of the author: there is no contemporary evidence that Eoster and Freyja were one and the same.

Hretha is another goddess mentioned in The Reckoning of Time.  She was worshipped in March, and the month was named after her in the Old English calendar.  Other than this, we know nothing about Hretha.  From the timing of her month, we can speculate that she was a spring goddess, but until further evidence comes to light, even this cannot be proven.

Saxnot seems to have been specific to the Saxons, whose name he shares.  The royal house of Essex traced its descent from him, and he is named in a christening oath from western Germany.  He is not mentioned in the Norse sources and nothing is known of his appearance, attributes or weapons.

Hama is known from a single, fleeting mention in Beowulf, in which he rescues a jewel named Brosingamen and brings it back to Esyard (see 'Searching for Roots').  A character named Hama is also recorded in the English poem, Widsith, but he seems to be distinct from the god.  In the Old Norse sources, Hama is the gatekeeper of Esyard, charged with summoning the Esa if their world is threatened.  His horn can be heard throughout all worlds, and his hearing is so sharp he can hear the wool growing on a sheep's back.  The Eddas record his rescue of Brosingamen, and also note that he fathered the three classes of mankind: thralls (slaves), churls (commoners) and thanes (noblemen).

Balder is listed as a forebear of the West Saxon royal house, under the name of Baldæg.  Dæg is the old spelling of 'day', so he may have been seen as a god of daylight.  The West Saxon family tree shows him as the son of Woden, and Balderton, Nottinghamshire most likely bears his name.  Balder features in one of the most famous Norse tales, where he is slain by a mistletoe dart thrown by his blind brother, Hod.  In this tale, he is the son of Woden and Frige.  He is said to be so fair and handsome that light shines from him.  This tallies with his possible role as a god of daylight.

Wayland may or may not have been a god himself, but he is better attested in Old English poems than any other heathen character.  Beowulf and Waldere both list him as a smith, while Deor relates a tale in which he is captured by an evil king and kills his sons in revenge.  This scene, in which he hides the boys' bodies under his bellows, appears on the Franks Casket, an eighth-century English whalebone box.  Wayland's father was a giant named Wade, who features as late as the fourteenth century in the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.  The Norse sources contain the same tale of Wayland's imprisonment as may be found in Deor, and they also speak of him as a smith.  Among his many creations are the sword, Gram, which was used by the legendary dragon slayer, Sigurd.