Piotr wrote
> Let's be serious: Odin cannot be *XedHnos for the very good
reason that he is the same god as Wotan and Woden: *wo:d-an-a-
contains the same element that we find in archaic wood 'mad,
possessed' = OHG wuot, Gothic wo:ths (cf. Modern German wütend,
Wut
'wrath'), and also in Latin va:te:s, OIrish faith 'prophet, seer' <
*waxt-, with further Germanic, Celtic and Indic cognates that have to
do with madness, poetry and magic.
The Wiedenfeld and Nicholson History of Relgion Series used to have a
book on Myths and Religion of the North (Sorry, I cannot locate its
bibliographic details - any help gratefully received), that suggested
that Odin was a relatively late addition to the Norse Pantheon. He
does not seem to be present in Tacitus's Germania unless it is in
his "Mercury is the deity whom they chiefly worship, and on certain
days they deem it right to sacrifice to him even with human
victims." It suggested a close sharmanic orgin, linked to death and
rebirth rituals.
Regards
John