BtZ42: Woutan rides high.

[Monte Davis]

MK > I have no idea whether Woutan usages were more common when GR was
written

The Germans insisted on "W(u)otan" after their great 19C burst of
history/philology/mythography/nationalism, but you need to Ngram "Odin" too
if you want a broader European (let alone Anglophone) survey. Most people
outside Germany (and GR studies), seeing a one-eyed dude with winged helmet
and crows, are gonna say "Norse" before "Teutonic."

I realized early in studying with Campbell that our impressions of the Age
and Importance and Profundity of mythical figures, tropes and themes are
very much filtered through historical contingencies of (1) who wrote it
down when (or had a broad, continuous oral tradition), (2) whose stuff got
adopted/adapted with some coherence to ensuing cultures, e.g.
Greek->Roman->upper-class Anglophone, and (3) which bits got highlighted in
which canons of early-modern and modern literature, drama, Wagnerian
music/drama. etc...

Of possible interest, wholesome or otherwise:
https://volkischpaganism.com/2014/10/08/carl-jung-on-hitler-as-personification-of-the-wotan-archetype/

On Mon, May 30, 2016 at 5:26 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Laura writes:
> "They hunt the sky like Wuotan and his mad army." Wuotan and his wild hunt
> signifying death to those who see it (a folkloric concept most recently
> ripped off by Game of Thrones, in the form of the White Walkers). After the
> obscurities of the Kenosha Kid, this is a little heavy-handed, no?"
>
> I've always, again without fully examining, thought this might have come
> from Wagner maybe thru Nietzsche. We seem to know P has read and used some
> Nietzsche,* The Birth of Tragedy *at least.
> But we also know from elsewhere that he does like the old Black Forest
> Deep Germany of folk tales, etc. so he surely went there in his reading.
>
> I have no idea whether Woutan usages were more common when GR was written,
> hence maybe a heavy-handed cliche and just accept it as a fanboy. I have
> always felt it more fun to simply ingest and right on compared to the
> obscurities of the Kenosha Kid section, a frustrating section without real
> help and thought.
>
>
> After writing the above, It occurred to check out book citations of
> Woutan, Wotan in Google Books:
> Another fascinating look at such things. Woutan was HUGE (because Wagner,
> I'm sayin"?) in books over a hundred to 150 years ago THEN went down thru
> and to the sixties---and had a rise again!
>
> https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Woutan%2C+Wotan&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2CWotan%3B%2Cc0
>
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