The word Trémann (tree man) appears several times in Norse sources, referring to some kind of living wooden idol. In Flateyjarbók, Ogmundr the Dane goes ashore at Samsey and finds a "trémann fornan" (ancient tree man) 140ft high and covered in moss and he wondered who worshipped this enormous god. In other cases the tremann is alive, such as in one story one is sent by pagan Hakon Jarl to kill Thorleifr Jarlaskald. This one was made from driftwood and dressed in human clothes with a human heart placed inside it and it was named Þorgarðr. The fact that Þorgarðr is referred to in a kenning as the Gautr of the battlefire, associates him with Odin, since Gautr is a name for Odin. In Havamal 49 a verse describes how Odin clothes two wooden men with the armour of noblemen, and in so doing turns them to demons of battle, presumably for his army in Valhöll.
There are other sources that associate Odin with the creation of idols that he makes live, such as The Old English gnomic poem Maxims I phrase 'Woden worhte weos' ('Woden made idols'’) and the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who pretended that Odin was only a man, still admitted that he had the power to make inanimate statues speak.
All this was brought to my mind when I witnessed the funerary puppet dancing of the Batak people in Sumatra. Batak pagan priests made human-sized puppets which were dressed like those who had died and were manipulated by the Datu to dance, weep, gnash their teeth, and speak in the voice of the deceased. The puppets were used to revive souls of the dead and communicate with them. An extraordinarily Odinic form of necromancy. There is no historic link between Indonesia and the Odin cult of course, but the similarity is testament to the perennial nature of pagan truth. You can see it in my new video here.
There are other sources that associate Odin with the creation of idols that he makes live, such as The Old English gnomic poem Maxims I phrase 'Woden worhte weos' ('Woden made idols'’) and the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, who pretended that Odin was only a man, still admitted that he had the power to make inanimate statues speak.
All this was brought to my mind when I witnessed the funerary puppet dancing of the Batak people in Sumatra. Batak pagan priests made human-sized puppets which were dressed like those who had died and were manipulated by the Datu to dance, weep, gnash their teeth, and speak in the voice of the deceased. The puppets were used to revive souls of the dead and communicate with them. An extraordinarily Odinic form of necromancy. There is no historic link between Indonesia and the Odin cult of course, but the similarity is testament to the perennial nature of pagan truth. You can see it in my new video here.
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