Woden and his fellow-gods made, among other creations, a man and a woman out of trees, and called them Ash and Embla respectively.
iv. Their wisdom.
1. Gwydion was the cleverest person ever heard of by Taliessin, who reckoned himself no poor judge in such a matter; and, as described by Lucian under the name of Ogmios, he was the god of eloquence and the wisdom thereto appertaining.
Woden is hymned in early Norse poems as the sage of the powers and the charmer of the gods.
2. Gwydion's Gaulish name Ogmios referred possibly to his association with ways and paths: he was probably the divinity attested by a monument in this country as the god qui vias et semitas commentus est, while in Gaul he as the Celtic Mercury was held to have been, according to Caesar, viarum atque itinerum dux.
Woden is called Way-wont or Traveller, and the like names.
3. Gwydion was a consummate magician, and he is found among those who consult the sorcerers of Arianrhod.[1]
Woden was taunted with acquiring his wisdom by magic, with sitting under waterfalls and conversing with the dead.
4. Gwydion (as Gweir) acquired his gifts of poetry and music from the nether world: he visited the submarine city of Caer Sidi, where he underwent vile treatment at the hands of the Head of Hades; but thenceforth he was for ever a bard, and poets and musicians are the artists of Gwydion under the name Seon.
Woden submitted himself to a course of prolonged
- ↑ Bk. of Taliessin, Skene, ij. 159.
