Óðinn enthroned
Sep. 25th, 2026 05:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weofodthignen posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
all_heathensConsider this iconic image.1
You may have seen illustrations based on it, such as this blatant knock-off2
or this accomplished reworking, one of only two here to suggest one eye is missing (although the bedsheet he's wearing doesn't go well with the helmet or the Urnes-style pillars on the frame)3
or this minimal version, with no wolves and no ravens, and no dragon heads on the throne4
or even something like this modern knock-off, claimed as "own work" on Wikimedia Commons5
(He's apparently put on some weight; although he has his ravens, he's lost Geri and Freki; the sun's rays have become some sort of ceiling neon; Gungnir would be painful to use with those studs on the shaft; and the shield and one raven are cut off by the edge of the "artist"'s cellphone screen. Grade: D)
It's also the basis of this statue6
and is alluded to in this group shot (the other one where the artist suggests the missing eye)7
(Notice that's where the clouds come from, although it's unlikely that Brokkr presented the gifts while standing in front of Hliðskjálf. Again no wolves; what is this prejudice.)
and paid tribute to in this chapter header by the first artist's son, who was much better than his dad.8
(Although he's holding Draupnir and Gungnir is hardly visible.)
Almost everything Óðinn is wearing and holding in the top picture, including the oblong shield with the big curved spike protruding from the boss (which was apparently meant as a bull's horn), turns out to be taken from the costume design for Wotan in the première production of Wagner's Ring.9
The costume designer, Carl Emil Doepler, did the "enthroned Óðinn" illustration, and many others for that revised version of the book in question. Doepler has gone down in history for promoting the horned helmet, but it was the tall wings that he put on the helmets for Wotan and the valkyries that dominated the production and came to epitomise the Ring and the Germanic gods in the popular imagination. The idea of Óðinn wearing a sword as well as brandishing a spear comes from Doepler's costume design. So does his wearing mail. But of course the costume design has him standing, not on a throne, and doesn't have either ravens or wolves. (The stage directions at various points require woodland birds, two dragons, a toad, and a chariot drawn by rams for Fricka, but no cats, goats, wolves, ravens, or golden-bristled boar.)
The enthroned Óðinn in the first two editions of the book was taken from a more academic book.10
This is clearly the original of the highly carved wooden throne with dragon heads, the basic pose including the (two) eyes directly meeting the viewer's gaze, the inclusion of Geri and Freki, Huginn and Muninn, and even the simple stone step(s) up to the throne. (Before Doepler was called in to contribute to the book, he researched assiduously for his Ring costumes, which Wagner found inappropriately antiquarian; he undoubtedly saw this image in its original context.) And if you click to see it larger, you can see that Óðinn is wearing mail under the long robes; the antecedents for the robes are Xian ecclesiastical robes and images of church fathers, but it was presumably based on this rendition that Doepler replaced the short overtunic and Grecian pleated undertunic with a longer tunic and draping the cloak over the knee, while keeping his vision of the upper body clad in armour. This artist, instead of wings, had a crest on the helmet consisting of an entire bird with upraised wings, which is actually closer to the classical source (which was telling tall tales about Gauls). Doepler didn't invent the winged helmet trope—or the horned helmet—but he ennobled it, and set the clichéd format.
Note, however, that this earlier version has quite doglike wolves, gazing at Óðinn. And rather than holding the whomping great shield that Doepler added, Óðinn is shown resting his hand lovingly on the shoulders of the one who has his chin on his master's knee. The third picture, with the frame, now emerges as based on this earlier one with the winged helmet drawn from Doepler, possibly from the Wagner production: Geri and Freki are doglike, one sleeping and the other gazing at Óðinn, who doesn't have a sword and is barechested and barefoot, just draped in a sheet in a manner clearly intended to set him on a par with Zeus. There's no sunburst behind his head, but there are rolling clouds behind him. That could be either Hliðskjálf, or more Zeus, who sits around on a mountain top; the step up to the throne, which this artist has decorated with interlace, rises from rocks.
In the statue, the wolves are not gazing at Óðinn but on guard, looking outward on either side. That is just about the only remnant of this, an earlier bas relief frieze by the same sculptor.11
The enthroned Óðinn is on the right in this detail, but is hard to see, so here it is on Commons, where it can be zoomed in if desired, and here's an anonymous drawing based on it that appeared in the first edition of the same book and was retained in the revised editions.12
(But you'll have to look at the frieze to see the basically naked winged valkyries.)
In this rendition based very clearly on classical precedents, including the gestures, Óðinn is in armour, and that may have influenced Doepler, but it's a moulded breastplate, and he clutches a sceptre rather than a spear. Most noticeably (apart from the sculptor's decision to render valkyries as angels with whisps of chiffon), his idea of wings on a helmet was short and stiff, as if they were amputated from a basilisk rather than an eagle or a black swan. And while the three-quarters perspective is part of its being a scene in a frieze, the sculptor has also posed Óðinn as a king at ease with his power rather than just sitting there. (There's a bit of that in the third picture, too.) The sculptor's artistic skill was way beyond that of Doepler, whose name is on some borderline laughable illustrations (see here, especially bottom right, which is credited in the book as entirely by him); but in his freestanding sculpture he bowed to Doepler in every respect except the wary wolves and largely hiding the mail shirt.
1. Carl Emil Doepler, in Wägner and Nover, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, 3rd ed., Leipzig, 1882
2. "H.L.M", in Foster and Cummings, Asgard Stories, New York, 1901 (all the illustrations in this nice little book are knock-offs, only one with acknowledgement)
3. Johannes Gehrts, in Dahn and Dahn, Walhall: Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, für Alt und Jung am deutschen Herd erzählt, Kreuznach, 1883
4. Charles E. Brock, in Keary and Keary, The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology, 3rd ed., London, 1930
5. Victor Villalobos, 2006
6. Friedrich Wilhelm Engelhard, Hanover, 1888
7. Donn P. Crane, in Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland: A New and Original Plan for Reading Applied to the World's Best Literature for Children, Volume 1, 15th ed., Chicago, 1922
8. Emil Doepler "the younger", in Ranisch, Walhall. Die Götterwelt der Germanen, Berlin, 1900? 1901? 1905?
9. Carl Emil Doepler, costume design for Wotan in Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Bayreuth Festival, 1876
10. Ludwig Pietsch, in Mannhardt, Die Götterwelt der deutschen und nordischen Völker. Eine Darstellung, Berlin, 1860, repr. in Wägner, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, Leipzig, 1874
11. Friedrich Wilhelm Engelhard, detail from Nordisches Heldenleben, frieze "based on the Edda", Hanover, designs exhibited 1851, plaster photographed by Ernst Alpers, 1867
12. Anonymous, after Engelhard's scene in the Edda frieze of Óðinn being presented by Bragi with a newly arrived fallen hero, in Wägner, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, Leipzig, 1874
You may have seen illustrations based on it, such as this blatant knock-off2
or this accomplished reworking, one of only two here to suggest one eye is missing (although the bedsheet he's wearing doesn't go well with the helmet or the Urnes-style pillars on the frame)3
or this minimal version, with no wolves and no ravens, and no dragon heads on the throne4
or even something like this modern knock-off, claimed as "own work" on Wikimedia Commons5
(He's apparently put on some weight; although he has his ravens, he's lost Geri and Freki; the sun's rays have become some sort of ceiling neon; Gungnir would be painful to use with those studs on the shaft; and the shield and one raven are cut off by the edge of the "artist"'s cellphone screen. Grade: D)
It's also the basis of this statue6
and is alluded to in this group shot (the other one where the artist suggests the missing eye)7
(Notice that's where the clouds come from, although it's unlikely that Brokkr presented the gifts while standing in front of Hliðskjálf. Again no wolves; what is this prejudice.)
and paid tribute to in this chapter header by the first artist's son, who was much better than his dad.8
(Although he's holding Draupnir and Gungnir is hardly visible.)
Almost everything Óðinn is wearing and holding in the top picture, including the oblong shield with the big curved spike protruding from the boss (which was apparently meant as a bull's horn), turns out to be taken from the costume design for Wotan in the première production of Wagner's Ring.9
The costume designer, Carl Emil Doepler, did the "enthroned Óðinn" illustration, and many others for that revised version of the book in question. Doepler has gone down in history for promoting the horned helmet, but it was the tall wings that he put on the helmets for Wotan and the valkyries that dominated the production and came to epitomise the Ring and the Germanic gods in the popular imagination. The idea of Óðinn wearing a sword as well as brandishing a spear comes from Doepler's costume design. So does his wearing mail. But of course the costume design has him standing, not on a throne, and doesn't have either ravens or wolves. (The stage directions at various points require woodland birds, two dragons, a toad, and a chariot drawn by rams for Fricka, but no cats, goats, wolves, ravens, or golden-bristled boar.)
The enthroned Óðinn in the first two editions of the book was taken from a more academic book.10
This is clearly the original of the highly carved wooden throne with dragon heads, the basic pose including the (two) eyes directly meeting the viewer's gaze, the inclusion of Geri and Freki, Huginn and Muninn, and even the simple stone step(s) up to the throne. (Before Doepler was called in to contribute to the book, he researched assiduously for his Ring costumes, which Wagner found inappropriately antiquarian; he undoubtedly saw this image in its original context.) And if you click to see it larger, you can see that Óðinn is wearing mail under the long robes; the antecedents for the robes are Xian ecclesiastical robes and images of church fathers, but it was presumably based on this rendition that Doepler replaced the short overtunic and Grecian pleated undertunic with a longer tunic and draping the cloak over the knee, while keeping his vision of the upper body clad in armour. This artist, instead of wings, had a crest on the helmet consisting of an entire bird with upraised wings, which is actually closer to the classical source (which was telling tall tales about Gauls). Doepler didn't invent the winged helmet trope—or the horned helmet—but he ennobled it, and set the clichéd format.
Note, however, that this earlier version has quite doglike wolves, gazing at Óðinn. And rather than holding the whomping great shield that Doepler added, Óðinn is shown resting his hand lovingly on the shoulders of the one who has his chin on his master's knee. The third picture, with the frame, now emerges as based on this earlier one with the winged helmet drawn from Doepler, possibly from the Wagner production: Geri and Freki are doglike, one sleeping and the other gazing at Óðinn, who doesn't have a sword and is barechested and barefoot, just draped in a sheet in a manner clearly intended to set him on a par with Zeus. There's no sunburst behind his head, but there are rolling clouds behind him. That could be either Hliðskjálf, or more Zeus, who sits around on a mountain top; the step up to the throne, which this artist has decorated with interlace, rises from rocks.
In the statue, the wolves are not gazing at Óðinn but on guard, looking outward on either side. That is just about the only remnant of this, an earlier bas relief frieze by the same sculptor.11
The enthroned Óðinn is on the right in this detail, but is hard to see, so here it is on Commons, where it can be zoomed in if desired, and here's an anonymous drawing based on it that appeared in the first edition of the same book and was retained in the revised editions.12
(But you'll have to look at the frieze to see the basically naked winged valkyries.)
In this rendition based very clearly on classical precedents, including the gestures, Óðinn is in armour, and that may have influenced Doepler, but it's a moulded breastplate, and he clutches a sceptre rather than a spear. Most noticeably (apart from the sculptor's decision to render valkyries as angels with whisps of chiffon), his idea of wings on a helmet was short and stiff, as if they were amputated from a basilisk rather than an eagle or a black swan. And while the three-quarters perspective is part of its being a scene in a frieze, the sculptor has also posed Óðinn as a king at ease with his power rather than just sitting there. (There's a bit of that in the third picture, too.) The sculptor's artistic skill was way beyond that of Doepler, whose name is on some borderline laughable illustrations (see here, especially bottom right, which is credited in the book as entirely by him); but in his freestanding sculpture he bowed to Doepler in every respect except the wary wolves and largely hiding the mail shirt.
1. Carl Emil Doepler, in Wägner and Nover, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, 3rd ed., Leipzig, 1882
2. "H.L.M", in Foster and Cummings, Asgard Stories, New York, 1901 (all the illustrations in this nice little book are knock-offs, only one with acknowledgement)
3. Johannes Gehrts, in Dahn and Dahn, Walhall: Germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, für Alt und Jung am deutschen Herd erzählt, Kreuznach, 1883
4. Charles E. Brock, in Keary and Keary, The Heroes of Asgard: Tales from Scandinavian Mythology, 3rd ed., London, 1930
5. Victor Villalobos, 2006
6. Friedrich Wilhelm Engelhard, Hanover, 1888
7. Donn P. Crane, in Sylvester, Journeys Through Bookland: A New and Original Plan for Reading Applied to the World's Best Literature for Children, Volume 1, 15th ed., Chicago, 1922
8. Emil Doepler "the younger", in Ranisch, Walhall. Die Götterwelt der Germanen, Berlin, 1900? 1901? 1905?
9. Carl Emil Doepler, costume design for Wotan in Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Bayreuth Festival, 1876
10. Ludwig Pietsch, in Mannhardt, Die Götterwelt der deutschen und nordischen Völker. Eine Darstellung, Berlin, 1860, repr. in Wägner, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, Leipzig, 1874
11. Friedrich Wilhelm Engelhard, detail from Nordisches Heldenleben, frieze "based on the Edda", Hanover, designs exhibited 1851, plaster photographed by Ernst Alpers, 1867
12. Anonymous, after Engelhard's scene in the Edda frieze of Óðinn being presented by Bragi with a newly arrived fallen hero, in Wägner, Unsere Vorzeit. Nordisch-germanische Götter- und Heldensagen, Leipzig, 1874