Wodan, Donar & Ziu: The Gods, Before They Were "Odin, Thor and Tyr"

The Norse mythology of the Edda is richly transmitted – the divine world of the continental Germanic peoples, by contrast, only in fragments. We know them almost only from Roman reports, from votive inscriptions, from two surviving charms, from place names and from the weekdays. And yet it is clear: these are the same gods as in the North, only under older names.

Wodan – the raging one, the wanderer

Wodan (Norse Óðinn) is lord of ecstasy, magic and the host of the dead. His name is connected with a word for "fury, frenzy, possession". The Romans equated him with Mercury (hence Wodan's day → Wednesday). In the Second Merseburg Charm, the only surviving pagan spell in Old High German, "Wodan" heals the sprained leg of a horse – word for word the same figure as Odin.

"thu biguol en Uuodan, so he uuola conda" – "then Wodan charmed it, as well as he could"Second Merseburg Charm (public domain, Old High German with own translation)

Donar – the thunderer with the hammer

Donar (Norse Þórr) is the god of the thunderstorm, protector of humans against the giants. The Romans saw in him Hercules (the club-wielder). His sign was the hammer – and the oak dedicated to him that Boniface felled. His name lies in Thursday (German Donnerstag) and in place names like Donnersberg. In the North the thunder-hammer became the famous Mjölnir.

Ziu – the old sky and war god

Ziu, Tiu or Tiwaz (Norse Týr) is the most mysterious of the three. His name is the oldest – it goes back to the same Indo-European word for "sky/god" as the Greek Zeus and Latin Deus. Once he was perhaps the supreme sky god, before Wodan took over that role. The Romans equated him with Mars; hence Ziu's day → German Dienstag, English Tuesday. In place names like Zülpich (Tiu) and in the rune Tiwaz he still echoes.

How we know this

The continental gods emerge from many small traces: the interpretatio Romana (Mercury = Wodan, Hercules = Donar, Mars = Ziu), the Merseburg Charms, the Rhineland matron and votive stones, the Germanic weekday names and the kinship of the languages. Not one continuous myth is transmitted from the continent – the great tales we know only from the North.

Wodan, Donar and Ziu are the older, continental branch of the same divine world that in the North became Odin, Thor and Tyr. Anyone who says Tuesday, Thursday and Wednesday today still calls them – unwittingly – by name.

Read more with us

Interpretatio Romana · The Merseburg Charms · Nerthus – the earth goddess · The Donar oak & Boniface · The Matronae.

Sources & literature

Tacitus, Germania; Second Merseburg Charm; Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte; Rudolf Simek, Dictionary of Northern Mythology; on the etymology of Ziu/Tiwaz comparative linguistics; quotes public domain or own translation.

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