What is a Wain?

Detail from THE HAY WAIN: John Constable 

The wain is an item that often appears within the Vanir myths. It has been connected to many of the major Vanir gods, including Freyr and Nerthus. In the simplest terms, the wain is a drawn cart. It was usually pulled by horses or oxen. At some point in history, the term was modified by its exposure to Anglo Saxon and Old English languages, which explains the introduction of the guttural g, changing the term into one more recognizable, wagon or waggon.

The wain was a cart used predominantly for agricultural products and other cargo, rather than the transportation of human beings. This makes sense in relation to the Vanir, given that they are beings associated closely with the earth and agriculture. The interesting thing about the wain in the Vanir myths is that it is often depicted with a ritual or religious function.

For example, the only mentions we have of Nerthus come through the works of Tacitus, a Roman historian in the 1st century AD. In his survey of Germanic history, he describes the cult of Nerthus and the means of her worship among the germanic people.

In this he describes a ritual procession of the Goddess throughout the country, in which the hidden goddess is drawn in a wain in the company of her dedicated priest. He describes the belief of the people that the goddess blesses the land as she passes, in return for gifts given by the people. She then moves on to other lands until returning to her island home.

One of the more interesting parts of this story is that though she travels far and wide, there seems to be some taboo in regards to actually seeing the goddess. None are allowed to look upon her save the priest. In a more sinister twist, Tacitus describes the goddess being bathed by slaves upon her return home. These slaves are subsequently sacrificed as "none can look upon her and live."

A similar myth exists regarding the god Freyr. In the Ögmundar þáttr dytts of the 14th century (admittedly Christian influenced), the drawing of a wain containing the god Freyr, or his likeness, is described.

Great heathen sacrifices were held there (SWEDEN) at that time, and for a long while Frey had been the god who was worshipped most there — and so much power had been gained by Frey’s statue that the devil used to speak to people out of the mouth of the idol, and a young and beautiful woman had been obtained to serve Frey. It was the faith of the local people that Frey was alive, as seemed to some extent to be the case, and they thought he would need to have a sexual relationship with his wife; along with Frey she was to have complete control over the temple settlement and all that belonged to it.

This passage, written over a thousand years after Tacitus words on Nerthus, displays striking similarities with it. Both show cthonic deities connected to the idea of a wain and a ritual procession. They also reveal the presence of a select priest/priestess hood connected with these rituals and the care of the gods in the form of their idol or actual presence. It is also implied that these divinities possessed some means of communicating with the public, be it through their own power or those of the priest/priestess.

It is also interesting to note that these deities were cared for exclusively by a member of the opposite sex, and in the case of Freyr this is described as a "marriage" between god and mortal. This union is depicted as so sacred that the woman/priestess of Freyr controlled the entirety of the temple and surrounding settlement. One cannot help but compare this short passage to the myth of Freyr and Gerd and its hints at a system of sacral kingship in which the male essence is married to the woman, symbolic of the earth and its fertility. Could this system go both ways, given that it is the marriage of the god to a woman that gives her control of the land? Sacral Queenship as well? This of course is highly speculative, but begs the question. Why has no one ever explored the idea before? Is the idea of a sacred queen too much for traditional anthropology to bear?

Moving back to the wain itself, we can see that for a great period of time the wain was symbolic of the gods of the earth and the Vanir. Its main function, at least based on literary evidence, seems to be as a ritual element. Therefore we can see the wain as a sort of chariot of the gods themselves, symbolic of their power over the earth and the wealth of the land.

There are modern movements within the Vanatru umbrellas which have used ideas such as waincraft as a term to denote a new Vanir focused religious movement. There have also been rituals created which mirror the use of the wain as it is seen in the literary record as a means of connecting  with and honoring the gods and their power over the land. In any case, the wain remains an important symbol of the Vanir gods, particularly in regards to ritual and cultic activities.

IN FRITH
Cena