Runes F A Q3s

    Runes Frequently asked questions

Is the Upside Down Tarot hanged man Othinn?

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot as far as I am aware was the first "official" tarot card deck made? Bearing in mind that these cards were originally intended for gambling, the so-called Occult mysteries and attempts to find shallow relevancies to Egyptian, Indian, Gypsy-Atlantean or Norse Runic traditions are at best modern New Age Universalism ONE SIZE FITS ALL ideologies without any basis in fact? These cards were never made for divination or mystical goals, but in fact were designed for gambling. This New age urban legend revelation extensively found on the internet demonstrates clearly little understanding about Northern Ways. It is complete nonsense and pure speculation.

The earliest extant Tarot deck is the Visconti-Sforza, hand-painted in the mid-fifteenth century. It may have been crafted as a gift commemorating the politically expedient marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti, daughter of the ruthless Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, to the condottieri (professional soldier) Francesco Sforza in CE1441. Eleven incomplete versions of the deck exist; the largest, the reprinted Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo version, contains 74 cards. The trumps and court cards bear neither numbers nor titles. No one knows for certain which version is the oldest.

   Visconti-Sforza Hanged Man

The sagas do indeed give Othinn the eke name of hangatyr or god of the hang but New Age and eclectic thinking has somehow confused the trial of Othinn in the Runattal thattr Othins as a basis for this weak argument? They conclude quite wrongly that since Othinn hanged on the World Tree "Upside down" (there is no evidence of this anywhere) and by co-incidence, the Tarot has a card depicting a man who is "hanged", that this character must be Othinn . There are two problems with this. Firstly, whilst the origins of Tarot cards  remain obscure, one thing is certain--there is no evidence to suggest Tarot originated in Northern Europe or within any Norse society. Secondly, it is most likely that Othinn hanged by the neck,  just like the sacrifices portrayed to him in the sagas!

The most striking case is the sacrifice of king Vikar by hanging, which is recorded in Gautreks s. konungs c. 7 (F.A.S. III. p.31 ff.) and Saxo VI. p. 276 f. According to the account given in Gautreks Saga, Vikar's fleet was delayed by contrary winds. Having had recourse to divination, they find that Othinn requires a man out of their company. The victim is to be chosen by lot and hanged. Selection by lot is therefore made throughout the host, and the lot falls on the king himself. King Vikar, prayed to Othinn for a favourable wind but wanted to avoid being actually sacrificed, however, arranged to stage a mock sacrificial hanging to cheat Othinn of his sacrifice. But when one of his men spoke the words of offering, "a deadly substitution took place, and the ritual became reality" (Davidson 52): the fake rope became a real one and a branch pulled the king up, hanging him so that he died. We do not know if Vikar got his favourable wind or not, but at any rate he wasn't around to appreciate it; the story illustrates the perils of taking Odin's sacrifices lightly.

Is the Valknot connected to Othinn?

Back Page

Quick Links:
 

  [ Runes F A Qs3 ]

[ About me ] [ Asatru & Heathenry ] [ Links ] [ Freyja Runes Seidr ] [ Sabine the Wolwa ]

 [ Little Bones Women ] [ Pierced by the light ] [ Rorik's Column ] [ Rune Lore ] [ Rune Origins ]

 [ Rune Poems ] [ Rune Scholars ] [ Rune FAQ ] [ Guido von List ] [ Poetry ] [ Viking Age Costumes ]

 [ View Comments ] [ My Reviews ] [ Modern Myths ] [ Controversies ] [ Book Hoard ]

 [ Book Reviews ] [ Norse Mythology ] [ HE Davidson ] [ Lotte Motz ]

 [ NA Runestones ] [ Your Articles ]