THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

I imagine that any native Old Norse speakers are older than even you are, Bob.

And that was <i>my</i> translation, so thanks for the compliment!

I put the Old Norse (ON) and English words in bold face to make the connection clear, and avoid lengthy explanations such as this one.

You will note that the ON word in question was vsindum, its nom. sing. is vsendi. It is a cognate with English wisdom. The 'v' was pronounced as a 'w'. But even English wisdom is defined with the word "knowledge." The question is whether this contradicts your talk about <b>W</b>isdom. The answer is that it doesn't.

That is why I said it doesn't take away from your point.

In both ON and English, one can have knowledge of and wisdom with facts. Knowledge refers to experience and familiarity with facts that you are talking about. I have this book right in front me edited by some Dutchman named Jon De Vries called "Altnordisches Etymologishes Wrterbuch," written in German. I don't know why I have it. It just appeared magically by my right foot, which is bare. Vsendi comes from the word vs. Now according to this dead Dutchman, vs is an exact cognate to, guess what?

English <i>wise</i>.

And as everyone knows who has a good dictionary, wisdom comes from wise. Or wisdom comes from being a wise-ass, depending on how you look at it.

But in ON and English what is the difference at heart between knowledge and wisdom? Knowledge is experience or familiarity of facts and wisdom is perception of facts. Knowledge are things that can be learned by rote, like the runes that Woden picked up with a cry after hanging himself for nine nights. <b>Wisdom is perception</b>, such as Woden's eye in the spring.

Knowledge is facts, wisdom a faculty of the mind. In fact both the ON and English are also defined as "intelligence." For my ON, I am using Cleasby-Vigfusson's. You can ask your friends the native Old Norse speakers about it. It's really thick. I mean in pages, not like my intelligence.

So when your ancient Oriental contemporaries said that they possessed Wisdom, in English that means they were smart and their followers were dumb.

When you say that the Aryan emphasizes knowledge where he could talk about Wisdom, you are saying that the Aryan checks his facts, checks that what he says is true, and hopes that even the unwise can see that.

This is not to say that the Aryan devalues wisdom. He devalues Wisdom, as you say. 'w'isdom is perception. The passage in the Edda that I quote defines wisdom as "insight and <b>street sense</b>." This is not Wisdom.

This is what Bob is all about.

Yes, it is the faculty of mental sight, or insight, <b>which is why Woden stuck his eye in that spring.</b>

But actually, Bob, your genius is subtle, you knew all that I just said, but deemed to bait me to show off.

That said, here is the rest of the passage, the beginning of chapter 16 of the Edda by Snorri Sturluson, to whom you were a close friend; inspired by you, I have made some changes:

<b>XV. The Gods' Holy Place</b>

<i>Then speaks Wanderer:</i> What is the main place or halidom of the gods?

<i>High answers:</i> That is at the ash Ug'drawsill. There shall the gods hold their judgments each day.

<i>Then speaks Wanderer:</i> What is to say of that place?

<i>Then says Evenhigh:</i> The ash is of all trees greatest and best. Its limbs spread out over all home and stand over heaven. Three of the tree's roots hold it up and wind far and wide. One is among the Oses and another among the rimethurses where once was the Ginning Gap. The third windeth over Nealhome: under that root is Kettleboomer, and Nithehack gnaweth the root beneath.

And under the root that to the rimethurses windeth is Meme's Spring, where insight and good sense belong. And it is named for Meme whose spring it is. He is full of wisdom, for he drinketh from the spring out of the horn Yellinghorn. Thither came All-Father and bade one drink of the spring, but he got it not before he left an eye on loan. As said in Wandaspae:

All wot I, Woden,

where thou keepest eye

In yon mighty

Meme's Spring.

Drinketh mead, Meme,

every morning

From Walfather's wed.

<i>Wost thou more and what?</i>

The third root of the ash windeth in heaven and under that root is the spring that is much holy and called Weird's Well.

There have the gods their judgment place.

This is less interpretative and more literal than any translation published. But if you prefer, I could do you a word-for-word gloss. Just say the word. It won't take long.

Wisdom requires Priests, doesn't it? Knowledge, on the other hand, does not need Priests because if you Know, you don't have to just listen.

Aha. One can now see why the early Church went to such extremes to stifle Pagan and Gnostic dissent. ...Gnosis means Knowledge in Greek by the way.

Caedmon, the earliest Anglo-Saxon poet whose name we know, used a lot

of the same symbols in his poetry. He was one of St. Hilda of Whitby's

finds. Both lived in the 600s, in the northeast of what's now England.

The Harrowing of Hell -- Jesus rounding up the good folk who lived before

Him and escorting them to Heaven -- has been identified as a

Germanic/Anglo-Saxon tradition.

The suffering Christ on the Cross dying to redeem mankind first shows up

in Germany in the 900s. (Gardiner's (politically incorrect) Art History.)

Before that, it was always Christ the King or Christ the Ruler of

the Universe (Pantocrator).)