The old, haggard man walks the roads alone, leaning on an oaken staff. He is known by a different name in every village he visits. His coming is always unlooked for.
Sometimes he comes bringing new knowledge, new teachings. Sometimes he comes with a warning. Sometimes he comes offer a quest to a young man, who is never to be seen again. Whether his intentions are good or ill is not always clear. He is gray-bearded and weary, but he hides some great power under his cloak.
This old man, The Wanderer, is one of the core archetypes found in myth and storytelling. He is so universally present that Carl Jung identified him (or at least one aspect of him) as one of the stock archetypal figures, the “wise old man”.
His roots are deep in mythic history. While he is most recognizable today as a European, specifically Germanic, figure, he can be found in cultures all around the world- he is the Wanderer after all.
In this installment of the Perilous Realm series, I’m going to go over the various mythic incarnations of this archetype and the ways it has manifested itself in modern storytelling.
Any discussion of the Wanderer must start with his origins in the wandering grey-beard god himself- Odin, Wōden, Wotān, the father of the Germanic peoples. This German deity contains every aspect of the Wanderer figure that we will see in later archetypes.
Despite his kingly role as All-father and leader of the Aesir, he is most famous in his “Wanderer” disguise - a staff, a gray cloak, and a wide-brimmed hat that covers his missing eye. It is in this guise that he appeared to the people, and according to local folklore, he may even do so today.
Odin is a god obsessed with knowledge and esoteric secrets, sacrificing an eye in his quest for it. His is a magician and a rune-master. He is a culture hero, spreading knowledge and language through Germany and Scandinavia, and known by countless different names. He is also a quest-giver, appearing to young men in his disguised form with stories of hidden treasure and sleeping dragons- only on special occasion does Odin perform the role of the hero himself. He is a friend to the woodlands and it’s creatures, especially the wolf and the raven.
As we will examine, all of these attributes are found in incarnations of the wanderer and wise old-man figures in folklore and modern storytelling.
It is interesting to note that some scholars believe that the cult of Odin was not native but may have actually been imported to the Germanic peoples from a distant land sometime in their prehistory, supplanting whatever god have been the previous king of their pantheon. It is interesting how little he has in common with other Indo-European father sky-gods. If this is true, it would only strengthen his role as a wandering figure, and makes it more interesting that we find incarnations of him around the world and across the seas.
While Odin remains the most iconic Wanderer figure, he is not alone. Around the globe we find other figures that share similarities with, or may actually be the same traveling entity known as Odin. Most importably, almost all of these other deities possess the quality of language-giver and culture hero.
The most notable example in Europe is Mercury/Hermes. Like our Germanic wanderer, this Mediterranean god is known as a traveler and knowledge seeker. Like Odin, he is also a god of language. When the Romans encountered the Germans, they did not equate him with their own king-god Zeus as you might expect, but identified Odin as the local incarnation of their own wanderer god. Hermes’ appearance mirror’s Odin’s traveler’s garb- he carries a staff and wears a winged hat. Unlike Odin he is not a king god, so his wandering is usually an errand from Zeus. While a notable difference between Hermes and Odin is that Hermes does not posses the “old man” part of the archetype, he is an ever-young god, he still matches many of the same elements. Perhaps he aged between his stay in Greece and his rule in Germany.
In Finland we find Väinämöinen, a white-haired and bearded wise old demigod. He is a language god like Odin, associated with bards, music, and poetry. He also shares an aptitude for magic and esoteric knowledge. In Finnish mythology, his eventual return to the land is prophesied.
In Egypt we have Thoth. He is the god that gave the gift of the hieroglyphs to the Egyptians, just as Odin gave the runes to the Germans. He was commonly identified with the God Hermes by European Mediterraneans. He is the inventor of all the sciences and all the arts. We also have Osiris, who before his death was a culture god of the Egyptians, bringing them civilization before leaving Egypt and visiting other lands and peoples.
In the Americas we find Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha. These culture-hero deities/demigods are wandering figures that are said to have come from across the sea to give the natives the knowledge of how to build a civilization. They were said to have been pale skinned and bearded, and to possess magic or esoteric knowledge and abilities. Like Odin and Osiris they wandered through the land, visiting different peoples in need of their knowledge. Like Väinämöinen, the natives believe these wandering culture heroes will one day return.
This mythic archetypal figure is obviously not confined to the Germanic world. Whoever this deity was and wherever he came from, he survives today in a multitude of literary and folkloric archetypes.
Carl Jung called him the “wise old man” in modern literature and folklore. We most commonly find him as a wizard, a village elder, a mentor, or a hermit .
The most famous literary representation of the Wanderer archetype is in Tolkien. A master of Germanic symbology, Tolkien’s wizards are complete representations of the Odinic wanderer figure. Tolkien’s version of this archetype is special in how fully it captures the Odinic archetype, whereas other figures I’ll examine usually only embody certain aspects of it.
Gandalf is literally called “wanderer” and “gray-beard”, and he dressed identically to Odin, down to the staff and hat. Tolkien’s wizard’s are masters of language and esoteric knowledge, they are wanderers, they are quest-givers, they are inventors, they are the friends of birds and beasts, and they act as mentors and guides to mankind. They also contain a great power hidden under their cloaks.
Gandalf’s death in Moria is comparable to Odin’s hanging and sacrifice of his eye. Like Odin’s sacrifice for knowledge, Gandalf returns from his “death” having obtained a greater level of power and knowledge. Radagast represents the woodland aspect of the Wanderer/Odin and his connection to the forests and the beasts.
Saruman acts as a sort of anti-Odin, an evil version of the archetype that uses his esoteric knowledge not to start civilizations, but to enslave men.
Through the rivalry between Gandalf and Saruman, it appears that Tolkien was attempting to separate the heroic aspects of the Germanic Odin figure from the blood-thirsty death-god aspects
The majority of wizards in modern Fantasy match this Odinic wanderer archetype.
More broadly in literature, we see the Odin-wanderer figure in the mentor/quest-giver archetype. These old men in stories have typically retired from their wandering, but usually they were great heroes or adventurers in their youth. This character usually mentors the young hero, and offers him a quest once he is of age. Examples from modern pop culture would be Dumbledore from Harry Potter or Yoda from Star Wars. We often see this character sacrifice themselves for the hero.
We find this character in the archetype of the village elder as well. While they usually do not invent language or culture themselves, they are the keepers of the ancient lore, hidden tongues, runes, and the secret esoteric knowledge of their people.
We also commonly see this figure as the hermit, the forest wanderer, the mountain spirit, or the man in the cave. The hero usually stumbles upon this wandering figure early in his quest. Like Odin, the hermit will usually offer the hero some sort of aid or advice. Commonly these figures will later reveal themselves to be a god, or to posses some hidden power.
“It’s dangerous to go alone, take this”
I’ll briefly mention some other connections to the “Wanderer” character. Father Christmas/Santa Claus has a connection to Odin, a sort of sanitized, jollier version who has converted to Christianity and taken up the job of delivering presents rather than seeking out esoteric knowledge. There are connections between the image of Santa’s sleigh and reindeer with the image of Odin’s eight-legged horse and the Wild Hunt.
The mysterious Green Man character seen throughout European folklore and carved into hundreds of churches may also be a form descended from the woodland wanderer aspect of Odin.
In the Biblical realm, we find wanderer characters in Joshua, Melchizedek, and especially Moses, who becomes a bearded, civilizing, wandering culture hero who wields a magic staff. He becomes doomed to be an eternal wanderer, never entering the promised land.
I hope you enjoyed this breakdown of this character. Despite his universal appearance, the Wanderer is one of the strongest and most enduring European mythic archetypes, and has earned his place deep in our legends and psyche.
"The ancient mountain spirit sits and watches on the road, Once father of a fell fair people, now a beggar half-forgotten, Once a warrior of oak and ash, now a guide to lonely foresters. The sleeping hero’s sword he keeps, a gift to hero’s scion, Breathing runes on weathered oaks, he whispers to wolf and raven, Mem'ry of ancient wars he keeps, though the woodsmen have forgotten. He sits in grove and glade and dell, he is fire on the mountain. Called green man, record keeper, Mirkwood’s haunt, old wandering mountain spirit."
He’s literally me