I want to talk a bit about how Dr. Philip A. Shaw of the University of Leicester, primarily a philologist and scholar of onomastics by training, wrote for his PhD a piece of work which completely demolishes much of the far-right understanding of the 'Germanic' past.
The work in question is "Uses of Wodan: The development of his cult and of medieval literary responses to it," examined at the University of Leeds in 2002.
It's not hugely circulated because it never became a published book, and because it never set out this consequence as its explicit goal this consequence from it hasn't perhaps been widely noticed.
It is a comprehensive survey of approaches to Wodan/Odin (other various names in various languages as you like), examining historiography including its use in the enlightenment and the 19th-century, further deployment by Naziism etc etc
It is also stunningly interdisciplinary, drawing upon a comprehensive knowledge of late antique archaeology and history as well as Shaw's own expertise in philology.
(This is reflective of Shaw's supervision under Ian Wood fwiw)
After highlighting that the current understanding of Wodan is grounded in this nationalist modern context, Shaw goes on to consider how this leads to utterly unprovable assertions regarding the presence of the 'Wodan' myth in studies on late antique bracteates in Scandinavia.
He calls this a 'new scholarly nationalism'. Highlighting that nationalist sentiment has misled so many scholars in their empirical readings of much of this evidence is a very common theme throughout the thesis.
(Karl Hauck worked at the Reichsuniversität in Strasbourg, incidentally. His precise ties to the regime are murky but suffice to say many modern scholars have *suspicions*)
I could go on about the bracteates at length. More important is that Shaw then goes onto consider the social makeup of the communities who lived in late antique Germania.
Drawing upon important work by late antique historians such as Doug Lee and others, he highlights just how disconnected, disparate, ephemeral, these communities would have been. Their primary communication was with the Empire.
(These aren't all terms I would use, but that's not the point here, and the discipline's moved on a lot since he wrote that in 2002. I know he agrees with the problems of the terminology now because I've asked!)

I also can't speak for the applicability in the later ME but for/
Late Antiquity these observations are solid. Implication:

These communities are not talking about the same thing. They share etymological links but they did not have a coherent 'Germanic' religion underpinning a coherent 'Germanic' cultural identity.
Okay, let's move on. Shaw examines a number of the implications for this for actual and putative Wodan cults in various early medieval societies.
(I mean think that implication itself is a pretty big deal but there's more to come)
Oops! nearly skipped a section. He applies this observation to his own set of skills, onomastic, analysing limited the evidence for Germanic personal names available to us. From this, the evidence suggests the overwhelming prevalence of Roman religious influence on their beliefs.
(This is a consequence of the relative firmness and solidity of Roman religious practice -- these are observations that come through scholarship on the workings of imperialism on those it colonises fwiw, even if the theoretical frameworks aren't made explicit here.)
Important implications of all of this, so far, to sum up this part,
Again, terminologically a different time. 2002. A lot's changed, but let's follow the implications.
Moving into the implications of this in the area I can best comment on at least, early medieval England, let's see what we've got:
(Give me a minute, it's been a few years since I last read all of this and I'm tweeting as I go so need to refresh my memory a bit!)
This might take me a while. It's nearly 2am and I'm exhausted and may fall asleep. But stay tuned, there's more to come! Obviously where I'm leading with this is a plea to not sack these people but I want to go into more detail on the thesis first!
(I hope this suffices as an intro to the underlying point at any rate. Conceding defeat and going to bed. You'll get more tomorrow!)
I'm awake again and it's time to resume! Let me just get a coffee and fire up the PDF...
Sorry, I've been waylaid a bit by being a bit upset at an folks apparently needing to attack the value of the scholarship highlighted in this thread at a moment when the scholar, who has *done nothing wrong* is under threat of involuntary redundancy. I'll try to return to it.
It's actually shaken me quite a bit. I truly don't understand.
I need to focus on trying to keep the letter going, I'll come back to this later but I'm heartened by the number of people who recognise and value the work being done at Leicester.
Phil supervised my BA dissertation. He supported my postgrad and PhD applications. I only truly discovered and understood this aspect of his work a few years later as a postgrad but I can see how it fed into his incredible pedagogy too.
This is just one example of a whole host of outstanding medieval studies work taking place in @UoLEnglish, done by scholars who've always worked in close unison with their early modern and modern colleagues on a fantastic, comprehensive range of methodologies, issues and themes.
One thing I do also want to make clear: in the late 1990s, other people doing this work existed. But this sort of work was far from common, or widespread, or axiomatic in the field and Shaw's work was absolutely innovative.
Hell, it remains far from widespread, common or axiomatic in the field 20 years later, which was one of the reasons why my PhD and much of my subsequent work came into existence.
Because, well, if you think that the majority of early medieval/late antique scholars query the coherency of so-called Germanic peoples , and yet further the general public. Well, I don't know what you're reading but.../
...it's not the same early medieval scholarship I've been reading and framing my scholarship as a response to for the last 7 years.
Anyway. Michael Wood signed the petition trying to save @UoLEnglish's medieval studies work. Please share let the @uniofleicester know how many are appalled at the vandalism they're threatening to engage in. https://twitter.com/mayavision/status/1353318982552576007
I did say I would come back to this and comment on the further implications of the thesis. What I’ve outlined already was just the first 1/4 or so. As you saw I got sidetracked by some surprisingly uncharitable pettiness. I will come back to it. Just not right now.
You can follow @DJMHarland.
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