Where is the Odenwald in northern Germany located?
In the northeast, a small part lies in Lower Franconia in Bavaria. The Odenwald, along with other parts of the Central German Uplands, belongs to the Variscan, which more than 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period ran through great parts of Europe.
Where are the ruins of Odenwald in the ghost story?
The ruins of Rodenstein (below-mentioned) and Schnellerts near Fränkisch-Crumbach are the setting of an Odenwald ghost story: during the night the knight Rodenstein (the Rodensteiner) flies with a berserker-cornet through the air to prophesy the beginning of a war (Wild Hunt motif).
How are the folk legends of Odenwald related?
The numerous Odenwald folk legends are mostly connected with historic geographic sites (castle, town, rock, road and so on) They relate:
When did the Celts settle in the Odenwald?
About 2500 BC, there is evidence that the Linear Pottery culture settled along the northern (Gersprenz) and southern (Neckar valley) edges of the Odenwald. About 400 BC, Celts (Gauls) settled throughout southern Germany. Almost all of the Odenwald was covered then with virgin forest, and the outer edges were not settled.
Where did the last name Odenwald come from?
Following are some theories about the name’s origin: Some have claimed that the toponym comes from Odins Wald ( Odin’s Woods ). The main problem here is that the god Wodanaz (known in Norse as Odin) was worshipped in southern Germany under the name Wotan (in Old High German Uuodan; compare Merseburg Incantations ).
Who was the Roman Emperor who built the Odenwald?
Almost all of the Odenwald was covered then with virgin forest, and the outer edges were not settled. Germanic peoples drove the Celts westwards across the Rhine to what is now France . About AD 100, the older Odenwald line of the Neckar-Odenwald Limes was built under Roman Emperor Trajan (98-117).
