Laughable was my first reaction too - especially when I read the journalist's headline of "Bisexual Viking link to Seahenge" - Its even more crass than "Sistine Chapel of the Ice Age"- (Cresswell cave art) and the many "Stonehenges of the North"
However, on further consideration I rememberered that Odin was a great deal older than the Vikings. Without going into ground already covered before on these pages about the origins of Odin, we know of Iron Age wooden figures from Denmark which are, without doubt, representations of Odin. Odin was one eyed and also the gallows god. These early carvings show him not just with one eye, but also with a protruding tongue representiing the hanged man.(Odin hung himself on the sacred tree - a sacrifice of himself to himself) Perhaps the clearest image is that of the figure from Broddenbjerg. (Glob's The Bog People)
The Bronze Age wooden "Dagenham Idol" was found in the 1930's when the Ford factory was built on the muddy banks of the Thames. I know him particularly well as he now lives in my local and brilliant museum at Colchester. I must go and visit him again and see if he has only one eye. There is a hole for a detachable penis certainly, but does that make him bisexual? Suddenly - the Dagenham idol is associated with Seahenge and there is speculation that the oak posts of Seahenge might have been crowned with such figures as that found at Dagenham. Evidence? Before we can properly digest that idea, we are then told that the figure is Odin and so Odin dates back 2,250 years BC. That makes Odin very long lived of course as he was still going strong in 10th-11th century Iceland.
Presumably further work will be done before a Bronze Age British Odin is fully accepted, but it just seems that fences are being rushed and conclusions jumped. Not so long ago, archaeologists were being portrayed as ultra conservative fogeys who never looked out of their self imposed ruts and rejected any unconventional new concepts. Are we now in danger of swinging too fast and too far the other way far too soon?
