Happy Tyr’s Day!
Wayfarer
Alone he walks
The snow crunches
beneath his feet.
He is the Wayfarer
The Walker of Paths
He wanders
But he is not lost.
He seeks
He looks for the wisdom
Of the old, the new
And his fellow travelers
Spear in hand for protection
His friends
Two ravens, Two wolves.
He wanders
He walks
He is the Wayfarer
Author’s commentary:
I fell in love with the imagery of Odin a long time ago. I however didn’t realize that is what the original myth was that I was enjoying because I was reading Lord of the Rings and the character was Gandalf, the Grey. But Tolkien took his inspiration from mythology and in this case Odin.
When I finally did get to Norse mythology as a teen the image of Odin appealed to me. The man leading his people trying to delay his fate and the fate of the Nine Worlds. Trying to delay Ragnorok. Warrior and Wizard all in one. The interesting thing is he doesn’t go out and build an army to fight but takes the role of a humble traveler looking not for strength, but knowledge.
I take for myself the moniker The Grey Wayfarer in honor of this inspiration and in truth this was my inspiration not just for this blog but also for some of my interests. I am a scholar and teacher but I lift weights with a warrior’s mind and discipline. I hike, you don’t get much more Wayfarer than that. I guess I came to see my self-image resonate with this image and this poem is a reflection of that.
I remain.
The Rabyd Skald – Wandering Soul, Bard, and Philosopher. The Grey Wayfarer.
Skal!!!
The Grey Wayfarer 
“Wayfarer” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “weg” for course of travel or “road”, but also “course of life,” habits of life of moral, spiritual, and ethical choices. Faran is Old English for “to go, journey, wander” but also “to exist, to happen, to be in a condition.” Elvis made “wayfaring” popular with his rendition of Mahalia Jackson’s “Wayfaring Stranger” gospel hymn.
I’m researching writing a book about The Great Wagon Road, the main route taken by 18th century Ulster Irish who disembarked in or near Philadelphia pushing down into the Appalachians. The “road” runs right by my house and, while I don’t know for a fact that my Scots-Irish side came by here, I’m presuming from where they went (the Ft. Collins cut-off to “Baptist Valley”) that they did. At some point, I’ll be heading to Philly to make my own “wayfare” along the route east to Gettysburg, south here to my town and then across the Potomac, along the Shenandoah North Fork, through Virginia. I want to discover the “DNA” of folks who kept getting pushed further and further to finally hole up in the hollers. Kind of a odd project for someone who’s become so much of a hermit.
Did you know the Conestoga wagon came from Conestoga, a town out near Lancaster, PA? I didn’t. Rather than having a flat bottom like the prairie schooners that headed across the flat plains, the Conestoga was built like a boat to cross the many rivers in the mountains (no surprise that Conestoga sits by the Susquehanna), and also had a “dip” built into the inside bottom so that your stuff wouldn’t shift going up and down inclines (not to get off topic or anything, but maybe it’s important to have a conveyance designed to the environment in which one will find oneself, not what one starts out in).
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