THE SCENE: In a showdown between the Winnili and the Vandals, who will win: the group that asks Odin for favor, or the group that asks Freja to trick Odin into giving them favor?
THE TEXT: At this point, the men of old tell a silly story that the Wandals coming to Godan (Wotan) besought him for victory over the Winnili and that he answered that he would give the victory to those whom he saw first at sunrise; that then Winnili went to Frea (Freja) wife of Godan and asked for victory, and that Frea gave counsel that the women of the Winnili should take down their hair and arrange it upon the face like a beard, and that in the early morning they should be present with their husbands and in like manner station themselves to be seen by Godan from the quarter in which he had been wont to look through his window toward the east. And so it was done. And when Godan saw them at sunrise he said: ” Who are these long-beards? ” And then Frea induced him to give the victory to those to whom he had given the name.’ And thus Godan gave the victory to the Winnili.
– The History of the Langobards, Paul the Deacon, 8th Century AD
