Today, serendipity led me to unearth a curious detail that has long been a whisper in my intuition since I settled into my home. My curiosity piqued about the etymology of my village’s name, Odeigne, a mystery that lingered in the back of my mind.
This morning’s quest for uncharted mountain bike trails unveiled more than just pathways; it revealed a piece of history. I stumbled upon a document detailing the heritage of the local villages, which traced Odeigne’s origins back to the 8th century. According to legend, the first inhabitants of Odeigne were devotees of the Norse god Odin. A statue and a temple dedicated to him once stood here in reverence.
This revelation holds a special significance for me. While I don’t consider myself particularly spiritual, the tales of Norse mythology have always resonated with me. This surprising connection to the past not only explains my inexplicable affinity for this place but also seems to illuminate several other mysteries that I have encountered here.
Information about Odeigne on the Ardennes tourism website.
My own translation into English
Odeigne is hidden, with an original bell tower, in a mountain hollow. The village is surrounded by forests of beech and oak interspersed with peaty marshes. It is even said that large beech trees were once planted at intervals across the heather and mire plain in order to guide lost travelers during the times of snow, which are often very heavy in this place.
Etymology and history: Odeigne is called Aldanias in 746 and Oldange in 1130. “Anias or eigne” are forms of “ange” which denotes a manor, while “Aldo, Oldo, and Odo” are patronymic names of founders: Odeigne would thus designate the manor of Oldo. Another interpretation says that the first inhabitants of the country, being very idolatrous, had the god Odin as their main deity. A kind of statue of this god was located on the territory where the village was built: hence it would have received the name of Odeigne… When Christianity took root in the country, Odeigne became the property of the Abbey of Stavelot and was part of the ban of Lierneux. Under the abbey’s government, Odeigne and its inhabitants lived in great comfort. Odeigne remained under the dependency of the abbey until the French Revolution (1793).
Architectural heritage: The church of Saint-Donat, in the middle of the cemetery, follows neo-classical tradition and was built in sandstone rubble in 1846. However, the existence of a sanctuary in Odeigne dates back to the 9th century. The facade of the current church is dominated by the tower whose terminal spire adds a particular note to its rather traditional silhouette. Inside, there are a few statues from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a confessional and benches from the 19th century, and outside, numerous funerary monuments, notably many stone crosses from Ottré from the 18th and 19th centuries.
The village is composed of 19th-century long farms, generally low, and from the early 20th century in sandstone rubble. Its dwellings present the deep volumes characteristic of the Ardennes. The roofs are still most often covered with ‘cherbains’ (stone tiles).
On the road to Baraque-Fraiture, at the edge of the wood, one can see a slate cross profiled by Joseph-Marie Monfort, from Lierneux (1788).
The Odeigne mill, along with the church, is one of the two oldest establishments in the village. Under the Old Regime, the mill was the seigneurial property of the prince-abbot of Stavelot who granted the lease (accense) to the miller of his choice. We have the lease title of 1496 but the exact date when Stavelot decided to build a mill at Odeigne is unknown. It does not seem unreasonable to think that it was around the year 1000. After 1795, the mill became private property.
Natural heritage: Close to the village of Odeigne are two state-owned nature reserves, the fagne of Robièfa and that of Nazieufa, witnesses of the vast denuded landscape that the Plateau des Tailles still presented at the end of the 19th century, with their characteristic vegetation: purple moor-grass, bilberries, cowberry, cottongrass, orchids, etc.
Source: Green Tourist Guide of the Pays d’Ourthe & Aisne