The Wanderer in Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle is a god visiting the Earth whereas the Wanderer in Poul Anderson's "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" is a time traveler visiting the past, mistaken for a god. That should be enough to explain the following fictional events.
Anderson's Wanderer routinely arrives and asks:
"'How fare Tharasmund and his kin?'" (pp. 434-444)
- only to receive the astounded answer:
"'What?...Tharasmund is dead, lord. Have you forgotten? You yourself were at the grave-ale.'" (p. 444)
Seeming stunned, the Wanderer at last says that he misspoke, has had a lot on his mind and cannot stay after all, and leaves. No one understands. It later emerges that, while departing, he has asked a cowherd at length about Tharasmund's death. The only explanation offered is that of a Christian servant that "...the old gods were failing and fading." (ibid.)
I mention this here only because a friend who borrowed Time Patrolman "...did not understand why Carl forgot about Tharasmund's death." After all, he had been seen at the funeral!
Poul Anderson expected his readers to understand that, because this is a time travel story, Carl can find out about Tharasmund's death and burial after the events and can then, in his subjective duration-sense, attend the funeral. However, I was surprised to learn that this simple point was entirely opaque to at least one reader.
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