The Wandering Wind

An elf woman's voice:

"...was like breeze and rippling water and small bells heard from afar." (The Broken Sword, p. 65)

All of these elves sound like distant parts of the environment just coming into focus. She sings, addressing the wind as "...old wanderer..." (p. 66) We have already seen that the wind has almost become one of Poul Anderson's characters. This phrase makes another connection:

"'Wodan-Mercury-Hermes is the Wanderer because he's the god of the wind.'" (Time Patrol, p. 390)

And, because the dead ride on the night wind, Wodan is:

"'...the conductor of the dead down to the Afterworld.'" (p. 391)

Addressing the wind appropriately as a wanderer makes it easy to understand how this natural phenomenon could have been personified as a figure like Wodan.