Wōden was the sovereign god of the Germanic peoples, forms of his name being found throughout the Germanic world. The form Wōden is that found in Old English. He was identified with the Roman god Mercury apparently in part, to judge from what is said of his Old Norse version Óðinn, because he was connected with writing, was connected with the dead, and because he conquered giants more by trickery than by brute force. The proto-Germanic form of his name is reconstructed as *Wōđanaz. His wife, in Old English, was Frīg.