Odin (pronounced “OH-din”; Old Norse Óðinn, Old English and Old Saxon Woden, Old High German Wuotan, Wotan, or Wodan, Proto-Germanic *Woðanaz, “Master of Ecstasy”) is one of the most complex and enigmatic characters in Norse mythology, and perhaps in all of world literature. He’s the ruler of the Aesir tribe of deities, yet he often ventures far from their kingdom, Asgard, on long, solitary wanderings throughout the cosmos on purely self-interested quests. He’s a relentless seeker after and giver of wisdom, but he has little regard for communal values such as justice, fairness, or respect for law and convention. He’s the divine patron of rulers, and also of outcasts. He’s a war-god, but also a poetry-god, and he has prominent “effeminate” qualities that would have brought unspeakable shame to any historical Norse/Germanic warrior. He’s worshiped by those in search of prestige, honor, and nobility, yet he’s often cursed for being a fickle trickster. What kind of literary figure – let alone a god whose historical worship spanned much of a continent and several centuries – could possibly embody all of these qualities at once, with their apparently glaring contradictions?
–from Norse Mythology for Smart People by Daniel McCoy
Odin is the father of the gods. Figuratively. Odin travels relentlessly in search of knowledge and wisdom. Sometimes he travels with Loki and Thor. Sometimes with Thor and Hoenir. Most of the time alone.
When he travels, he takes other names so that those he encounters are not aware of who he is. It doesn’t usually take long for others to figure out he is Odin.
Odin knows the value of sacrifice. He was prepared to sacrifice his life by hanging himself from Yggdrasil for nine days in exchange for knowledge of the runes. He sacrificed his eye for a drink from Mimir’s well from which he gained wisdom. From the giants, he stole the mead of poetry, brewed from Kvasir’s blood after the dwarves, Fjalar and Galar, had killed him.
Odin is associated with the dead. He reigns over Valhalla, the Hall of the Fallen. The valkyries gather half of all the dead in battles to live with Odin in Valhalla in order to fight with Odin against the giants when the war of wars, Ragnarok, begins. He also seeks the knowledge and wisdom of the dead.
Odin choses to share his knowledge and wisdom but not with all the gods. He choses those whom he choses.
Odin is accompanied by mystical, perhaps magical, creatures, seen with him in the image above. Two ravens, Hugin and Munin, accompany Odin, flying out each morning to see what may happen, returning to tell Odin what to expect. Two wolves, Geri and Freki, sit beside him when Odin is on his throne.
Odin travels on Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse borne to Loki when he took the shape of a mare to entice the builder giant’s stallion away from the task of completing the protective wall around Asgard, in order to save Freya, the sun, and the moon from falling into the hands of the giants.
Among other magical powers, Odin has the power of seidr, in spite of the fact that only women are expected to practice that magical art. Because of this, the other gods mock him as being unmanly. But Odin doesn’t care about honor. He cares about power, knowledge, and wisdom, gained by whatever means available.
Odin knows what is coming in Ragnarok. He knows he must face Fenrir, another of Loki’s offspring, and that Fenrir will kill him in the end.
He knows. But even he, the most powerful of the gods, cannot prevent it.
Image credit: By Lorenz Frølich – Published in Gjellerup, Karl (1895). Den ældre Eddas Gudesange. Photographed from a 2001 reprint by bloodofox, Public Domain, Link
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