ABSTRACT
Odin is best known in the context of Scandinavian mythology, although he is an old god who figures in the mythologies of other northern peoples as Woden, Wodan, Wotan or Woutan (North 1997). He has a priestly as well as a martial role, and he served as the patron of aristocrats, warriors and poets (Byock 2005: xviii). In Old Norse mythology, Odin appears as the head of the pantheon and as the king of the Asir gods (Nordberg 2003). His nature is particularly complicated and contradictory, and he is the most ambiguous in character and attributes of all the Nordic gods. His name derives from a word that would mean something like ‘leader of the possessed’. In Old Norse the word o∂r meant both ‘poetry’ and ‘frenzy’ (Lindow 2001: 250), and Odin is the furious ecstasy-god as well as the lord of inspiration and magic. He takes different names in virtually all the myths and more than 156 alternate names for him are known (listed in Orchard 2002: Appendix A), including All-Father, the High One and Val-Father, which means ‘Father of the Slain’ (Byock 2005: xviii). More than anything, however, he is the great sorcerer who uses his ‘wisdom’ to place himself atop the hierarchy of all living creatures (Lindow 2001: 250). In all, nine magical acts are ascribed to him. Among these are the following: he can appear in whatever shape he chooses – man, woman or animal; he commands the magic of the weather; with words he can extinguish fire, calm the seas and turn the winds; he can communicate with the dead; he possesses oral magic, galdrar (spells and chants) (Simek 1996: 97 f.) and the magic of writing – the runes (Ynglinga Saga chs 6–7). Through self-sacrifice and self-inflicted torture he attained the highest power, that is, made himself the master of runic magic. He sacrificed himself by spearing himself and by hanging in the World Tree (Yggdrasil), the holy tree, for nine stormy days and nights and through this suffering won magic, the art of runes, and powerful spells – that is, wisdom and knowledge. With help from runic letters he could force hanged men's tongues to talk – that is, he could talk with the dead (Hávamál stanzas 138–40). Seen through the lens of myth runic, letters become something other than a primitive alphabet, as has been emphasised by many scholars (see Nielsen 1985 with refs). In addition, every rune had a particular name and could represent this particular concept on its own. The runes probably also had a specific numerical value which may have furnished the inscriptions with a further hidden layer (Simek 1996: 268). Runic letters could be used in black magic, and Odin is the god of runic knowledge as well as runic magic. The runic letters are the key to his feared power. The word ‘rún/rúnar’ thus means secret knowledge, or ‘the knowledge of writing in verse’ – and this means wisdom (Dumézil 1969: 52). Odin also plays a central role in the acquisition of the mead of poetry (wisdom, inspiration, skaldic poetry). Two stories are told: one in which Odin acquired the mead through shape changing, seduction, or rape of a daughter of the giant Suttungr, and subsequent theft, and the other where he achieved his particular wisdom by offering his one eye to the giant Mimir, from whose well he acquired the mead of knowledge as well as the runic letters.
