Who Was Odin in Norse Mythology?
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Odin was the chief of the gods, but he is nothing like the calm father figure that description suggests. Odin was a restless seeker of knowledge who gave up an eye, hung himself from a tree and wandered the world in disguise, all in preparation for an end he knew he could not avoid.
What Odin governed
Odin ruled Asgard and presided over the gods, but his associations are unusually wide: wisdom, poetry, magic, war, death and the runes. He is a god of the mind rather than of any single natural force.
He is usually pictured as a one-eyed old man in a broad hat and cloak, carrying the spear Gungnir, accompanied by two ravens and two wolves. That travelling disguise appears constantly, because Odin spends much of his time moving among people unrecognised, asking questions.
What he gave up for knowledge
Two sacrifices define him. He gave one of his eyes to drink from Mimir's well, which granted deep wisdom. The trade is permanent and unglamorous, and it is the clearest statement of his priorities in the whole mythology.
The second is stranger. He hung himself from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine nights, pierced by his own spear, offering himself to himself, and in that state grasped the runes and the power they carried. Odin does not receive knowledge, he pays for it.
The ravens and the wolves
Odin's ravens are named Huginn and Muninn, usually translated as thought and memory. Each day they fly across the world and return to tell him what they have seen.
There is a line in the old poetry where Odin admits he fears the ravens might not return, and worries more for memory than for thought. It is a small moment, but it captures the anxiety underlying his character better than any battle scene.
Odin and the dead
Odin gathered slain warriors into Valhalla, where they fought and feasted daily. This is often read as a straightforward warrior paradise, but there is a purpose behind it.
Odin was assembling an army for Ragnarok, the end of the world, which he knew was coming and knew he would lose. Everything he does is preparation for a battle he has already foreseen the outcome of, which is one of the strangest and most compelling ideas in Norse mythology.
His many names
Odin is recorded under an enormous number of names in the old sources, reflecting his different roles and disguises:
- •All father, as the chief of the gods
- •Wanderer, for his travels in the world of humans
- •Raven god, for his messengers
- •Grimnir, meaning the masked or hooded one
Odin and Wednesday
Odin's name survives in English every week. Wednesday comes from the Old English for Woden's day, Woden being the Anglo-Saxon form of the same god, and the pattern repeats across Germanic languages.
This is a useful reminder that Norse mythology is not exclusively Scandinavian. The Anglo-Saxons who settled Britain worshipped closely related gods under slightly different names before conversion to Christianity. Most of the surviving written material happens to be Icelandic, which gives the impression of a purely Norse tradition when the underlying beliefs were far more widespread.
The takeaway
Odin in Norse mythology is the chief of the gods and a relentless seeker of knowledge who sacrificed an eye and hung himself from the world tree to gain it, all in preparation for an end he knew was coming.