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Odin is considered to be the supreme god of late Germanic and Norse mythology. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex: he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attributed as being a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt.

His name is, in Icelandic/Old Norse Óðinn. Although its precise mythological meaning is debated, the name is thought to be related to the word óðr, meaning "fury".

The names Old English (and Old Saxon) Wōden; Old Franconian Wodan; Alemannic Wuodan; German Wotan or Wothan; Lombardic Godan are synonymous with Odin, though they represent regional differences. The worship of Odin lasted longer than in the north and so his mythology became more complex there - accordingly not all the attributes of Odin can be applied to the belief in this god in other regions and times.

Etymology

Old Norse Óðinn goes back to Proto-Germanic *Wōðanaz (the * indicates a word that has been reconstructed and is not recorded); in Old Norse, the 'W' is dropped. The Christian Adam von Bremen etymologizes the god worshipped by the 11th-century Scandinavian pagans as "Wodan id est furor" ("Wodan, which means 'ire'"), which is still a popular belief today.

However, this rests on a fundamental error. In Old Norse, they are homonyms. Old Norse had two different words spelled óðr: one an adjective and the other a noun. The adjective means '"mad, frantic, furious," and '"violent." It is cognate to Old English wōd. The noun means "mind, wit, soul, sense" and "song, poetry." It is cognate to Old English wōþ, which retains the 'ð' from Germanic *wōð-.

The question as to which word is the right one can be answered in myth and legend. None describe Odin as insane or violent. However the myths do describe the jotuns, the cosmic enemies of the gods, as furious and violent. When the stone-cutter building the walls around Asgard faltered at his task, he flew into a jǫtun-móðr, an irate giant fury, and Thor came to slay him. This indicates that in the myths, fury was conduct quite unbecoming a god.

On the other hand, several myths do associate Odin with wisdom and poetry. Odin left his eye in the purifying waters of Mimir's spring for wisdom. Odin gives to worthy poets the mead of inspiration from the vessel Óðrœrir.

So this appears to be the correct sense of the first part of Odin's name: inspiration. His name then belongs to the noun, not the adjective. Adam von Bremen was wrong.

The eymology of Óðr is linked to other Indo-European words, such as Latin vātes, "prophet, seer," Gallic ούάτεις, "prophet," Irish fāith, "poet," Cymric gwawd, "praise-poetry," and Old Hindi api-vātayati, "stir the soul, to make understand." Each word clearly holds some association with spiritual inspiration.

If the first part of his name has been debated, the second has not. Etymologists trace the ending -inn to the suffix -ana meaning "lord." It is present in Odin's name Herjann, (lord of armies) and the words drótinn (lord of men) and þjóðann (lord of the nation).

So from the etymology, Odin's name can be defined precisely as "lord of mind wit, soul, sense, song and poetry," and in general as lord of inspiration.

General characteristics

For the Norse people, Odin's name was synonymous with battle and warfare, for he appears throughout their myths as the bringer of victory.

Odin was a shape-changer, able to alter his skin and form in any way he liked. He was said to travel the world as an old man with a staff, one-eyed, grey-bearded, and wearing a wide-brimmed hat.

Odin is associated with the concept of the Wild Hunt, a noisy, bellowing movement across the sky, leading a host of the slain, directly comparable to Vedic Rudra.

Receiver of the Dead

Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda depicts Odin as welcoming the great dead warriors who have died in battle into his hall, Valhalla. These fallen, the einherjar, are assembled by Odin to support the gods in the final battle of the end of the world, Ragnarök.

In the Norse sagas, Odin sometimes acts as the instigator of wars, sending his valkyries to influence the battle in his desired directions, and to select the dead in order to gather the best warriors in Valhalla.

Sometimes Odin himself even appears in person. In one version of the end of the Battle of Brávellir, Odin arrives to fetch the aged King Harald Hildetand. When Helgi Hundingsbane has distinguished himself enough in battle and his brother-in-law Dag feels the need to avenge his father (whom Helgi had killed), Odin lends Dag his spear. Arriving in Valhalla, Helgi is immediately awarded special privileges as one of the foremost warriors.

Odin and Mercury

Less is known about the role of Odin as receiver of the dead among the more southern Germanic tribes. The Roman historian Tacitus probably refers to Odin when he talks of Mercury. The reason is that, like Mercury, Odin was regarded as Psychopompos, "the leader of souls".

Julius Caesar calls Mercury the "deum maxime" of the Germans in De Bello Gallico 6.17.1.

Paulus Diaconus (or Paul the Deacon), writing in the late 8th century, tells that Odin (Guodan) was the chief god of the Langobards and, like earlier southern sources, he identifies Odin with Mercury (History of the Langobards, I:9). Because of this identification, Paulus adds that the god Guodan, "although held to exist , it was not around this time, but long ago, and not in Germania, but in Greece" where the god originated. Robert Wace also identifies Wotan with Mercury. Viktor Rydberg, in his work on Teutonic Mythology, draws a number of other parallels between Odin and Mercury, such as the fact that they were both responsible for bringing poetry to mortals.

Similarly, Ammianus Marcellinus most likely references Odin and Thor in his history of the later Roman Empire as Mercury and Mars, respectively, though a direct association is not made. This, however, underlines a particular problem concerning ancient Greek and Roman sources. Historians from both cultures, during all periods, believed the deities of foreign cultures to merely be their own gods under different names. Such an example may be found in Herodotus' association of an Egyptian Ram-headed god (most probably Chnum) with Zeus. Later, Medieval historians followed the older tradition and likewise made such associations. However, there is no historical evidence to suggest that these are valid connections and as such they should not be taken as historical fact.

Eddaic Odin

According to the Prose Edda, Odin was a son of Bestla and Borr and brother of Vé and Vili and together with these brothers he cast down the frost giant Ymir and created the world from Ymir's body. The three brothers are often mentioned together. "Wille" is the German word for "will" (English), "Weh" is the German word (Gothic wai) for "woe" (English: great sorrow, grief, misery) but is more likely related to the archaic German "Wei" meaning 'sacred'.

Odin fathered his most famous son, Thor, on Jord 'Earth'. His wife and consort was the goddess Frigg, who in the best-known tradition was the loving mother of their son Balder. By the giantess Gríðr, Odin was the father of Víðarr, and by Rind he was father of Vali. Also, many royal families claimed descent from Odin through other sons. For traditions about Odin's offspring, see Sons of Odin.

Attributes

Attributes of Odin are Sleipnir, an eight-legged horse, and the severed head of Mímir, which foretold the future. He employed Valkyrjur to gather the souls of warriors fallen in battle (the Einherjar), as these would be needed to fight for him in the battle of Ragnarök. They took the souls of the warriors to Valhalla (the hall of the fallen), Odin's residence in Ásgarðr. One of the Valkyries, Brynhildr, was expelled from his service but, out of compassion, Odin placed her in a hall surrounded by a ring of fire to ensure that only the bravest man could seek her hand in marriage. She was rescued by Sigurd. Höðr, a blind god who had accidentally killed his brother, Baldr, was then killed by another of Odin's children, Váli, whose mother was Rind, a giantess who bore him fully grown and armed, and vowing not to even bathe before he had exacted vengeance on Höðr.

Odin has a number of magical artifacts associated with him: the dwarven spear Gungnir, which never misses its target, a magical gold ring (Draupnir), from which every ninth night eight new rings appear, an eight-legged horse (Sleipnir) and two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Thought and Memory), who travel the world to acquire information at his behest. He also commands a pair of wolves named Geri and Freki, to whom he gives his food since he consumes nothing but wine. From his throne, Hlidskjalf (located in Valaskjalf), Odin could see everything that occurred in the universe.

The Valknut is a symbol associated with Odin.

Names

The Norsemen gave Odin many nicknames; this was in the Norse skaldic tradition of kennings, a poetic method of indirect reference, as in a riddle. See List of names of Odin. The name Alföðr ("Allfather", "father of all") appears in Snorri Sturluson's Younger Edda. (It probably originally denoted Tiwaz, as it fits the pattern of referring to Sky Fathers as "father".) In Wendish mythology Odin is known as Woda or Waidawut.

Anglo-Saxon Woden

The Anglo-Saxon tribes brought Woden to England around the 5th and 6th centuries, continuing his worship until conversion to Christianity in the 8th and 9th centuries, at which point the old gods and records of them were almost completely lost. For the Anglo-Saxons, Woden was the carrier-off of the dead, but not necessarily with the attributes of Norse Odin - there does not appear to have been the concepts of Valkyries and Valhalla in the Norse snense though there is a word for the former "Waelcyrge". Woden is also the leader of the Wild Hunt. The familial relationships are the same between Woden and the other Anglo-saxon gods as they are for the Norse.

The Anglo-Saxon kings claimed descent from Woden. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and the Historia Britonum, Woden had the sons Wecta, Baeldaeg, Casere and Wihtlaeg.

• Wecta's line is continued by Witta, Wihtgils, Hengest and Horsa, and the Kings of Kent.
• Baeldaeg's line is continued by Brona, Frithugar, Freawine, Wig, Gewis, Esla, Elesa, Cerdic and the Kings of Wessex.
• Casere's line is continued by Tytmon, Trygils, Hrothmund, Hryp, Wilhelm, Wehha, Wuffa and the Kings of East Anglia.
• Wihtlaeg's line is continued by Wermund king of Angel, Offa Wermundson, Angeltheow, Eomer, Icel and the Kings of Mercia.

Anglo-Saxon literature starts at about the time of the conversion from the old religion. Although whatever stories recording his part in the lives of men and the gods are lost, Woden's name survived in many settlement names and geographical features.

• Wansdyke - Woden's embankment
• Grimsdyke - From Grim, "hooded" a description of his appearance
• Wednesbury - Woden's burgh
• Woodnesborough, Kent - also translates as Wodens burgh and the centre of the town was known as "Wodens-hill".

Wednesday ('Wodens daeg') is named for him, his link with the dead making him the appropriate match to the Roman Mercury. (Compare with the French 'mercredi' for Wednesday)

Worship

Details of the Migration period of Germanic religion are sketchy, reconstructed from artefacts, sparse contemporary sources, and later the later testimonies of medieval legends and placenames. According to Jonas Bobiensis, the 6th century Irish missionary Saint Columbanus is reputed to have disrupted a Beer sacrifice to Wuodan (Deo suo Vodano nomine) in Bregenz (modern Austria). Wuodan was the chief god of the Alamanni, his name appears in the runic inscription on the Nordendorf fibula.

Pagan worship disappeared with Christianization, from the 8th century in England and Germany, lingering until the 12th or 13th century in Iceland and Scandinavia. Remnants of worship were continued into modern times as folklore.

Many places are named after Odin, especially in Scandinavia, such as Odense (Denmark) and Odensbacken (Sweden), but also places in other Germanic countries, such as Wednesbury (England, Wodensberg and Odenheim (Germany), and Woensdrecht (Netherlands). Almost all German Gaue (Latin, pagi) had mountains and other places named after him under such generic names as Wodenesberg, Wuodenesberg, Godesberg and Gudensberg, Wodensholt, etc.

Sacrifices

Odin was the only god in Scandinavian mythology to demand human sacrifice at the Blóts. Adam of Bremen relates that every ninth year, people assembled from all over Sweden to sacrifice at the Temple at Uppsala. Male slaves, and males of each species were sacrificed and hung from the branches of the trees. The practice of sacrifice is one reason why Thor was much more popular among the commonfolk. Committing suicide was also considered to be a shortcut to Valhalla.

As the Swedes had the right not only to elect king but also to depose a king, the sagas relate that both king Domalde and king Olof Trätälja were sacrificed to Odin after years of famine. See also sacred king.

It was common, particularly among the Cimbri, to sacrifice a prisoner to Odin prior to or after a battle. The Orkneyinga saga relates a (and uncommon) form of Odinic sacrifice, wherein the captured Ælla is slaughtered by the carving out of a "blood eagle" upon his back.

More significantly, however, it has been argued that the killing of a combatant in battle was to give a sacrificial offering to Odin. The fickleness of Odin in battle was well-documented, and in Lokasenna, Loki taunts Odin for his inconsistency.

Sometimes sacrifices were made to Odin to bring about changes in circumstance, a notable example being the sacrifice of King Víkar (detailed in Gautrek's Saga and Saxo). Sailors in a fleet being blown off course drew lots to sacrifice to Odin that he might abate the winds; the king himself drew the lot and was hanged.

Sacrifices were probably also made to Odin at the beginning of summer, since Ynglinga saga states one of the great festivities of the calendar is at sumri, þat var sigrblót "in summer, for victory"; Odin is consistently referred to throughout the Norse mythos as the bringer of victory.

The Ynglinga saga also details the sacrifices made by the Swedish king Aun, who, it was revealed to him, would lengthen his life by sacrificing one of his sons every ten years; nine of his ten sons died this way. When he was about to sacrifice his last son Egil, the Swedes stopped him.

Shamanic traits

The goddess Freya is seen as an adept of the mysteries of seid (shamanism), a völva, and it is said that it was she who initiated Odin into its mysteries. In Lokasenna Loki abuses Odin for practising seid, condemning it as a unmanly art. A justification for this may be found in the Ynglinga saga where Snorri opines that following the practice of seid, the practitioner was rendered weak and helpless. Another explanation is that its manipulative aspects ran counter to the male ideal of forthright, open behaviour.

Odin was a compulsive seeker of wisdom, consumed by his passion for knowledge, to the extent that he sacrificed one of his eyes (which one this was is unclear) to Mimir, in exchange for a drink from the waters of wisdom in Mimir's well.

Some German sacred formulae, known as "Merseburger Zaubersprüche" ("Merseburg Charms") were written down in c 800 AD and survived. One (this is the second) describes Wodan in the role of a healer:

Further, the creation of the runes, the Norse alphabet that was also used for divination, is attributed to Odin and is described in the Rúnatal, a section of the Havamal. He hanged himself from the tree Yggdrasil, whilst pierced by his own spear, to acquire knowledge. He remained thus for nine days and nights, a number deeply significant in Norse magical practice (there were, for example, nine realms of existence), thereby learning nine (later eighteen) magical songs and eighteen magical runes. The purpose of this strange ritual, a god sacrificing himself to himself because there was nothing higher to sacrifice to, was to obtain mystical insight through mortification of the flesh; however, some scholars assert that the Norse believed that insight into the runes could only be truly attained in death.

Some scholars see this scene as influenced by the story of Christ's crucifixion; and others note the similarity to the story of Buddha's enlightenment. it is in any case also influenced by shamanism, where the symbolic climbing of a "world tree" by the shaman in search of mystic knowledge is a common religious pattern. We know that sacrifices, human or otherwise, to the gods were commonly hung in or from trees, often transfixed by spears. (See also: Peijainen) Additionally, one of Odin's names is Ygg, and the norse name for the World Ash —Yggdrasil—therefore means "Ygg's (Odin's)horse". Another of Odin's names is Hangatyr, the god of the hanged.

Odin's love for wisdom can also be seen in his work as a farmhand for a summer, for Baugi, in order to obtain the mead of poetry. See Fjalar and Galar for more details.

Odin and Jesus

The 13th century eddaic account of Odin likely contains some Christian elements. The scene where Odin hangs from a tree as a sacrifice to himself has been suggested to reflect the crucifixion of Jesus, down to the detail of having his side pierced with a spear, however archeological evidence, such as the above mentioned Tollund Man, clearly establish that this form of sacrifice existed before the time of Christ and thus is most likely developed independently. Other inconsistencies, such as that Odin was hung by a rope from a tree whereas Jesus was nailed to a cross (both wood, but in different contexts) further supports an independent origin of the myth. It is still likely that early Germanic Christians connected the two myths, moulding their image of Christ after Odin and vice versa, an effect that is also suggested by the Anglo-Saxon Dream of the Rood which portrays Christ as a Germanic warrior-king. Odin's son Balder, a god of light, shares some of Jesus' traits as a youthful "dying and rising" god, but unlike in the case of latter, his resurrection fails and he has to remain in the underworld. The Havamal account of Odin's sacrifice positions Odin in the otherwise unique Pauline Christian attributes of a "father god" who suffers and defeats death.

The similarity of Odin and Jesus was resurrected by Richard Wagner. Wagner's association of Odin with Jesus is treated in the Notes of the Seminar Given in 1928–1930 of Carl Gustav Jung. Recently, the German NPD issued T-Shirts labeled Odin statt Jesus ("Odin rather than Jesus") that were popular also among the extreme right, but also among apolitical Neo-Pagans.

Medieval reception

As the chief god of the Germanic pantheon, Odin received particular attention from the early missionaries. For example, his day is the only day to have been renamed in the German language from "Woden's day", still extant in English Wednesday (compare Norwegian, Danish and Swedish onsdag, Dutch woensdag) to the neutral Mittwoch ("mid-week"), while other gods were not deemed important enough for propaganda (Tuesday "Tyr's day" and Friday "Freyja's day" remained intact in all Germanic languages). "Woden's day" is thought to translate the Latin Dies Mercurii, "Mercury-day" (cf. French mercredi), owing primarily to Tacitus' linking of the two gods.

For many Germans, St. Michael replaced Wotan, and many mountain chapels dedicated to St. Michael can be found, but Wotan also remained present as a sort of demon leading the Wild hunt of the host of the dead, e.g. in Swiss folklore as Wuotis Heer. However, in some regions even this mythology was transformed so that Charlemagne led the hunt, not Odin.

In England, Woden was not so much demonized as rationalized, and in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he appears as a perfectly earthly king, only four generations removed from Hengest and Horsa.

Snorri Sturluson's record of the Edda is striking evidence of the climate of religious tolerance in medieval Iceland, but even he feels compelled to give a rational account of the Aesir in his preface. In this scenario, Snorri speculates that Odin and his peers were originally refugees from Troy, etymologizing Aesir as derived from Asia. Some scholars believe that Snorri's version of Norse mythology is an attempt to mould a more shamanistic tradition into a Greek mythological cast. In any case, Snorri's writing (particularly in Heimskringla) tries to maintain an essentially scholastic neutrality. That Snorri was correct was one of the last of Thor Heyerdahl's archeo-anthropological theories (see The search for Odin).

Persisting beliefs in Odin

The spread of Christianity was slow in Scandinavia, and it worked its way downwards from the nobility. Among common people, beliefs in Odin would linger for centuries, and legends would be told until modern times.

The last battle where Scandinavians attributed a victory to Odin was the Battle of Lena in 1208 . The former Swedish king Sverker had arrived with a large Danish army, and the Swedes discovered that the Danish army was more than twice the size of their own. Naturally, the Danes got the upper hand and they should have won. However, the Swedes claimed that they suddenly saw Odin riding on Sleipnir. Accounts vary on how Odin gave the Swedes victory, but in one version, he rode in front of their battle formation.

The Norwegians long told a legend about a one-eyed rider with a broad-brimmed hat and a blue coat who had asked a smith to shoe his horse. The suspicious smith asked where the stranger had stayed during the previous night. The stranger mentioned places so far distant that the smith would not believe him. The stranger said that he had stayed for a long time in the north and taken part in many battles, and this time he was going to Sweden. When the horse was shod, the rider mounted his horse and said "I am Odin" to the stunned smith, rode up in the air and disappeared. The next day, the battle of Lena took place.

Scandinavian folklore also maintained a belief in Odin as the leader of the Wild Hunt (Åsgårdsreia in Norwegian). His main objective seems to have been to track down and kill the forest creature huldran or skogsrået. In these accounts, Odin was typically a lone huntsman, save for his two wolves. Originally, he was armed with a spear, but in later accounts this was sometimes changed to a rifle.

Modern age

With the Romantic Viking revival of the early-to-mid 19th century, Odin's popularity increased again. Wotan is a lead character in Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, written between 1848 and 1874.

His name provides the root for 19th century conceptions of Od, a hypothetical vital energy that permeates all living things.

During World War II, the Germans named one of their Morser Karl guns - a 54 cm caliber mortar -after Odin. This gun served in the second battalion.

Odin, along with the other Norse Gods and Goddesses, is worshipped by Germanic pagan reconstructivist groups and a smattering of people throughout the world, mostly in Northern Europe, Northern America and Australia. Asatru, faith in the Ases, is an officially recognised religion in Iceland where it has about 900 followers.

Odin is frequently referred to in popular culture. See References to Odin in popular culture and Odin (disambiguation).

References

Primary Sources

1. Jan de Vries, Ed. Altnordisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch. (Boston: Brill, 2000). 4th Edition.
2. Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson, Eds. An Icelandic-English Dictionary. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982). 2nd Edition.
3. T. Northcote Toller, Ed. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary, based on the manuscript collections of the late Joseph Bosworth, and Old English Made Easy.
4. Cleasby.
5. Toller, and Old English Made Easy. Old English orthography did not consistently differentiate between 'þ' and 'ð'. They were not confused with 'd', however.
6. Snorri Sturluson. Gylfaginning, in Edda. Anthony Faulkes, Trans., Ed. (London: Everyman, 1996).
7. _____. Skaldskaparmal, in Edda. Anthony Faulkes, Trans., Ed. (London: Everyman, 1996).
8. Irish, Gallic, and Cymric are all considered Celtic languages.
9. De Vries.

Secondary Sources

• The Lost Gods of England, Brian Branston
• In search of the Dark Ages, Michael Wood
• The Battle God of the Vikings, H. R. Ellis Davidson, York 1972
• Wotan, Carl Jung
• The Cult of Othinn, Hector Chadwick

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• Norse mythology
• Norse gods
• War gods
• Wisdom gods
• Germanic mythology
• Mythological kings of Sweden
• Anglo-Saxon England