Odin

Odin was a deity present in Norse religiosity and myths, being the most powerful among the Norse gods and named the All-Father. He was the representative of poetry, death, war, runes, victory and ecstasy, and was present in the religiosity of other peoples of northern Europe.

Odin was not very worshiped by the Norse, and its cult did not spread to many regions of northern Europe, being more common among the elite of Nordic society, such as warriors and kings. He is a constant figure in Norse myths, which postulate that he would be killed in Ragnarök.

Read more: Thor — character from Norse mythology and known as the god of thunder

Odin Summary

• he was the god of poetry, death, war, runes, victory and ecstasy.

• he had a strong association with death and with warriors.

• he was a traditional deity in different Nordic peoples and received other names such as Woden and Wutan.

• He was represented as an old man with a gray beard, who carried a spear and possessed two ravens.

• His cult of him was not very popular among the Norse.

Who is Odin?

Odin was the main god in Norse religiosity in antiquity and during the Middle Ages. His figure was closely related to the Vikings, the way we know the Norse during the Viking Age, which lasted from 793 to 1066. However, this deity was in Norse religiosity before that.

The term Odin is believed to be derived from odr , which in Latin means "fury". The name of this god was transcribed in different ways among the Norse and other peoples of northern Europe. Historian Johnni Langer points out that Odin was also known as:

• Wöden, in Anglo-Saxon;

• Woden, in Old Saxon;

• Wodan, in Old Franconian;

• Wutan and Wuotan, in Old High German;

• Wut, in German;

• Wóds, in Gothic.|1|

We can see, therefore, that this divinity was widespread among the peoples of northern Europe. We know that during the Viking Age, Odin was the main deity of the Norse pantheon and named theAll-Father , as well as being the god of poetry, death, war, runes (alphabetical inscriptions) , from victory and ecstasy .|1|

He was represented as an old man with a long gray beard, who wore a pointed hat and had only one eye, in addition to owning an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir. He had one eye only because he had given the other to have the right to drink water from Mimir's well, obtaining from her the knowledge of all things.

Odin had participated in the creation of the world and lived in Asgard , the abode of the gods aesir (the Norse pantheon is divided into two clans of gods who are enemies with each other:the Aesirs and the vanires ). There, Odin gathered the and inherjar — soldiers who fell in battle and were chosen by the Valkyries to reside in Valhalla until the beginning of Ragnarök.

Odin had a strong relationship with crows, that's because he had two of these birds, named Hugin and Munin , whose names mean “thought” and “memory” respectively. The two animals traveled through the worlds of Norse cosmology and returned to tell Odin all the things they had seen.

Odin was also linked to death, especially in war, which was reinforced by the symbology of the crow, which was always present on the battlefields feeding on corpses. In addition, he possessed a spear called Gungnir, understood as a symbol that associated him with the warrior class.

Odin in Norse Mythology

Odin is a recurring figure in Norse myths , being mentioned in several writings, such as Völuspá, Hávamal, Minor Edda (also known as Prose Edda), Völsunga Saga, among many others. In the Prose Edda, for example, Odin is mentioned in Gylfaginning as follows:

Odin is the highest and oldest of the aesir; he rules over all things and is mighty like the other gods, they all serve him as children obey a father. Frigg is his wife, and she knows all the fates of men, though she does not reveal the prophecies […].

Odin is called the All-Father because he is the father of all gods. He is also called the Father of Massacre, for all those who fall on the field of battle are his adopted sons; he sends them to Valhalla and Vingolf, and they are then called Einherjar, or Champions. He is also called God of the Hanged, God of Gods, God of Burdens, and he has also been named in many more ways […].|2|

We've seen that Norse myths feature Odin married to a goddess Frigg . However, he is known for his various love affairs , even being the father of countless gods. This characteristic is understood as a possible association between him and Zeus, the main god of Greek religiosity, also known for his extramarital affairs.

A highlight about Odin is that Norse myths narrate that he would fight the direwolf Fenrir during Ragnarök . This is understood in Nordic cosmology as a succession of catastrophic events that would lead to the destruction of the Universe and the death of part of the gods. A few gods would survive, the Universe would be rebuilt, and a couple of humans would repopulate the Earth. In that event, Odin would be devoured whole by the wolf Fenrir . Then the wolf would fight Vidar, one of Odin's sons, and be killed by him, who would break his jaw.

Read more: How did the Vikings believe the end of the world would be?

Worship of Odin

Odin was the supreme god of the Norse pantheon, but his cult of him was not so widespread thus, Thor being a much more worshiped god, mainly because of his relationship with agriculture. Odin was mainlyworshipped by Nordic elite groups , such as kings, warriors, skalds (poets).

There is no evidence of a cult of Odin in certain places, such as Iceland and southern Norway, and some evidence suggests that there was a cult of him in parts of Sweden and Denmark, for example. The celebration included human sacrifices, and throughout the Nordic world, some representations of this god were made on stelae (stone slabs).

Notes

|1| LANGER, Johnni. Odin. In.:LANGER, Johnni (org.). Dictionary of Norse Mythology :symbols, myths and rites. São Paulo:Hedra, 2015. p. 345.

|2| STURLUSON, Snorri. Edda in p rose :Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál. Belo Horizonte:Barbudânia, 2015. p. 54 and 55.