When both Aesir and Vanir realized that the conflict would likely drag on into eternity, they opted for peace and exchanged prisoners to serve as wards. Odin sent Hoenir, who helped animate humanity, and the wise Mimir. The Vanir delivered Njordr and his son Freyr. The peace lasted, albeit tenuously. At one point, the Vanir came to suspect that Mimir was sent to them as a spy and saboteur, so they killed him and sent his head back to the Aesir.
Ever inventive, Odin embalmed the head with herbs and spoke charms he learned from runic study. His magic animated the head, which from then on told Odin many secrets. Brothers shall fight and fell each other, And sisters' sons shall kinship stain; Hard is it on earth, with mighty whoredom; Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered, Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls; Nor ever shall men each other spare.
Odin himself, she predicted, would be consumed by the monstrous wolf, Fenrir. Ultimately, however, after the world died and was reborn, the gods would return to celebrate the deeds of the great all-father. No barrier, custom, or law could stand in his way. Not even death prevented from indulging his lust for knowledge. His thirst for knowledge colored most everything about Odin, from the company he kept to his personal appearance.
Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse, helped Odin to travel speedily throughout his realm. His raven familiars, Huminn and Muninn, dutifully flew through the worlds, leaving each morning and returning at supper. They informed Odin of everything they saw. Odin even sacrificed his eye for knowledge. He threw it into the spring of Mimir the wise, and it was said that Mimir drank mead every morning as a result of Odin's sacrifice.
In another central myth, Odin discovered the knowledge of runes and delivered it to humankind. The very first Germanic alphabets were made up runes; these were pictographic symbols that worked as letters, with each rune standing for a different sound. Crucially, the runes also embodied certain cosmic powers.
Thus, to know a rune meant knowing the cosmic power it symbolized, and knowing it meant being able to wield it. Odin achieved knowledge of the runes through a heroic act of self-sacrifice. Hanging from the tree, Odin fasted for nine days, pierced himself with a spear, and cryptically offered himself to himself:. I ween that I hung on the windy tree, Hung there for nine nights full nine; With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was, To Odin, myself to myself, On the tree that none may know What root beneath it runs.
His two ravens Hugin and Munin thought and memory fly around the world and report back what they see. Sleipnir the eight-legged horse can run through all the worlds. He learned the magical art of prophecy from Freyja. Odin has a gold ring called Draupnir that is important to the gods.
Sitting on his throne, Hlidskjalf, with Frigg in the hall of Valhalla, Odin looked out across the whole world. But he wanted to know everything and gain wisdom and knowledge of things hidden from him. This was a desire that drove him to sacrifice himself. He then hanged himself in Yggdrasil, the tree of life, for nine days and nine nights in order to gain knowledge of other worlds and be able to understand the runes.
During his sacrificial actions, he saw visions and received secret wisdom. The magical knowledge he gained made him able to cure the sick, calm storms, turn weapons against his attackers, make women fall in love and render dangerous troll women harmless — often just with a look. For Odin, any kind of limitation is something to be overcome by any means necessary, and his actions are carried out within the context of a relentless and ruthless quest for more wisdom, more knowledge, and more power, usually of a magical sort.
One of the most striking attributes of his appearance is his single, piercing eye. His other eye socket is empty — the eye it once held was sacrificed for wisdom. At the end of this ordeal, he perceived the runes , the magically-charged ancient Germanic alphabet that was held to contain many of the greatest secrets of existence.
He is depicted as having subsequently boasted:. Then I was fertilized and grew wise; From a word to a word I was led to a word, From a work to a work I was led to a work.
The prize was the head of the loser, and Odin won by asking his opponent something that only he himself could know. Odin then claimed his prize and returned to Asgard. His shamanic spirit-journeys are well-documented. Odin, like shamans all over the world, [14] is accompanied by many familiar spirits , most notably the ravens Hugin and Munin , the wolves Geri and Freki, and the valkyries.
The shaman must typically undergo a ritual death and rebirth in order to acquire his or her powers, [15] and Odin underwent exactly such an ordeal when he discovered the runes.
This was the form of Germanic shamanism that was the most socially acceptable for men to practice. The other main form of Germanic shamanism is contained within the magical tradition known as seidr , of which Odin and Freya are the foremost divine practitioners. In traditional Germanic society, for a man to engage in seidr was effectively to forsake the male gender role , which brought considerable scorn upon any male who chose to take up this path.
A fuller discussion of the relationship between Germanic shamanism and gender roles can be found here. Odin is the god of war and of the dead. All Vikings who died in battle belonged to him. They were collected by his female handmaidens, the valkyries. Odin was first and foremost worshipped by kings, warrior chieftains and their men. It was the requirements of these people that he could satisfy.
Thor was the most popular of all the gods. He was a god of war and fertility. Thor was worshipped by most Vikings — he was the god of the people. He was comprehensible and could be trusted, in contrast to his father Odin, who could be completely unpredictable. Loki is crafty and not to be trusted.
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