Odin
is Scandinavian, of the North pantheon. He is a god of war, magic,
poetry, cunning, wisdom, and the dead. He is King of the Aesir,
the race of Norse gods. He is known as the "All-Father."
The Aesir gods under the leadership of Odin, included Balder (god
of beauty), Bragi (god of eloquence), Forseti (god of meditation),
Freyr (god of fertility, who originally was from the Vanir), Heimdall
(guardian of the bridge), Hod (the blind god), Loki (god of fire
and ally of the frost giants), Njord (the sea god, and another
ex-Vanir), Thor (god of thunder), Tyr (god of war), Vili (brother
to Odin), Ve (brother to Odin), and Vidar (Odin's son). The goddesses
included Freya (the fertility goddess), Frigg (Odin's wife), Sif
(Thor's wife), and Idun (keeper of the apples of youth). Odin
is the son of Bor and Bestla. Other names Odin is known by are
Woden, Wodan, Wotan, Allfather, Ygg, Bolverk [evil doer], and
Grimnir.
The Vanir were wild nature and fertility gods and
goddesses, sworn enemies of the Aesir, and were considered to
be the bringers of health, youth, fertility, luck and wealth,
and they were masters of magic. After many years of war, the Vanir
and the Aesir decided to make peace, so they traded hostages to
maintain the peace.
Odin has only one eye and is often depicted wearing
a hat pulled low to conceal his missing eye. He traded his other
eye for a drink at the Well of Wisdom, also called Mimir's Well,
where it is said he gained great knowledge. Odin hung for nine
days on Yggdrasil, the ash world tree, pierced by his own spear.
There he learned nine powerful songs, and nine runes from the
Tree of Life. Odin can make the dead speak in order to question
the wisest among them.
He lives in Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, attended
by the Valkyries. Valkyries were originally thought of as dark
angels of death, who soared over the battlefields like birds of
prey, meting out fate in the name of Odin. Half of the chosen
heroes, the greatest of all the fighters were gathered up and
taken away to Valhalla, the heavenly abode of Odin and the other
gods. Valkyries are Odin's daughters through Freya, and form an
all female military squadron known by any of the following: Odin's
Battle Maidens, Shield Maidens or Choosers of the Slain.
Odin has two ravens, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory),
who always keep him informed of events on Earth. He also has an
eight-legged horse called Sleipnir. The horse was the offspring
of Loki, who in mare form seduced a giant's horse named Svadilfari.
Sleopnir could travel to the underworld and through the air. Odin's
spear, which never misses its target, is called Gungnir. His magic
ring is called Draupnir, from which on every ninth night eight
new rings appear. It was this ring that Odin laid on his son Balder's
funeral pyre and which Balder returned to Odin from the underworld.
The wolves Freki (fierce) and Geri (greed), to whom he gives his
food, also accompany him. Odin himself consumes nothing but Mead.
His hall in Asgard, one of the Nine Worlds in Norse
mythology, is called Valaskjalf ("shelf of the slain")
where his throne Hlidskjalf is located. From this throne he observes
all that happes in the nine worlds: Asgard, the topmost level
of the nine worlds; Alfheim, the home of the light elves, the
world that Freyr ruled over; Vanaheim, home of the Vanir before
the end of the war between the Aesir and Vanir; Niflheim, the
world of cold and darkness, where Nithog chewed at the roots of
Yggdrasil; Midgard, the home of mankind, the place where men had
their home; Muspelheim, home of the fire giants; Jotunheim, a
freezing, mountainous land, home of the Jotuns, given to the giants
by Odin after the creation;Svartalfheim, home of the dark elves;
and Hel, the world that the creature known as Hel resides. Hel
was a goddess of death and the underworld, daughter of Loki and
Angerboda, sister to Fenris and Jormungand. According to the Prose
Edda, Hel was terrible to look at, one-half of her was greenish
black and the other a livid white, with flesh that seemed to be
rotting like that of a corpse and her face was gloomy, grim and
sinister.
He has the power to change his appearance and adopt
different disguises. Some of the aliases he uses to travel incognito
among mortals are Vak and Valtam. Wednesday is named after him
(Wodan).
Odin is primariy a war god, and much of what he
does throughut his reign is in preperation for the "Final
Battle" called Ragnarok, a great and final battle between
good and evil. We see this from his personal sacrifices; giving
up his eye for wisdom, and hanging from the Yggdrasil to lear
the Nine Songs, and the Eighteen Runes, to having his ravens keep
tabs on all that was happening in the Nine Worlds at all times,
to his selection of warriors (through the Valkyries) to aid him
in battle, and their constant retraining through death and rebirth
in Valhalla. Although Odin was slain in this battle by Fenris,
Loki's giant wolf, Odin's consolation was the foreknowledge that
his resurrected son Balder would be worshipped in his stead in
a new age and new land which would rise from the sea. Even with
a mighty army of heroic warriors, Odin, through his knowledge
of the future, knew the outcome of Ragnarok: The battle would
be fierce, and the gods would end up dying, but they would take
the forces of evil with them, thus saving humanity.
Once again we witness through our Gods and Goddesses
the Wheel of Life ever turning and manifesting itself and giving
us our place through the cycle of birth, growth, maturation, decline,
and death. Blessed Be Deity, Blessed Be!
