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100-427: The poem forms a more coherent whole than Reginsmál . Most of it is composed in ljóðaháttr , though nine stanzas deviate from the form. The first part of the poem is a dialogue between Sigurd and Fáfnir . The poem moves on to Sigurd's slaying of Fáfnir, dealings with Reginn and claiming of the gold hoard. Fafnismal begins with Reginn egging on Sigurd to slay Fáfnir, a golden hoard guarding dragon. Sigurd hides in

200-562: A calque of Latin Mercurii dies ('Day of Mercury '; cf. modern Italian mercoledì , French mercredi , Spanish miércoles ). The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works Odin is frequently referred to—via a process known as interpretatio romana (where characteristics perceived to be similar by Romans result in identification of a non-Roman god as

300-625: A sleeping spell on her which she could not break, and due to that spell she has been asleep a long time. Sigurd asks for her name, and the woman gives Sigurd a horn of mead to help him retain her words in his memory. The woman recites a heathen prayer in two stanzas. A prose narrative explains that the woman is named Sigrdrífa and that she is a valkyrie. A narrative relates that Sigrdrífa explains to Sigurd that there were two kings fighting one another. Odin had promised one of these— Hjalmgunnar —victory in battle, yet she had "brought down" Hjalmgunnar in battle. Odin pricked her with

400-407: A Christian context 'hanging in heaven' would refer to the crucifixion ; but (remembering that Woden was mentioned a few lines previously) there is also a parallel, perhaps a better one, with Odin, as his crucifixion was associated with learning." The Old English gnomic poem Maxims I also mentions Woden by name in the (alliterative) phrase Woden worhte weos , ('Woden made idols'), in which he

500-585: A Roman deity)—as the Roman god Mercury . The first clear example of this occurs in the Roman historian Tacitus 's late 1st-century work Germania , where, writing about the religion of the Suebi (a confederation of Germanic peoples ), he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of

600-514: A cloak and a broad hat. He is often accompanied by his animal familiars —the wolves Geri and Freki and the ravens Huginn and Muninn , who bring him information from all over Midgard —and he rides the flying, eight-legged steed Sleipnir across the sky and into the underworld. In these texts he frequently seeks greater knowledge, most famously by obtaining the Mead of Poetry , and makes wagers with his wife Frigg over his endeavors. He takes part both in

700-461: A dialogue with an undead völva , who gives him wisdom from ages past and foretells the onset of Ragnarök , the destruction and rebirth of the world. Among the information the völva recounts is the story of the first human beings ( Ask and Embla ), found and given life by a trio of gods; Odin, Hœnir , and Lóðurr : In stanza 17 of the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá , the völva reciting

800-621: A few of the poems found in it also survive in independent recensions in the AM 748 I 4to manuscript. Many verses from these Eddic poems are also quoted as evidence in the Prose Edda . Some poems not found in the early Eddic manuscripts are still considered to be "Eddic" due to their style. Examples include the " Lay of Ríg " from the Codex Wormianus ; the " Lay of Hyndla " from the Flatey-jarbók ; and,

900-635: A heathen invocation known as the Second Merseburg Incantation , which calls upon Odin and other gods and goddesses from the continental Germanic pantheon to assist in healing a horse: Phol ende uuodan uuoran zi holza. du uuart demo balderes uolon sin uuoz birenkit. thu biguol en sinthgunt , sunna era suister, thu biguol en friia, uolla era suister thu biguol en uuodan, so he uuola conda: sose benrenki, sose bluotrenki, sose lidirenki: ben zi bena, bluot si bluoda, lid zi geliden, sose gelimida sin! Phol and Woden travelled to

1000-478: A lesser performance (in fornyrðislag ); Harald judged that verse bad and then offered this one in the more demanding form. While the exchange may be fictionalized, the scene illustrates the regard in which the form was held. Most dróttkvætt poems that survive appear in one or another of the Norse sagas ; several of the sagas are biographies of skaldic poets. Hrynhenda or hrynjandi háttr ('the flowing verse-form')

1100-410: A list of valkyries , referred to as nǫnnor Herians 'the ladies of War Lord'; in other words, the ladies of Odin. In foretelling the events of Ragnarök , the völva predicts the death of Odin; Odin will fight the monstrous wolf Fenrir during the great battle at Ragnarök . Odin will be consumed by the wolf, yet Odin's son Víðarr will avenge him by stabbing the wolf in the heart. After

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1200-416: A pit near Fafnir's lair and springs out of it stabbing Fáfnir in the heart. Fáfnir, mortally wounded, converses with Sigurd in riddle-like conversation. Initially, Sigurd withholds his name because it was a belief that a mortally wounded man had special powers if he cursed his slayer by name. Fáfnir then answers Sigurd's questions of wisdom about the gods. Before dying, Fáfnir warns Sigurd that his golden hoard

1300-457: A point to show that the master of Esgaroth “fell under the dragon sickness” and died. This is similar to Fáfnir's transformation from human to dragon in order to protect his own hoard. Tolkien clearly draws inspiration from Fáfnismal for both Smaug and greed in The Hobbit . Another similar representation of a talking Dragon written by Tolkien and clearly inspired in part by Fafnir and certainly by

1400-532: A range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinavia . Much Old Norse poetry was originally preserved in oral culture, but the Old Norse language ceased to be spoken and later writing tended to be confined to history rather than for new poetic creation, which

1500-456: A sleeping-thorn in consequence, told her that she would never again "fight victoriously in battle", and condemned her to marriage. In response, Sigrdrífa told Odin she had sworn a great oath that she would never wed a man who knew fear. Sigurd asks Sigrdrífa to share with him her wisdom of all worlds. The poem continues in verse, where Sigrdrífa provides Sigurd with knowledge in inscribing runes , mystic wisdom, and prophecy . Odin

1600-402: A stressed word at line-end, such as in some docked forms). In addition, specific requirements obtained for odd-numbered and even-numbered lines. In the odd-numbered lines (equivalent to the a-verse of the traditional alliterative line): In the even lines (equivalent to the b-verse of the traditional alliterative line): The requirements of the verse form were so demanding that occasionally

1700-570: A wide range of other possibilities. Many of the Eddic lays can be characterized as focused on ethical topics. Eddic poetry is to indebted narratives describing heroes, which was part of a long oral tradition, as well as textual. The skaldic forms were so called because of the existence of a socially-defined group of which the individual members were generally known by the term skald , or scold , or by similarly linguistically related terms, in Old Norse and particularly closely related languages. Basically,

1800-417: A woman. The woman's corslet is so tight that it seems to have grown into the woman's body. Sigurd uses his sword Gram to cut the corslet, starting from the neck of the corslet downwards, he continues cutting down her sleeves, and takes the corslet off her. The woman wakes, sits up, looks at Sigurd , and the two converse in two stanzas of verse. In the second stanza, the woman explains that Odin placed

1900-505: Is a homophone for Old English os , a particularly heathen word for 'god'. Due to this and the content of the stanzas, several scholars have posited that this poem is censored, having originally referred to Odin. Kathleen Herbert comments that " Os was cognate with As in Norse, where it meant one of the Æsir , the chief family of gods. In Old English, it could be used as an element in first names: Osric, Oswald, Osmund, etc. but it

2000-449: Is a later development of dróttkvætt with eight syllables per line instead of six, with the similar rules of rhyme and alliteration, although each hrynhent -variant shows particular subtleties. It is first attested around 985 in the so-called Hafgerðingadrápa of which four lines survive (alliterants and rhymes bolded): The author was said to be a Christian from the Hebrides , who composed

2100-906: Is a widely revered god in Germanic paganism . Norse mythology , the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, victory, sorcery, poetry, frenzy, and the runic alphabet , and depicts him as the husband of the goddess Frigg . In wider Germanic mythology and paganism, the god was also known in Old English as Wōden , in Old Saxon as Uuôden , in Old Dutch as Wuodan , in Old Frisian as Wêda , and in Old High German as Wuotan , all ultimately stemming from

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2200-435: Is almost like a "combination" of the previous — alliteration always on the first metrical-position, and the rhymes in the odd-lines juxtaposed (all features in bold in this example): There is one more form which is a bit different though seemed to be counted among the previous group by Snorri, called draughent . The syllable-count changes to seven (and, whether relevant to us or not, the second-syllable seems to be counted as

2300-425: Is characterized by relative simplicity in terms of style and meter and, "like the later folk songs and ballads, they are anonymous and objective, never betraying the feelings or attitudes of their authors." In contrast, the skaldic poetry tends to concern itself with contemporary events and personalities, although also sometimes dealing with or alluding to myth and legend; skaldic poetry avoids direct narration; and, it

2400-593: Is contrasted with and denounced against the Christian God . The Old English rune poem recounts the Old English runic alphabet, the futhorc . The stanza for the rune ós reads as follows: ōs byþ ordfruma ǣlcre sprǣce wīsdōmes wraþu and wītena frōfur and eorla gehwām ēadnys and tō hiht god is the origin of all language wisdom's foundation and wise man's comfort and to every hero blessing and hope The first word of this stanza, ōs (Latin 'mouth')

2500-531: Is conventionally, and somewhat arbitrarily, split into two types: Eddaic poetry (also known as Eddic poetry) and Skaldic poetry . Eddaic poetry refers to poems on themes of mythology or ancient heroes, composed in simpler meters (see below) and with anonymous authors. Most of the Eddaic poems are preserved in the Codex Regius manuscript, but a few others survive in manuscripts like the fragmentary AM 748 I 4to . On

2600-437: Is cursed and that Reginn will betray him. Reginn praises Sigurd for slaying the dragon, but takes credit for making the sword that allowed him to do it. Sigurd replies saying courage is more important than a weapon and blames Reginn for tricking him into killing Fáfnir. Reginn cuts out Fáfnir's heart and drinks the blood, and Sigurd cooks the heart over the fire for Reginn to eat. Sigurd accidentally ingests Fáfnir's blood and gains

2700-505: Is frequently referred to as a founding figure among various other Germanic peoples, such as the Langobards , while some Old Norse sources depict him as an enthroned ruler of the gods. Forms of his name appear frequently throughout the Germanic record, although narratives regarding Odin are mainly found in Old Norse works recorded in Iceland , primarily around the 13th century. These texts make up

2800-625: Is mentioned throughout the books of the Prose Edda , composed in the 13th century and drawing from earlier traditional material. The god is introduced at length in chapter nine of the Prose Edda book Gylfaginning , which explains that he is described as ruling over Asgard , the domain of the gods, on his throne, that he is the 'father of all', and that from him all the gods, all of humankind (by way of Ask and Embla ), and everything else he has made or produced. According to Gylfaginning , in Asgard: In

2900-434: Is near universally accepted as the cosmic tree Yggdrasil , and if the tree is Yggdrasil , then the name Yggdrasil (Old Norse 'Ygg's steed') directly relates to this story. Odin is associated with hanging and gallows ; John Lindow comments that "the hanged 'ride' the gallows". In the prose introduction to the poem Sigrdrífumál , the hero Sigurd rides up to Hindarfell and heads south towards "the land of

3000-814: Is normal for an extinct language . Modern knowledge of Old Norse poetry is preserved by what was written down. Most of the Old Norse poetry that survives was composed or committed to writing in Iceland , after refined techniques for writing (such as the use of vellum, parchment paper, pens, and ink) were introduced—seemingly contemporaneously with the introduction of Christianity: thus, the general topic area of Old Norse poetry may be referred to as Old Icelandic poetry in literature. There are also around 122 verses preserved in Swedish rune inscriptions , 54 in Norwegian and 12 in Danish. (See Eggjum stone .) Poetry played an important role in

3100-447: Is often known who the authors of the skaldic verses are along with their dates, unlike the Eddic poetry. Old Norse poetry has many metrical forms ( Old Norse : hættir ). They range from the ancient and relatively simple fornyrðislag ('air of ancient utterings'), closely related to the Old English meter , to the innovative and complex dróttkvætt ( Old Norse : dróttkvæðr háttr 'court-spoken meter'). In Eddic, or Eddaic, poetry,

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3200-421: Is one night, long is the next; how can I bear three? A month has often seemed less to me than this half night of longing. Because of its structure, which comprises clearly defined rhythmic stanzas , ljóðaháttr lends itself to dialogue and discourse. There were a number of variant stanza forms based on ljóðaháttr , including galdralag ("incantation meter"), which adds a fifth short (three-lift) line at

3300-506: Is said to be the son of a god other than Yahweh. This lines up with the Lindsey genealogy which says that Frealaf was the son of Friothulf, son of Finn, son of Godulf, son of Geat, although Nennius seems to have replaced Godulf with Fodepald. Other genealogies of Odin include further ancestry beyond Geat, giving Geat's father as Tætwa son of Beaw son of Sceldi son of Heremod son of Itermon son of Hathra son of Guala son of Bedwig son of Sceaf, who

3400-578: Is said to have slain a wyrm (serpent, Germanic dragon ) by way of nine "glory twigs". Preserved from an 11th-century manuscript, the poem is, according to Bill Griffiths, "one of the most enigmatic of Old English texts". The section that mentions Woden is as follows: + wyrm com snican, toslat he nan, ða genam woden VIIII wuldortanas, sloh ða þa næddran þæt heo on VIIII tofleah Þær gaændade æppel and attor þæt heo næfre ne wolde on hus bugan. A serpent came crawling (but) it destroyed no one when Woden took nine twigs of glory, (and) then struck

3500-532: Is that the inscription "gutaniowi hailag" means "sacred to Wodan-Jove", but this is highly disputed. The earliest clear reference to Odin by name is found on a C- bracteate discovered in Denmark in 2020. Dated to as early as the 400s, the bracteate features a Proto-Norse Elder Futhark inscription reading "He is Odin’s man" ( iz Wōd[a]nas weraz ). Although the English kingdoms were nominally converted to Christianity by

3600-631: Is the son of Noah from the Bible . In the 11th century, chronicler Adam of Bremen recorded in a scholion of his Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum that a statue of Thor, whom Adam describes as "mightiest", sat enthroned in the Temple at Uppsala (located in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) flanked by Wodan (Odin) and " Fricco ". Regarding Odin, Adam defines him as "frenzy" ( Wodan, id est furor ) and says that he "rules war and gives people strength against

3700-490: Is venerated with other Germanic gods in most forms of the new religious movement Heathenry ; some branches focus particularly on him. The Old Norse theonym Óðinn (runic ᚢᚦᛁᚾ on the Ribe skull fragment ) is a cognate of other medieval Germanic names, including Old English Wōden , Old Saxon Wōdan , Old Dutch Wuodan , and Old High German Wuotan ( Old Bavarian Wûtan ). They all derive from

3800-465: The einherjar , sending the other half to the goddess Freyja 's Fólkvangr . Odin consults the disembodied, herb-embalmed head of the wise Mímir , who foretells the doom of Ragnarök and urges Odin to lead the einherjar into battle before being consumed by the monstrous wolf Fenrir . In later folklore, Odin sometimes appears as a leader of the Wild Hunt , a ghostly procession of

3900-504: The Franks ". On the mountain Sigurd sees a great light, "as if fire were burning, which blazed up to the sky". Sigurd approaches it, and there he sees a skjaldborg (a tactical formation of shield wall ) with a banner flying overhead. Sigurd enters the skjaldborg , and sees a warrior lying there—asleep and fully armed. Sigurd removes the helmet of the warrior, and sees the face of

4000-497: The Latin term vātēs ('prophet, seer') is probably a Celtic loanword from the Gaulish language, making *uoh₂-tós ~ *ueh₂-tus ('god-inspired') a shared religious term common to Germanic and Celtic rather than an inherited word of earlier Proto-Indo-European (PIE) origin. In the case a borrowing scenario is excluded, a PIE etymon *(H)ueh₂-tis ('prophet, seer') can also be posited as

4100-441: The Prose Edda book Gylfaginning (chapter 38), the enthroned figure of High (Harr), tells Gangleri (king Gylfi in disguise) that two ravens named Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders. The ravens tell Odin everything they see and hear. Odin sends Huginn and Muninn out at dawn, and the birds fly all over the world before returning at dinner-time. As a result, Odin is kept informed of many events. High adds that it

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4200-567: The Proto-Germanic theonym * Wōðanaz , meaning 'lord of frenzy', or 'leader of the possessed'. Odin appears as a prominent god throughout the recorded history of Northern Europe , from the Roman occupation of regions of Germania (from c.  2 BCE) through movement of peoples during the Migration Period (4th to 6th centuries CE) and the Viking Age (8th to 11th centuries CE). In

4300-497: The Solomon and Saturn poems is additionally in the style of later Old Norse material featuring Odin, such as the Old Norse poem Vafþrúðnismál , featuring Odin and the jötunn Vafþrúðnir engaging in a deadly game of wits. The 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum , and Paul the Deacon 's 8th-century Historia Langobardorum derived from it, recount a founding myth of

4400-494: The creation of the world by slaying the primordial being Ymir and in giving life to the first two humans Ask and Embla . He also provides mankind knowledge of runic writing and poetry , showing aspects of a culture hero . He has a particular association with the Yule holiday. Odin is also associated with the divine battlefield maidens, the valkyries , and he oversees Valhalla , where he receives half of those who die in battle,

4500-617: The reconstructed Proto-Germanic masculine theonym *Wōðanaz (or *Wōdunaz ). Translated as 'lord of frenzy', or as 'leader of the possessed', *Wōðanaz stems from the Proto-Germanic adjective *wōðaz ('possessed, inspired, delirious, raging') attached to the suffix *-naz ('master of'). Internal and comparative evidence all point to the ideas of a divine possession or inspiration, and an ecstatic divination . In his Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (1075–1080 AD), Adam of Bremen explicitly associates Wotan with

4600-423: The substantivized forms Old Norse óðr ('mind, wit, sense; song, poetry'), Old English wōþ ('sound, noise; voice, song'), Old High German wuot ('thrill, violent agitation') and Middle Dutch woet ('rage, frenzy'), from the same root as the original adjective. The Proto-Germanic terms *wōðīn ('madness, fury') and *wōðjanan ('to rage') can also be reconstructed. Early epigraphic attestations of

4700-407: The " Lay of Svipdag ", which is only found in later, paper manuscripts (rather than vellum). Together, all of these poems are grouped under the somewhat fluid term the Poetic Edda . Compared to the main skaldic style, the Eddic lays tend to be differentiated by three characteristics: the material deals with the mythology, ancient heroes, and ethics of the ancient Norse. Furthermore, the Eddic style

4800-475: The "head-stave" (or, hǫfuðstafr ). The word "line" and "couplet" need some clarification. Essentially, in fornyrðislag and many other forms, Norse poets treated each "half-line" of Germanic alliterative verse as a separate line. The Norse "couplet" is basically a single Germanic line, a pair of half-lines joined by alliteration. Thus, a Norse fornyrðislag stanza of eight lines corresponds to four lines of Old-English alliterative verse. Another difference between

4900-407: The "main" form never has alliteration or rhyme in the first 2 syllables of the odd-lines (i.e., rhymes always coming at the fourth-syllable), and the even-lines never have rhyme on the fifth/sixth syllables (i.e.: they cannot harbor rhyme in these places because they extra-metrical), the following couplet shows the paradigm: [Note the juxtaposition of alliteration and rhyme of the even-line] Then,

5000-503: The Helm of Terror, and takes the sword Hrotti . There are striking similarities between J.R.R. Tolkien's Smaug and Fáfnir. According to Ármann Jakobsson, Tolkien translates the epic poem into a modern representation of Fáfnir through Smaug. Fáfnir and Smaug are most alike in that they speak in riddles, have wisdom, and guard golden hoards. They also are very human-like, unlike dragons from other stories such as Beowulf . Further, Tolkien makes

5100-686: The Irish missionary Columbanus disrupted an offering of beer to Odin ( vodano ) "(whom others called Mercury)" in Swabia . A few centuries later, 9th-century document from what is now Mainz , Germany, known as the Old Saxon Baptismal Vow records the names of three Old Saxon gods, UUôden ('Woden'), Saxnôte , and Thunaer ('Thor'), whom pagan converts were to renounce as demons . A 10th-century manuscript found in Merseburg , Germany, features

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5200-680: The Langobards ( Lombards ), a Germanic people who ruled a region of the Italian Peninsula . According to this legend, a "small people" known as the Winnili were ruled by a woman named Gambara who had two sons, Ybor and Aio . The Vandals , ruled by Ambri and Assi , came to the Winnili with their army and demanded that they pay them tribute or prepare for war. Ybor, Aio, and their mother Gambara rejected their demands for tribute. Ambri and Assi then asked

5300-730: The Latin term furor , which can be translated as 'rage', 'fury', 'madness', or 'frenzy' ( Wotan id est furor  : "Odin, that is, furor "). As of 2011, an attestation of Proto-Norse Woðinz , on the Strängnäs stone , has been accepted as probably authentic, but the name may be used as a related adjective instead meaning "with a gift for (divine) possession" (ON: øðinn ). Other Germanic cognates derived from *wōðaz include Gothic woþs ('possessed'), Old Norse óðr ('mad, frantic, furious'), Old English wōd ('insane, frenzied') and Dutch woed ('frantic, wild, crazy'), along with

5400-726: The Norse system and the general Germanic pattern is that the Norse poets, unlike the Old English poets, tended to treat each "couplet", or Germanic line, as a complete syntactic unit, avoiding enjambment where a thought begun on one line continues through the following lines; only seldom do they begin a new sentence in the second half-line. This example is from the Waking of Angantyr : V aki, Angantýr!   v ekr þik Hervǫr, ei ngadóttir   y kkr Sváfu! Selðu ór h augi   h vassan mæki þann's S vafrlama   s lógu dvergar. Awaken, Angantyr ! Hervor awakens you; your only daughter by Sváfa! Yield up from

5500-423: The Winnili and their whiskered women and asked, "who are those Long-beards?" Frea responded to Godan, "As you have given them a name, give them also the victory". Godan did so, "so that they should defend themselves according to his counsel and obtain the victory". Thenceforth the Winnili were known as the Langobards ('long-beards'). Writing in the mid-7th century, Jonas of Bobbio wrote that earlier that century

5600-459: The ability to understand birds. He overhears the birds saying he should eat the heart for wisdom. Sigurd also hears them say Reginn will betray him. He decapitates Reginn in anticipation, eats Fáfnir's heart, and drinks both Reginn and Fáfnir's blood. The birds then tell him of his future wife Guðrún , and suggest he use the golden hoard to win her hand. They also tell of an imprisoned Valkyrie named Brynhildr . Sigurd loads two chests with gold, takes

5700-409: The adder so that it flew into nine (pieces). There archived apple and poison that it never would re-enter the house. The emendation of nan to 'man' has been proposed. The next stanza comments on the creation of the herbs chervil and fennel while hanging in heaven by the 'wise lord' ( witig drihten ) and before sending them down among mankind. Regarding this, Griffith comments that "In

5800-400: The adjective include un-wōdz ('calm one', i.e. 'not-furious'; 200 CE) and wōdu-rīde ('furious rider'; 400 CE). Philologist Jan de Vries has argued that the Old Norse deities Óðinn and Óðr were probably originally connected (as in the doublet Ullr–Ullinn ), with Óðr (* wōðaz ) being the elder form and the ultimate source of the name Óðinn ( *wōða-naz ). He further suggested that

5900-426: The bulk of modern understanding of Norse mythology. Old Norse texts portray Odin as the son of Bestla and Borr along with two brothers, Vili and Vé , and he fathered many sons , most famously the gods Thor (with Jörð ) and Baldr (with Frigg ). He is known by hundreds of names . Odin is frequently portrayed as one-eyed and long-bearded, wielding a spear named Gungnir or appearing in disguise wearing

6000-584: The common ancestor of the attested Germanic, Celtic and Latin forms. More than 170 names are recorded for Odin; the names are variously descriptive of attributes of the god, refer to myths involving him, or refer to religious practices associated with him. This multitude makes Odin the god with the most known names among the Germanic peoples. Steve Martin has pointed out that the name Odinsberg (Ounesberry, Ounsberry, Othenburgh) in Cleveland Yorkshire , now corrupted to Roseberry (Topping) , may derive from

6100-450: The dead through the winter sky. He is associated with charms and other forms of magic, particularly in Old English and Old Norse texts. The figure of Odin is a frequent subject of interest in Germanic studies , and scholars have advanced numerous theories regarding his development. Some of these focus on Odin's particular relation to other figures; for example, Freyja 's husband Óðr appears to be something of an etymological doublet of

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6200-568: The end of the 7th century, Woden is frequently listed as a founding figure among the Old English royalty. Odin is also either directly or indirectly mentioned a few times in the surviving Old English poetic corpus, including the Nine Herbs Charm and likely also the Old English rune poem . Odin may also be referenced in the riddle Solomon and Saturn . In the Nine Herbs Charm , Woden

6300-543: The end of the stanza; in this form, the fifth line usually echoes the fourth. Eddic poems have other common characteristics besides verse form. The Eddic poetry lays are diverse; however, three important common characteristics can be described: mythology, ethics, and heroic lore. One major topic of Eddic poetry is mythology. The mythological topics of Eddic poetry most importantly include Norse mythology , however other types of mythology are also involved, including various other Germanic traditions, probable Christian ideas, and

6400-410: The enemy" and that the people of the temple depict him as wearing armour, "as our people depict Mars". According to Adam, the people of Uppsala had appointed priests ( gothi ) to each of the gods, who were to offer up sacrifices ( blót ), and in times of war sacrifices were made to images of Odin. In the 12th century, centuries after Norway was "officially" Christianised, Odin was still being invoked by

6500-637: The even ones). Ljóðaháttr ("chant" or " ballad " metre) is a stanzaic verse form, organized into four-line stanzas. The first and third lines were standard lines of Germanic alliterative verse with four lifts and two or three alliterations, separated into two half-lines with cæsura; the second and fourth lines had three lifts and two alliterations, and no cæsura. This example is from Freyr 's lament in Skírnismál : L ǫng es nótt,   l ǫng es ǫnnur, hvé mega ek þ reyja þ rjár? Opt mér m ánaðr   m inni þótti en sjá h alfa h ýnótt. Long

6600-450: The extra-metrical): As one can see, there is very often clashing stress in the middle of the line ( Vápna hríd velt a....//..Vægdar laus feig um.... , etc.), and oddhending seems preferred (as well as keeping alliterative and rhyming syllables separated, which likely has to do with the syllabic-makeup of the line). Odin Odin ( / ˈ oʊ d ɪ n / ; from Old Norse : Óðinn )

6700-428: The forest. Then was for Baldur 's foal its foot wrenched. Then encharmed it Sindgund (and) Sunna her sister, then encharmed it Frija (and) Volla her sister, then encharmed it Woden , as he the best could, As the bone-wrench, so for the blood wrench, (and) so the limb-wrench bone to bone, blood to blood, limb to limb, so be glued. Old English royal genealogies record Woden as an ancestor of

6800-615: The god Godan for victory over the Winnili, to which Godan responded (in the longer version in the Origo ): "Whom I shall first see when at sunrise, to them will I give the victory." Meanwhile, Ybor and Aio called upon Frea, Godan's wife. Frea counselled them that "at sunrise the Winnil[i] should come, and that their women, with their hair let down around the face in the likeness of a beard should also come with their husbands". At sunrise, Frea turned Godan's bed around to face east and woke him. Godan saw

6900-698: The god as Wotan , a spelling of his own invention which combines the Old High German Wuotan with the Low German Wodan . The modern English weekday name Wednesday derives from Old English Wōdnesdæg , meaning 'day of Wōden'. Cognate terms are found in other Germanic languages, such as Middle Low German and Middle Dutch Wōdensdach (modern Dutch woensdag ), Old Frisian Wērnisdei (≈ Wērendei ) and Old Norse Óðinsdagr (cf. Danish, Norwegian, Swedish onsdag ). All of these terms derive from Late Proto-Germanic * Wodanesdag ('Day of Wōðanaz'),

7000-680: The god of rage Óðr–Óðinn stood in opposition to the god of glorious majesty Ullr–Ullinn in a similar manner to the Vedic contrast between Varuna and Mitra . The adjective *wōðaz ultimately stems from a Pre-Germanic form *uoh₂-tós , which is related to the Proto-Celtic terms * wātis , meaning 'seer, sooth-sayer' (cf. Gaulish wāteis , Old Irish fáith 'prophet') and * wātus , meaning 'prophesy, poetic inspiration' (cf. Old Irish fáth 'prophetic wisdom, maxims', Old Welsh guaut 'prophetic verse, panegyric'). According to some scholars,

7100-405: The god, while Odin's wife Frigg is in many ways similar to Freyja , and Odin has a particular relation to Loki . Other approaches focus on Odin's place in the historical record, exploring whether Odin derives from Proto-Indo-European mythology or developed later in Germanic society . In the modern period, Odin has inspired numerous works of poetry, music, and other cultural expressions. He

7200-575: The gods Mercury is the one they principally worship" is an exact quote from Julius Caesar 's Commentarii de Bello Gallico (1st century BCE) in which Caesar is referring to the Gauls and not the Germanic peoples. Regarding the Germanic peoples, Caesar states: "[T]hey consider the gods only the ones that they can see, the Sun, Fire and the Moon", which scholars reject as clearly mistaken, regardless of what may have led to

7300-467: The gods, but appears to be due to Mercury's role of psychopomp . Other contemporary evidence may also have led to the equation of Odin with Mercury; Odin, like Mercury, may have at this time already been pictured with a staff and hat, may have been considered a trader god, and the two may have been seen as parallel in their roles as wandering deities. But their rankings in their respective religious spheres may have been very different. Also, Tacitus's "among

7400-561: The kings of Lindsey , Mercia , Deira and Bernicia (which eventually became Northumbria , Wessex , and East Anglia accounting for in 7 of the 8 genealogies, and all but Essex, who instead traced their ancestry to Saxnot . Some of these genealogies expand on ancestry beyond Woden, giving his father as Frealaf beginning in the 8th century. The Welsh 9th centurry Historia Brittonum also includes Woden in its pedigree of Hengist, and shows Woden's ancestry as "VVoden, filii Frealaf, filii Fredulf, filii Finn, filii Fodepald, filii Geta", who

7500-452: The larger Volsungr Saga is that of Glaurung, found in his work "The Silmarillion" (and now edited as a separate work by his son Christopher as "The Children of Hurin"). The Dragon Glaurung also speaks, uses curses and magic but most similar is the death of Glaurung by Turin Turambar stabbed from below with a cursed sword. Lj%C3%B3%C3%B0ah%C3%A1ttr Old Norse poetry encompasses

7600-422: The metric structures are for the most part either in the form of fornyrðislag ("old story"/"epic meter") or ljóðaháttr ("song"/"chant meter"). Both fornyrðislag and ljóðaháttr verse form share similarities; such as, partial alliteration of stressed and grammatically important syllables, division of the verse into half lines or full lines and couplets, with fixed numbers of lines, line lengths determined by

7700-415: The modern period, the rural folklore of Germanic Europe continued to acknowledge Odin. References to him appear in place names throughout regions historically inhabited by the ancient Germanic peoples, and the day of the week Wednesday bears his name in many Germanic languages, including in English. In Old English texts, Odin holds a particular place as a euhemerized ancestral figure among royalty, and he

7800-510: The mound the sharp sword that which dwarves forged for Svafrlami . Fornyrðislag had a variant form called málaháttr ("meter of speeches"), which adds an unstressed syllable to each half-line, making six to eight (sometimes up to ten) unstressed syllables per line. This meter is similar to that used in the Old Saxon Heliand . Conversely, another variant, kviðuháttr , has only three syllables in its odd half-lines (but four in

7900-402: The mythological (such as Odin's recounting of his retrieval of Óðrœrir , the vessel containing the mead of poetry ), and to the mystical (the final section of the poem consists of Odin's recollection of eighteen charms). Among the various scenes that Odin recounts is his self-sacrifice: While the name of the tree is not provided in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree

8000-523: The number of stressed syllables (called "lifts"), and the linking of full lines or couplets by means of alliteration. A verse form close to that of Beowulf was used on runestones and in the Old Norse Poetic Edda ; in Norse, it was called fornyrðislag , which means "old story metre". Fornyrðislag is the more commonly used Eddic meter, and is often used for narrative poems. Fornyrðislag formally consists of eight line stanzas. Each line of

8100-566: The other hand, Skaldic poetry was usually written as praise for living kings and nobles, in more intricate meters and by known authors, known as skalds . There are various types of Old Norse poetry which have been preserved. Of particular interest to scholars are the Skaldic and Eddic lays, or poems. However, also of interest are occasional verse from other sources. Skaldic and Eddic works have many commonalities besides being written in Old Norse, such as alliteration; however, scholars usually distinguish

8200-504: The permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the Suebi also venerate "Isis". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as "Mercury", Thor as " Hercules ", and Týr as " Mars ". The "Isis" of the Suebi has been debated and may represent " Freyja ". Anthony Birley noted that Odin's apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury's classical role of being messenger of

8300-406: The poem ("so said the goddess of hawk-land, true of words") are syntactically separate but interspersed within the text of the rest of the verse. The elaborate kennings manifested here are also practically necessary in this complex and demanding form, as much to solve metrical difficulties as for the sake of vivid imagery. Intriguingly, the saga claims that Harald improvised these lines after he gave

8400-542: The poem asking God to keep him safe at sea. ( Note : The third line is, in fact, over-alliterated. There should be exactly two alliterants in the odd-numbered lines.) The metre gained some popularity in courtly poetry, as the rhythm may sound more majestic than dróttkvætt. We learn much about these in the Hattatal : Snorri gives for certain at least three different variant-forms of hrynhenda. These long-syllabled lines are explained by Snorri as being extra-metrical in most cases:

8500-417: The poem states that Hœnir , Lóðurr and Odin once found Ask and Embla on land. The völva says that the two were capable of very little, lacking in ørlög and says that they were given three gifts by the three gods: The meaning of these gifts has been a matter of scholarly disagreement and translations therefore vary. Later in the poem, the völva recounts the events of the Æsir–Vanir War ,

8600-603: The population, as evidenced by a stick bearing a runic message found among the Bryggen inscriptions in Bergen, Norway. On the stick, both Thor and Odin are called upon for help; Thor is asked to "receive" the reader, and Odin to "own" them. Odin is mentioned or appears in most poems of the Poetic Edda , compiled in the 13th century from traditional source material reaching back to the pagan period. The poem Völuspá features Odin in

8700-399: The requirements of Germanic alliterative verse and strongly resembles Celtic (Irish and Welsh) verse forms. The dróttkvætt stanza had eight lines, each having usually three lifts and almost invariably six syllables. Although other stress patterns appear, the verse is predominantly trochaic. The last two syllables in each line had to form a trochee (there are a few specific forms which utilize

8800-488: The rhyme remains the same (Snorri seems to imply that frumhending , which is placing a rhyme on the first syllable of any line, is preferably avoided in all these forms: the rhymes are always preferred as oddhending , "middle-of-the-line rhymes") — in the even-lines the rhyme and alliteration are not juxtaposed, and this is a key feature of its distinction (the significant features only are marked in bold below): The next form, which Snorri calls "ordinary/standard hrynhenda",

8900-454: The rune name without obviously referring to Woden." In the prose narrative of Solomon and Saturn , "Mercurius the Giant" ( Mercurius se gygand ) is referred to as an inventor of letters. This may also be a reference to Odin, who is in Norse mythology the founder of the runic alphabets, and the gloss a continuation of the practice of equating Odin with Mercury found as early as Tacitus. One of

9000-710: The skald was a type of poet. In Skaldic poetry, the structures used tend to be complex, evolved from the common Germanic poetic tradition. Around a hundred meters are known, many only from Snorri Sturluson's Háttatal . One of the simpler skaldic meters was kviðuháttr , a variant of fornyrðislag with alternating lines of 3 and 4 syllables, used in genealogical poems such as Þjóðólfr ór Hvíni's Ynglingatal and Eyvindr Skáldaspillir 's Háleygjatal . Other Skaldic meters, sch as dróttkvætt and Hrynhenda were more complex.. Dróttkvætt , meaning " courtly metre", added internal rhymes and other forms of assonance to its stanza structures. The resulting verse form goes well beyond

9100-738: The social and religious world of the Vikings . In Skáldskaparmál , Snorri Sturluson , recounts the myth of how Odin brought the mead of poetry to Asgard . Poetry is referred to in such terms as 'the drink of the raven-god (= Odin)' even in the oldest preserved poetry, which is an indicator of its significance within the ancient Scandinavian culture. Old Norse poetry developed from the common Germanic alliterative verse , and as such has many commonalities with Old English , Old Saxon , and Old High German poetry, including alliteration , poetic circumlocutions termed kennings , and an expansive vocabulary of poetic synonyms, termed heiti . Old Norse poetry

9200-399: The stanza has two vocally stressed syllables, also known as "lifts", with a somewhat arbitrary number of other syllables. Through the use of alliteration, lines join into couplets. Generally, in the first line of fornyrðislag , both "lifts", or stressed syllables alliterate. In the second line of any given couplet, only one of the two stressed syllables is alliterated, usually the first—this is

9300-607: The statement. There is no direct, undisputed evidence for the worship of Odin/Mercury among the Goths , and the existence of a cult of Odin among them is debated. Richard North and Herwig Wolfram have both argued that the Goths did not worship Odin, Wolfram contending that the use of Greek names of the week in Gothic provides evidence of that. One possible reading of the Gothic Ring of Pietroassa

9400-499: The text of the poems had to run parallel, with one thread of syntax running through the on-side of the half-lines, and another running through the off-side. According to the Fagrskinna collection of sagas , King Harald III of Norway uttered these lines of dróttkvætt at the Battle of Stamford Bridge ; the internal assonances and the alliteration are emboldened: The bracketed words in

9500-616: The time of the Anglian settlements, with nearby Newton under Roseberry and Great Ayton having Anglo Saxon suffixes. The very dramatic rocky peak was an obvious place for divine association, and may have replaced Bronze Age/Iron Age beliefs of divinity there, given that a hoard of bronze votive axes and other objects was buried by the summit. It could be a rare example, then, of Nordic-Germanic theology displacing earlier Celtic mythology in an imposing place of tribal prominence. In his opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen , Richard Wagner refers to

9600-461: The two based on certain characteristics. Scholarly distinction between Eddic and Skaldic works largely derives both from differing manuscript traditions and their typical matter and style. One major distinction between Skaldic and Eddic poetry derives from the manuscript sources of the surviving known works. The large majority of works described as "Eddic" are found only in the Codex Regius , while

9700-434: The variant-forms show unsurprising dróttkvætt patterns overall; the main difference being that the first trochee of the odd-lines are technically not reckoned as extrametrical since they harbor alliteration , but the even-lines' extra-metrical feature is more or less as the same. The 2nd form is the "troll-hrynjandi" : in the odd-lines the alliteration is moved to the first metrical position (no longer "extra-metrical") while

9800-453: The war between Vanir and the Æsir , two groups of gods. During this, the first war of the world, Odin flung his spear into the opposing forces of the Vanir . The völva tells Odin that she knows where he has hidden his eye; in the spring Mímisbrunnr , and from it " Mímir drinks mead every morning". After Odin gives her necklaces, she continues to recount more information, including

9900-495: The world is burned and renewed, the surviving and returning gods will meet and recall Odin's deeds and "ancient runes". The poem Hávamál (Old Norse 'Sayings of the High One') consists entirely of wisdom verse attributed to Odin. This advice ranges from the practical ("A man shouldn't hold onto the cup but drink in moderation, it's necessary to speak or be silent; no man will blame you for impoliteness if you go early to bed"), to

10000-447: Was not used as a word to refer to the God of Christians. Woden was equated with Mercury, the god of eloquence (among other things). The tales about the Norse god Odin tell how he gave one of his eyes in return for wisdom; he also won the mead of poetic inspiration. Luckily for Christian rune-masters, the Latin word os could be substituted without ruining the sense, to keep the outward form of

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