Odin

Myth and origin

Odin's name derives from Proto-Germanic *Wōðanaz, related to the root for "fury, inspiration, prophetic frenzy" (óðr). He is the same god as the continental Germanic Wodan or Wotan and the Anglo-Saxon Woden, after whom Wednesday (Wōdnesdæg) is named. His worship is attested across the Germanic world from at least the Roman Iron Age, with Tacitus in the Germania (98 CE) identifying him with Mercury as the chief god of the continental Germanic peoples. Bracteates and bog finds, runic inscriptions, and place-names confirm a continuous cult stretching from the migration period into the Viking Age.

Our main literary sources are Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda (c. 1220) and the anonymous Poetic Edda, particularly the Völuspá, Hávamál, and Grímnismál. Snorri's Ynglinga Saga presents Odin as a euhemerised king of the Aesir who migrated from Asia, while the Hávamál preserves his self-sacrifice on Yggdrasil: hanging nine nights pierced by his own spear, "given to Odin, myself to myself," he retrieved the runes from the abyss. He gave one eye at Mímir's well to drink wisdom and stole the mead of poetry from the giant Suttungr. These myths frame him as a god who pays terrible prices for knowledge.

Attributes and stories

You recognise Odin by his single eye, his grey or blue cloak, his broad hat shadowing his face, the spear Gungnir (which never misses and on which oaths are sworn), the gold ring Draupnir (which drips eight new rings every ninth night), and his companions: the ravens Huginn ("thought") and Muninn ("memory") who fly each day across the worlds and report what they have seen, the wolves Geri and Freki who eat the meat he scarcely touches, and Sleipnir, the eight-legged horse born from Loki in mare form. He is married to Frigg, father of Thor, Baldr, Höðr, Víðarr, and Váli, and grandfather of many heroes.

His myths are countless. He gathers slain warriors (einherjar) into Valhalla, where they feast and fight in preparation for Ragnarök. He wanders the realms in disguise, testing kings and seeking wisdom. He instigates wars and grants victory and defeat as he pleases. He learns seidr, the shamanic magic, from Freya, though the practice is considered unmanly. He raises the dead seeress in Baldrs draumar to learn his son's fate. He hangs on Yggdrasil to win the runes. At Ragnarök he rides out at the head of the einherjar against the wolf Fenrir, who swallows him whole, before his son Víðarr avenges him.

Modern reception

Odin has shaped modern culture profoundly. Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung (1876) reimagines him as Wotan, the tragic patriarch. J.R.R. Tolkien's Gandalf is openly modelled on the wandering Odin archetype (Tolkien called Gandalf an "Odinic wanderer"). Marvel's cinematic Odin (Anthony Hopkins) reintroduced him to global audiences, though heavily Christianised. Neil Gaiman's American Gods (2001) gives him a memorable American incarnation as Mr. Wednesday. Jorge Luis Borges, W.H. Auden, and many poets have invoked his runic mysteries.

In contemporary Heathenry, Ásatrú, and other Norse Neopagan currents, Odin is one of the most invoked deities, especially among practitioners drawn to wisdom-paths, poetry, divination with runes, and ecstatic technique. Astrologically he corresponds to Mercury (Wednesday, wisdom, wandering, exchange) and to Saturn in his elder and sacrificial aspect, with martial echoes of Mars. The mythological deity test can reveal whether the Allfather currently walks with you. Continue with Thor, Loki, and Yggdrasil.

Symbolic depth

In the tarot, Odin corresponds most clearly to The Hierophant (V) as keeper of sacred knowledge, to The Hanged Man (XII) as the self-sacrificed seeker of revelation, and to The Hermit (IX) as the wandering wise one. His one-eyed gaze resonates with The Magician and his rule over the slain with Judgement. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life he resonates with Chokmah (the wise Father) and Daath (the abyss of knowledge crossed at terrible cost).

Jungian readings see Odin as the Senex-Wanderer, the wise old man whose wisdom is purchased through wounding. He represents the willingness to sacrifice part of oneself (the eye, the hanging) to gain access to what is otherwise hidden—a model of the initiatic journey into the unconscious. His shadow is the god of war who delights in stirring up conflict, the trickster who breaks oaths he himself has sworn, the patron who lifts up heroes only to abandon them when their fate is fixed. To work with Odin is to accept that wisdom has a price, that knowing is a kind of dying, and that the runes are won only in the dark. Return to the main glossary for further entries.

Also known as

• Allfather
• Wotan
• Woden
• Óðinn
• Grimnir
• Wanderer