ODIN
(OH-din)
In
Norse mythology, the supreme deity and creator of the cosmos and
humans.
Common
clues: God of war and poetry; Valhalla VIP; Asgard resident;
Thor's father; Frigg's husband; Norse Zeus; One-eyed Norse god;
Viking deity; Wednesday was named after him
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Video:
Interview
with Odin
Although
its precise mythological meaning is controversial, the name
appears to be formed from od
and -in.
In Old Norse, od means by itself '"wit, soul" and in
compounds "fierce power, energy;" the suffix -in means
"master, lord." Thus, Odin
means master
of the life force.
Odin
is considered to be the supreme god of late Germanic and Norse
mythology. His role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex:
he is god of both wisdom and war. He is also attributed as being
a god of magic, poetry, victory, and the hunt.
For
the Norsemen, his name was synonymous with battle and warfare,
for he appears throughout the myths as the bringer of victory.
Odin
was a shape-changer, able to change his skin and form in any way
he liked. He was said to travel the world disguised as an old man
with a staff, one-eyed, grey-bearded and wearing a wide-brimmed
hat.
Odin
is deeply associated with the concept of the Wild Hunt, a noisy,
bellowing movement across the sky, leading a host of the slain,
directly comparable to Vedic Rudra. Odin and Frigg participated
in this together.
Snorri
Sturluson's Edda depicts Odin as welcoming the great dead
warriors who have fallen in battle into his hall, Valhalla. These
fallen, the einherjar,
are assembled by Odin to support the gods in the final battle of
the end of the world, Ragnarok.
In
the Norse sagas, Odin often acts as the instigator of wars,
sending his valkyries to influence the battle in his desired
directions, and to select the dead. This in order to gather the
best warriors in Valhalla.
Sometimes
Odin himself even appears in person. In one version of the end of
the Battle of Bravalla, Odin himself arrives to fetch the aged
King Harald Hildetand. When Helgi Hundingsbane has distinguished
himself enough in battle and his brother-in-law Dag feels the
need to avenge his father (whom Helgi had killed), Odin lends Dag
his spear. Arrived in Valhalla, Helgi immediately gets perks as
one of the foremost warriors.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Odin".
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