Category: NorthMythology

Did you know Odin of Norse Mythology discovered the runestones?
To some gods wisdom is more precious than gold!
Woten or Odin has several names. He is known as the Allfather, Grimnir, the god of gallows, god of prisoners and cargoes.

In Hlidskjalf, Odin is perched on his majestic throne, viewing all things. He has two ravens Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) that fly throughout the worlds relaying important information to him.

Woden/Odin’s thirst for so much wisdom and magick that he hung himself upside down on Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree,for nine nights. The number 9 means an ending leading to a new beginning.
This is not Odin’s first time he sacrificed himself. Odin sacrificed his right eye in the spring of Mimir in exchange for High Wisdom. Odin pierced his own side with a spear. He suffered great pain like a clam creating a beautiful pearl, the runes and their magic unveiled ancient magickal, wisdom to him. After much pain and suffering and on the discovery of the runes, his rope breaks and Odin falls to the ground free of his trial by fire.
Odin is now a wise and powerful wizard.

~ Nifty Buckles

 

I know I hung on that windswept tree,

Swung there for nine long nights,

Wounded by my own blade,

Bloodied for Odin,

Myself an offering to myself:

Bound to the tree

That no man knows

Whither the roots of it run.
None gave me bread,

None gave me drink.

Down to the deepest depths I peered

Until I spied the Runes.

With a roaring cry I seized them up,

Then dizzy and fainting,

I fell.
Well-being I won

And wisdom too.

I grew and took joy in my growth:

From a word to a word

I was led to a word,

From a deed to another deed.
~ The Poetic Edda

Circa 1200 CE.

Source & Reference:

Bellows, Henry Adams (1923). The Poetic Edda. American-Scandinavian Foundation