From all the gods I ever heard of, Odin, the ruler of Asgard, this Nordic God is my favorite one.The God of war and death, was also the God of wisdom and poetry and the father of Thor, the God of thunder…
He had only one eye, the other one was given to the ancient Mimir in exchange of the privilege of drinking of the well of wisdom…I can’t avoid thinking that when we shoot a gun, we also use only one eye, as when I measure with a pencil to paint or draw, in my extended hand, I also use only one eye...maybe wisdom is the ability to measure right.
He only spoke in prose, which is the language of the poets, and the ones that songs write, and to me poetry and wisdom are always holding hands, and everyone knows that’s the language of the heart.
He gave all his food to his wolves, because he needed nothing but the
mead of nourishment…love anyone?...and yeah, Maslow was right...
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Maslow's hierarchy of needs |
He was naive enough to work 9 days and 9 nights because of the promise of a sip of the “mead of poetry “ as reward, but Suttung, the owner of the mead, refused to even share one drop before he had to part.
The giant Suttung built a strong underground cave in the mountain Hnitbjorg, where he lived. There he placed the three containers of ”mead” and entrusted his daughter, Gunlod, to guard them. but Odin, master of disguise, transformed himself in a snake, and went underground where the girl was with the three containers of mead.
When the lonely Gunlod saw Odin, once more in the shape of a tall, handsome man, she forgot all the promises she had made to her father and entertained Odin for three days and three nights. At the end, she even offered Odin a sip of the precious mead from each of the three containers, Bodn, Odrerir, and Son. To her dismay, Odin gulped down the entire contents of the vats, turned himself into an eagle, and flew off to Asgard. He was closely pursued by Suttung, who had tasted the mead and so knew some magic and could change his shape to that of a powerful eagle. But the gods had lit a great fire just outside the walls of Asgard. Suttung fell into this and was burned to death.
No one knows if Suttung was mad because the robbery, or because Odin just fucked his little girl.
Odin was the god of knowledge but paid dearly for his wisdom. In one poem (Havamal, or Words of the High One), Odin hanged himself from the branches of Yggdrasil, the sacred tree. He wounded himself with his spear and hung there for nine days and nine nights, without nourishment. At the end of that time, he came back to life and picked up the magic runes that had dropped from the tree. The runes brought secret knowledge to Odin. He passed on this wisdom to both gods and humans.
Odin had another palace, named Valhalla, where he entertained heroes who had fallen in battle and who would help him fight the Jotun at Ragnarok, the end of the world. But Odin and most of his warriors would be killed at Ragnarok—Odin, by the monster-wolf, Fenrir. Many wonderful tales are told of Odin, the greatest of the gods, gods that knew the day they will die…there is nothing braver than that. and with gods like that, who needs an old dude dressing in white.
My respects to Odin of Valhalla and Asgard...the pimp god.
German Verzegnassi.
