Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Odin, his tree and his....wives??

Odin's main job is to be ruler of the gods and god of war. He has a special spear in which he determines the victors on the battlefield by having the spear point to the side that will win. He rules over the other gods and has them meet with him at the World Tree, also called Yggdrasil. It is here the gods meet and discuss important upcoming events and take down gods not acting right. The World Tree is huge and the center of the universe. It's leaves and branches grow up into the cosmos, while it's roots dig down deep into Hel. It is here that Odin hung himself for nine days, pierced his side with a sword and achieved some sort of vision quest not unlike those sought in other religions. He is said to obtained all knowledge during his time on the World Tree.

Odin is listed as the god of war, poetry, wisdom, knowledge, hosts, dead, and whatever else you want to include in there. Odin is the ruler of all the gods so I guess he can be all of these things if he wants to. The problem is not what he is god of, the problem is who is he married to? That's the trouble with not writing stuff down, your facts get twisted as stories are passed from word of mouth. Either that or it is normal for males during this time period to be married to whoever they want.

He is associated with Frigg (goddess of love) and Jord or Earth (mother to Thor). He is even said to get freaky with Jarnsaxa, a giantess. Giants are enemies of the Aesir, or the main group of gods. There are even stories of him disguising himself and seducing princesses and common human women. This makes it very difficult to determine who belongs to who. It's like watching housewives of Norse country...

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