Odin was also a shapeshifter, meaning that he could change shape. The magical knowledge he gained made him able to cure the sick, calm storms, turn weapons against his attackers, make women fall in love and render dangerous troll women harmless – often just with a look. He then hanged himself in Yggdrasil, the tree of life, for nine days and nine nights in order to gain knowledge of other worlds and be able to understand the runes.ĭuring his sacrificial actions, he saw visions and received secret wisdom. He sacrificed his eye in Mimir’s well and he threw himself on his spear Gungnir in a kind of symbolic, ritual suicide. This was a desire that drove him to sacrifice himself.
But he wanted to know everything and gain wisdom and knowledge of things hidden from him. Sitting on his throne, Hlidskjalf, with Frigg in the hall of Valhalla, Odin looked out across the whole world. Odin has a gold ring called Draupnir that is important to the gods. He learned the magical art of prophecy from Freyja. Sleipnir the eight-legged horse can run through all the worlds. His two ravens Hugin and Munin (thought and memory) fly around the world and report back what they see. He has two sons, Balder by his first wife Frigg and Thor by Jord. He is the one-eyed All-Father, who sacrificed his eye in order to see everything that happens in the world. Half of the warriors who die in battle are taken to his hall of Valhalla. Odin has many names and is the god of both war and death.
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