Who Was Odin? - A Guide to the Allfather of the Viking Gods
- Imagining History
- Mar 31
- 2 min read
All-father of the Viking gods, master of ravens and seeker of infinite wisdom - just who was the Norse God Odin?
Odin the All-Father
Odin is the all-father of the Viking gods. Which is a fancy way of saying he's the leader, the boss and the head honcho; all rolled into one. Odin, being quite a contradictory god, manages to be both a god of poetry and a god of war.
Odin's Day
Odin loves a nickname and is often also called Wodan, Woden or even Wotan. Being a god, he also likes to have lots of stuff named after him, including a day of the week (I mean, who wouldn't? I'd much prefer it if Monday were called Bob's-Day instead). Odin claimed the third day of the week as his day, and so it became known as "Woden's Day" or Wednesday as we call it today.
Odin in Valhalla
Odin lives in a huge fancy hall called Valhalla. Valhalla is one of the realms of Asgard where the Viking gods live. It's also the heavenly place that brave Viking warriors go to after they're killed on the battlefield. Here they eat, drink and fight for sport for an eternity until Ragnarok when Odin will need them to battle a bunch of giants.
Odin and Wisdom
He's a seeker of information and of wisdom. He's prepared to sacrifice everything, even honour and justice, in pursuit of this knowledge. For example:
Odin stole the mead of poetry from the giants. Because of this, he speaks only in poetic verse. If a mortal is skilled at poetry, it was said that Odin had imbued them with that power.
Odin hung himself from a tree. That's right, hung himself. He did this for nine days and nights, with no food or drink. Oh, and if that wasn't unpleasant enough, he also stabbed himself with his own spear. At the end of this ordeal Odin discovered runes - the ancient art of Viking writing that can still be seen in caves today. Was it worth it? We hope so!
Odin also removed his own eye - ouch! - to pop in the Well of Urd to gain infinite wisdom.
Odin the Spy
Odin loves absorbing information into his brain box so much that he uses ravens as his very own secret mail service. The ravens fly around the world tree and act as Odin's spies, sneaking back to tell their master about all the exciting comings and goings happening in the mortal realm. So, a bit like an ancient version of social media. Just imagine if Odin knew about the internet. This guy loves knowledge so much you'd never get him off your laptop!
Find out more about the Viking gods in our A-Z list right here.
Or perhaps you're looking for something more out of the ordinary? Then you'll want to check out our list of Viking gods you've (probably) never heard of, right here.