Roman era to Migration Period . The figure to the left was cast with both eyes, but afterwards the right eye was removed. The earliest records of the Germanic peoples were recorded by the Romans, and in these works Odin is frequently referred to—via a process known as (where characteristics perceived to be similar by Romans result in identification of a non-Roman god as a Roman deity)—as the Roman god
Mercury. The first clear example of this occurs in the Roman historian
Tacitus's late 1st-century work , where, writing about the religion of the (a confederation of
Germanic peoples), he comments that "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship. They regard it as a religious duty to offer to him, on fixed days, human as well as other sacrificial victims. Hercules and Mars they appease by animal offerings of the permitted kind" and adds that a portion of the also venerate "Isis". In this instance, Tacitus refers to the god Odin as "Mercury", Thor as "
Hercules", and as "
Mars". The
"Isis" of the Suebi has been debated and may represent "
Freyja".
Anthony Birley noted that Odin's apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury's classical role of being messenger of the gods, but appears to be due to Mercury's role of
psychopomp. Also, Tacitus's "among the gods Mercury is the one they principally worship" is an exact quote from
Julius Caesar's (1st century BCE) in which Caesar is referring to the
Gauls and not the Germanic peoples. Regarding the Germanic peoples, Caesar states: "[T]hey consider the gods only the ones that they can see, the Sun, Fire and the Moon", which scholars reject as clearly mistaken, regardless of what may have led to the statement. Although the English kingdoms were nominally
converted to Christianity by the end of the 7th century, Woden is
frequently listed as a founding figure among the Old English royalty. Odin is also either directly or indirectly mentioned a few times in the surviving Old English poetic corpus, including the
Nine Herbs Charm and likely also the
Old English rune poem. Odin may also be referenced in the riddle
Solomon and Saturn. In the
Nine Herbs Charm, Woden is said to have slain a (serpent,
Germanic dragon) by way of nine "glory twigs". Preserved from an 11th-century manuscript, the poem is, according to Bill Griffiths, "one of the most enigmatic of Old English texts". The section that mentions Woden is as follows: The emendation of to 'man' has been proposed. The next
stanza comments on the creation of the herbs
chervil and
fennel while hanging in heaven by the 'wise lord' () and before sending them down among mankind. Regarding this, Griffith comments that "In a Christian context 'hanging in heaven' would refer to
the crucifixion; but (remembering that Woden was mentioned a few lines previously) there is also a parallel, perhaps a better one, with Odin, as his crucifixion was associated with learning." The Old English
rune poem recounts the Old English runic alphabet, the
futhorc. The stanza for the rune reads as follows: The first word of this stanza, (Latin 'mouth') is a
homophone for Old English , a particularly heathen word for 'god'. Due to this and the content of the stanzas, several scholars have posited that this poem is censored, having originally referred to Odin.
Kathleen Herbert comments that " was cognate with in Norse, where it meant one of the , the chief family of gods. In Old English, it could be used as an element in first names: Osric, Oswald, Osmund, etc. but it was not used as a word to refer to the God of Christians. Woden was equated with Mercury, the god of eloquence (among other things). The tales about the Norse god Odin tell how he gave one of his eyes in return for wisdom; he also won the mead of poetic inspiration. Luckily for Christian rune-masters, the Latin word could be substituted without ruining the sense, to keep the outward form of the rune name without obviously referring to Woden." In the prose narrative of
Solomon and Saturn, "Mercurius the Giant" () is referred to as an inventor of letters. This may also be a reference to Odin, who is in Norse mythology the founder of the runic alphabets, and the gloss a continuation of the practice of equating Odin with Mercury found as early as Tacitus. One of the
Solomon and Saturn poems is additionally in the style of later Old Norse material featuring Odin, such as the Old Norse poem , featuring Odin and the engaging in a deadly game of wits. , 1905. The 7th-century , and
Paul the Deacon's 8th-century derived from it, recount a founding myth of the Langobards (
Lombards), a Germanic people who ruled a region of the
Italian Peninsula. According to this legend, a "small people" known as the were ruled by a woman named
Gambara who had two sons,
Ybor and Aio. The
Vandals, ruled by
Ambri and Assi, came to the Winnili with their army and demanded that they pay them tribute or prepare for war. Ybor, Aio, and their mother Gambara rejected their demands for tribute. Ambri and Assi then asked the god Godan for victory over the Winnili, to which Godan responded (in the longer version in the ): "Whom I shall first see when at sunrise, to them will I give the victory." Meanwhile, Ybor and Aio called upon Frea, Godan's wife. Frea counselled them that "at sunrise the Winnil[i] should come, and that their women, with their hair let down around the face in the likeness of a beard should also come with their husbands". At sunrise, Frea turned Godan's bed around to face east and woke him. Godan saw the Winnili and their whiskered women and asked, "who are those Long-beards?" Frea responded to Godan, "As you have given them a name, give them also the victory". Godan did so, "so that they should defend themselves according to his counsel and obtain the victory". Thenceforth the Winnili were known as the
Langobards ('long-beards'). Writing in the mid-7th century,
Jonas of Bobbio wrote that earlier that century the Irish missionary
Columbanus disrupted an offering of beer to Odin (
vodano) "(whom others called Mercury)" in
Swabia. A few centuries later, 9th-century document from what is now
Mainz, Germany, known as the
Old Saxon Baptismal Vow records the names of three Old Saxon gods, ('Woden'), , and ('Thor'), whom pagan converts were to renounce as
demons. A 10th-century manuscript found in
Merseburg, Germany, features a heathen invocation known as the
Second Merseburg Incantation, which calls upon Odin and other gods and goddesses from the continental Germanic pantheon to assist in healing a horse:
In Old English Pedigrees showing a man embracing two ravens
Old English royal genealogies record Woden as an ancestor of the kings of
Lindsey,
Mercia,
Deira and
Bernicia (which eventually became
Northumbria,
Wessex, and
East Anglia), accounting for in 7 of the 8 genealogies, and all but Essex, who instead traced their ancestry to
Saxnot. Some of these genealogies expand on ancestry beyond Woden, giving his father as Frealaf beginning in the 8th century. who is said to be the son of a god other than Yahweh. This lines up with the Lindsey genealogy which says that Frealaf was the son of Friothulf, son of Finn, son of Godulf, son of Geat,
Viking Age to post-Viking Age : from left to right,
Frigg, Odin, and Thor In the 11th century, chronicler
Adam of Bremen recorded in a
scholion of his that a statue of Thor, whom Adam describes as "mightiest", sat enthroned in the
Temple at Uppsala (located in Gamla Uppsala, Sweden) flanked by Wodan (Odin) and "
Fricco". Regarding Odin, Adam defines him as "frenzy" () and says that he "rules war and gives people strength against the enemy" and that the people of the temple depict him as wearing armour, "as our people depict Mars". According to Adam, the people of Uppsala had appointed priests (
gothi) to each of the gods, who were to offer up sacrifices (
blót), and in times of war sacrifices were made to images of Odin. In the 12th century, centuries after Norway was "officially" Christianised, Odin was still being invoked by the population, as evidenced by a stick bearing a runic message found among the
Bryggen inscriptions in Bergen, Norway. On the stick, both Thor and Odin are called upon for help; Thor is asked to "receive" the reader, and Odin to "own" them.
Poetic Edda , by Robert Engels, 1919. Odin is mentioned or appears in most poems of the
Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from traditional source material reaching back to the pagan period. The poem features Odin in a dialogue with an undead
völva, who gives him wisdom from ages past and foretells the onset of , the destruction and rebirth of the world. Among the information the recounts is the story of the first human beings (
Ask and Embla), found and given life by a trio of gods; Odin, , and : In stanza 17 of the
Poetic Edda poem , the reciting the poem states that , and Odin once found Ask and Embla on land. The says that the two were capable of very little, lacking in and says that they were given three gifts by the three gods: The meaning of these gifts has been a matter of scholarly disagreement and translations therefore vary. Later in the poem, the recounts the events of the
War, the war between and the , two groups of gods. During this, the first war of the world, Odin flung his spear into the opposing forces of the . The tells Odin that she knows where he has hidden his eye; in the spring , and from it " drinks mead every morning". After Odin gives her necklaces, she continues to recount more information, including a list of
valkyries, referred to as 'the ladies of War Lord'; in other words, the ladies of Odin. In foretelling the events of , the predicts the death of Odin; Odin will fight the monstrous wolf during the great battle at . Odin will be consumed by the wolf, yet Odin's son will avenge him by stabbing the wolf in the heart. After the world is burned and renewed, the surviving and returning gods will meet and recall Odin's deeds and "ancient runes". The poem (Old Norse 'Sayings of the High One') consists entirely of wisdom verse attributed to Odin. This advice ranges from the practical ("A man shouldn't hold onto the cup but drink in moderation, it's necessary to speak or be silent; no man will blame you for impoliteness if you go early to bed"), to the mythological (such as Odin's recounting of his retrieval of , the vessel containing the
mead of poetry), and to the mystical (the final section of the poem consists of Odin's recollection of eighteen charms). Among the various scenes that Odin recounts is his self-sacrifice: While the name of the tree is not provided in the poem and other trees exist in Norse mythology, the tree is near universally accepted as the cosmic tree , and if the tree is , then the name (Old Norse 'Ygg's steed') directly relates to this story. Odin is associated with hanging and
gallows;
John Lindow comments that "the hanged 'ride' the gallows". . In the prose introduction to the poem , the hero
Sigurd rides up to and heads south towards "the land of the
Franks". On the mountain sees a great light, "as if fire were burning, which blazed up to the sky". approaches it, and there he sees a (a
tactical formation of
shield wall) with a banner flying overhead. enters the , and sees a warrior lying there—asleep and fully armed. removes the helmet of the warrior, and sees the face of a woman. The woman's
corslet is so tight that it seems to have grown into the woman's body. uses his sword
Gram to cut the corslet, starting from the neck of the corslet downwards, he continues cutting down her sleeves, and takes the corslet off her. The woman wakes, sits up, looks at , and the two converse in two stanzas of verse. In the second stanza, the woman explains that Odin placed a sleeping spell on her which she could not break, and due to that spell she has been asleep a long time. asks for her name, and the woman gives a
horn of
mead to help him retain her words in his memory. The woman recites a heathen prayer in two stanzas. A prose narrative explains that the woman is named and that she is a valkyrie. A narrative relates that explains to that there were two kings fighting one another. Odin had promised one of these——victory in battle, yet she had "brought down" in battle. Odin pricked her with a sleeping-thorn in consequence, told her that she would never again "fight victoriously in battle", and condemned her to marriage. In response, told Odin she had sworn a great oath that she would never wed a man who knew fear. asks to share with him her wisdom of all worlds. The poem continues in verse, where provides with knowledge in inscribing
runes, mystic wisdom, and
prophecy.
Prose Edda Odin is mentioned throughout the books of the
Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century and drawing from earlier traditional material. The god is introduced at length in chapter nine of the
Prose Edda book
Gylfaginning, which explains that he is described as ruling over
Asgard, the domain of the gods, on his throne, that he is the 'father of all', and that from him all the gods, all of humankind (by way of
Ask and Embla), and everything else he has made or produced. According to
Gylfaginning, in Asgard: :There the gods and their descendants lived and there took place as a result many developments both on earth and aloft. In the city there is a seat called
Hlidskialf, and when Odin sat in that throne he saw over
all worlds and every man's activity and understood everything he saw. His wife was called
Frigg Fiorgvin's daughter, and from them is descended the family line that we call the Æsir race, who have resided in Old Asgard and the realms that belong to it, and that whole line of descent is of divine origin. And this is why he can be called All-father, that he is father of all gods and of men and of everything that has been brought into being by him and his power.
The earth was his daughter and his wife. Out of her he begot the first of his ons, that is
Asa-Thor. In the
Prose Edda book (chapter 38), the enthroned figure of
High (Harr), tells (king in disguise) that two ravens named
Huginn and Muninn sit on Odin's shoulders. The ravens tell Odin everything they see and hear. Odin sends Huginn and Muninn out at dawn, and the birds fly all over the world before returning at dinner-time. As a result, Odin is kept informed of many events. High adds that it is from this association that Odin is referred to as "raven-god". The above-mentioned stanza from is then quoted. In the same chapter, the enthroned figure of High explains that Odin gives all of the food on his table to his wolves
Geri and Freki and that Odin requires no food, for wine is to him both meat and drink. Thorpe relates that "a story is also current of a golden ship, which is said to be sunk in , near the , in which, according to tradition, Odin fetched the slain from the
battle of to ", and that , according to legend, derives its name from "one , who stole Odin's runic staves" () and then bound Odin's dogs, bull, and a
mermaid who came to help Odin. Thorpe notes that numerous other traditions existed in Sweden at the time of his writing. Thorpe records (1851) that in Sweden, "when a noise, like that of carriages and horses, is heard by night, the people say: 'Odin is passing by. Odin and the gods and help a farmer and a boy escape the wrath of a bet-winning in or , a Faroese ballad dating to the
Late Middle Ages. ==Archaeological record==