Odin

"By Gungnir, the hallowed weapon of the All-Father, I declare that these seven heroes shall have full rights of passage through the Nine Worlds, including Valhalla. Wherever they go, they shall go in my name, serving the will of Asgard. Let no one interfere on pain of death!"

- The Sword of Summer

Odin (ON: "frenzy" or "ecstasy"), also referred to as the All-Father, is the third chief of the Aesir tribe of Norse gods and one of the most prominent figures in Germanic mythology. He is the god of wisdom, poetry, war, death, divination, and magic and the king of Asgard. He is the patron of rulers, wanderers, and outcasts. He was known as Woden to the Anglo-Saxons and Wotan to the southern Germanic peoples.

Birth
Odin was born to an Aesir god Bor and a female jotunn, Bestla. Along with his brothers, Vil and Ve, he slew the Father of the Giants, Ymir, and from his body created one of the Nine Worlds, the World of Humans: Midgard. Then, the brothers formed the first humans - Ask and Embla - from two tree trunks, and placed them in Midgard, surrounded by a fence to protect them from the inhabitants of Utgard ("Outlands").

The Sword of Summer
Odin first appeared disguised as a half-troll named X who died trying to stop a dog fighting ring. After Magnus Chase arrived at the Hotel Valhalla, he, Halfborn Gunderson, Thomas Jefferson Jr., and Mallory Keen invite Magnus to breakfast. They explain to the son of Frey how the worlds are connected and how they came to Valhalla. They then head to battle practice where he and others are crushed by a boulder. Early the next morning he and the others cover Magnus's escape from the hotel.

He and the others are recruited by Gunilla to take Magnus back to the hotel. They try to apprehend him when he, Samirah al-Abbas, Blitzen, and Hearthstone are about to cross into Yggdrasil but are stopped by Hearth.

They then appear on Lyngvi, but they disobey the Valkyrie captain and side with Magnus. Surt then appears and they fight. He takes out several fire giants before the island starts to disappear. They escape on a magic longship and arrive back at the Hotel. The eight are brought before the thanes and X reveals that he is Odin, although it was already hinted by Fenris Wolf since he smelled someone hiding among Chase's hallmates (hence the name of the chapter). Odin says that he was at a convention learning how to improve the hotel. He awards Blitzen by freeing him from Mimir's service and giving him a shop, Hearthstone by giving him private lessons on rune magic, Sam by giving her a position serving under him, and Magnus by offering him a choice to either go to Folkvanger or be returned to Midgard, who says that he is happy at Valhalla. He then grants all of them access to all of the Nine Worlds.

The Hammer of Thor
Magnus mentioned that Odin has not been seen since he rebound Fenris Wolf.

The Ship of the Dead
Odin, along with the other gods, appears at the end of the book. Odin congratulates and thanks Magnus and everyone else and asks Magnus if he would personally want a reward. It is revealed that Odin already had a supply of Kvasier's Mead, so the reason why he didn't just give Magnus the mead in the first place is unknown.

Appearance
Odin is described in The Sword of Summer as a barrel-chested man with massive arms. He has close-cropped gray hair, while his beard is cut square, to accentuate his hardened, weathered face. His empty left eye socket is covered by a black patch, while his right eye is dark blue.

At the end of The Sword of Summer, Odin wears a short-sleeve Hotel Valhalla polo shirt, along with a massive sword hanging at his side.

Abilities
Being one of the first Aesir ever born, the All-Father of Asgard, and along with his brothers, the responsible for slaying the giant Ymir, Odin is an immensely powerful god whose power and authority is respected in all nine worlds.


 * Divine Wisdom: As the God of Wisdom, Odin is by far the wisest god of all. After drinking from the Well of Mimir, and sacrificing his left eye in the process, Odin's perception transcended the regular, mortal dimension of understanding. After hanging from Yggdrasil for nine days, Odin gained insight into the fabric of reality itself, and that later helped him discover runes, and to utilize them as a form of magic.


 * Mystiokinesis: To understand magic and the runes, Odin hung himself by the neck from the branch of Yggdrasil. After nine days, he gained the knowledge that allowed him to master the reality-shaping force.


 * Shapeshifting: Odin has the power to change his form, although it seems to be somewhat inferior to that of Loki. His usual traveling disguise is an old mortal vagabond in a blue cloak. During the events of The Sword of Summer, he donned a disguise of a half-troll nicknamed X.


 * Poetry: After he stole the Mead of Poetry from the Jotnar, Odin also became the God of Poetry, and gained the ability to speak and write beautifully and persuasively. It is said that he occasionally distributes it to certain gods, humans, and other beings he deems worthy (such as William Shakespeare, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Shel Silverstein ).
 * Odikinesis: As the Norse god of war, he has control over the elements of war (rage and anger).

Attributes and Attendants
Odin's main weapon, as well as his symbol of power, is a spear called Gungnir (ON: "Swaying One").

Odin has several loyal attendants, some of which include two ravens, Huginn ("Thought") and Muninn ("Memory"), two wolves, Geri ("Ravenous") and Freki ("Greedy"), and his faithful stallion, the eight-legged son of Loki, Sleipnir ("Glider")

Trivia

 * Odin's name can be translated as "Rage", or "Insanity".
 * Odin gained his nickname, The All-Father, because of his status as the spiritual father to all the Aesir gods, as well as his heritage: his father was an Aesir, his mother was a Jotunn, and Odin himself is also associated with the Vanir god, Odur.
 * His Greco-Roman equivalent (in terms of supreme authority) is Zeus/Jupiter. In terms of attributes, however, Odin encompasses multiple roles shared by different Olympians (e.g. Athena/Minerva, Apollo, Ares/Mars, Hecate/Trivia, Dionysus/Bacchus, Thanatos/Letus and Orcus).
 * A Roman historian and senator, Tacitus, also associated Wodenaz (Odin's older Proto-Germanic incarnation) with Mercury due to his role as a psychopomp.
 * His Egyptian equivalent (in terms of supreme authority) is Ra. In term of attributes, however, Odin encompasses multiple roles shared by different Egyptian Gods (e.g. Thoth, Horus, Anubis, and Isis).
 * In the Elder Futhark rune alphabet, Odin is associated with the Ansuz rune.
 * Along with Freya, he's one of the two greatest practitioners of magic amongst the Norse gods.
 * He is one of trinity gods creating mankind from boughs, the other two are Vili/Honir and Ve (or Lodour).
 * During the events of Ragnarök, Odin is destined to be killed by the vicious monster Fenris Wolf.
 * Wednesday was named after him (originally, Wodensdag, Woden's Day).
 * He stood in a blizzard for six days to learn how to use a smartphone.
 * Several characters from J.R.R Tolkien's fiction were inspired by the god Odin. The appearance of the wizard Gandalf was particularly inspired by Odin's "wanderer" guise, whereas other aspects of the god directly influenced other characters such as Saruman, Sauron, Morgoth, and Manwë.
 * Music inspired by or featuring the god includes the ballets Odins Schwert (1818) and Orfa (1852) by J. H. Stunz and the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (1848–1874) by Richard Wagner.
 * Odin, a Swedish satellite used for aeronomical observations, is named after him.
 * Many locations in Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and England are named after Odin.
 * The country Sweden derived its name from Svidur, one of the many names of Odin.
 * Santa Claus is actually a blending of Odin and the Christian legend of Saint Nicholas. In the early days, children in Northern Europe would leave their shoes, filled with carrots or other edibles, near the chimney for Odin's horse Sleipnir to eat while resting from hunting. In exchange, Odin would leave gifts or candy.
 * Human sacrifices were made in honor of Odin, with many accounts of even kings being sacrificed.
 * Odinism is an off-set of the white supremacist movement who believe that Caucasians were made in the image of the old gods and that all other humans are beneath them.
 * He endured weeks of motivational speaking to find how to have a successful afterlife.
 * He resemble Raziel in The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare on some parts:
 * They both are depicted as encyclopedic and all-knowing.
 * Odin founded Hotel Valhalla for defending Midgard from Jotunn; Raziel created Shadowhunters to ward off demons of other dimensions.
 * Both of them have gotten into the undrinkable waters: Well of Mimir and Lake Lyn.
 * In Tarot, Odin could be the Hanged Man for his ordeal to learn magic and runes while Raziel's Mortal Cup may be one of the sources of Holy Grail.
 * They have a good command of runes, which share the same name in different pantheons.