| “ | 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! | ” |
–Odin after pardoning and rewarding Magnus Chase and his friends in The Sword of Summer. | ||
Odin[1] (ON: Óðinn, from óðr 'mad, raving'), also referred to as the All-Father, is the third chief of the Æsir tribe of Norse gods and one of the most prominent figures in Norse 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 Wōden to the Anglo-Saxons and Wōtan to the southern Germanic peoples.
History
Birth
Odin was born to the Æsir god Bor and the female jötunn Bestla. Along with his brothers, Vil and Ve, he slew the primordial giant 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").
Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard
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.
X 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 they are stopped by Hearth.
They then appear on Lyngvi - the island where Fenris Wolf is bound - 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 previously hinted by Fenris Wolf as he smelled some "delicious" male hiding among Magnus' 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 the funding to start a fashion shop. He awards Hearthstone by giving him private lessons in rune magic on Asgard, Sam by giving her a job that consists of special tasks. And he awards Magnus by offering him a choice to either go to Folkvanger or be returned to Midgard and released from his Einherjar duties, but Magnus 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 everyone and asks Magnus if he would want a reward defeating Loki. It is revealed that Odin already had a supply of Kvasir's Mead, but Magnus thinks that the reason that he didn't just give it to them in the first plac, is because he's "a leader not a sharer".
9 from the Nine Worlds
Just Another Decapitated Head
Odin is alerted by Hunding of a food fight among the Valkyries. The bellhop leads him to the feast hall of the slain and, after being hit in the face with raw meat, orders them to stop and to clean up their mess. He asks Hunding to assemble the Thanes in an hour to deside on a new captain of the Valkyries. He then goes to his throne Hlidskjalf to inspect the Nine Worlds, but sees Heimdall taking a video of Thor's goats in pajamas and tells him to get back to lookout. He also sees Thor getting ready to go for a jog to get an an appearance on one of his favorite Midgard television shows. Just then the horn sounds and he goes to select a new captain.
When he arrives he reviews possible candidates selected by the Thanes. He finds Freydis, the daughter of Erik the Red to be too old for the position, Kara the girlfriend of Helgi, to be good natured but clumsy, and Boudica, a Celtic warrior queen who died in 61 C.E. to be too aggressive. The next candidate is Hladgunnr, the daughter of Hel, who he is shocked to see due to being expelled from the Valkryies. She then shapeshifts into Utgard-Loki. He throws Gungnir at him, only to miss (Gungnir never misses), then Utgard-Loki vanishes. Odin orders everyone but Hunding to leave the room. He tells the bellhop to do three things: track Thor through his fitness band, have the Einherjar perform an assault on Heindall to make sure he is not slacking off, and to tell the Thanes he will be away for a while. The All-father then shapeshifts into a woman to determine a worthy captain of the Valkyries from the inside.
My Eighth-Grade Physics Actually Comes in Handy
Odin calls Samirah al-Abbas to his office to inform her of the Three Roosters who will crow at Ragnarok. Although Gullinkambi and Nameless (Odin named it that since it has no name) are confirmed to be in their eggs, Fialar's egg in Jotunheim was clouded by the jotnar. Odin thought that there might be something going on, so he asks Sam to take a new picture of the egg.
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.
As the half-troll X, Odin was built like a bomb-containment chamber. His skin was the color of a shark’s belly, rippling with muscles and stippled with warts. There were so many welts on his face it was hard to tell which one was his nose.
During Magnus Chase's vision of the past in The Ship of the Dead, Odin was seen in one of his many disguises, Bolverk. He was wearing mud-stained blue robes, a big hat, and supporting himself on a wooden staff.
Personality
Odin is clever and sly, manipulating events and situations from behind the curtains, and almost no one really knows what he's doing or planning, an example of this was when he disguised himself as an half-troll named X, while everyone else believed that he had dissapeared from Valhalla. Odin is also a seeker of knowledge, since he sacrificed his left eye, and hanged himself for nine days in order to obtain knowledge over the universe and master reality itself through the runes.
Odin can be extremely ruthless when he's angered, since he killed both the sons of Loki, Vali and Narvi, and used their entrails to bind Loki to a slab while a serpent dripped caustic venom on his face. All of this only to punish Loki for killing Balder.
Despite being a brutal and mischievous god, as a god of war, Odin values courage and bravery, ordering his valkyries to only bring to Valhalla those warriors who died in battle sacrificing themselves for their causes. He also likes to reward those who have done services to him, since he even offered Magnus Chase, the chance to return to his old life as a living human, something that had not happened to any other einherjar.
Abilities
Being one of the first Æsir ever born, the All-Father of Asgard, and along with his brothers, the one responsible for slaying the giant Ymir, Odin is an immensely powerful god whose power and authority is respected throughout the 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, for which he sacrificed his left eye, 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: As the God of Magic, he has absolute control and divine authority over magic. 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 The Sword of Summer, he donned a disguise of a half-troll nicknamed X.
- Poetry: After he stole the Mead of Kvasir 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[2]).
- Odikinesis: As the God of War, he has control over the elements of war, including emotions like rage and anger.
- Telumkinesis: As the God of War, Odin has absolute cobtrol and divine authority control over weapons.
- Necromancy: As the God of Death, Odin has absolute control and divine authority over death and the dead. He is somewhat related to the heroic and mysterious side of death.
- Resurrection: He once offered to allow Magnus Chase to return to his old life, suggesting that he can bring his einherjar back to life.
- Divination: As the god of divination, Odin has the power to gain knowledge, awareness and wisdom through magic, and might be able to see into the future, past, and present.
Attributes and Attendants
Odin's main weapon, as well as his symbol of power, is a spear called Gungnir (ON: "Swaying One").
Odin riding Sleipnir
Odin has several loyal attendants, some of which include two ravens, Hugin and Munin ("thought" and "memory"), two wolves, Geri and Freki ("ravenous" and "greedy"), and his faithful stallion, the eight-legged son of Loki, Sleipnir ("glider").
Family
Immortal Children
|
Partner |
Children |
| Frigg | Baldr (deceased but to be reborn after Ragnarök) and Höðr |
| Jörð | Thor |
| Gríðr | Víðarr |
| The Nine Billow Maidens | Heimdall |
Demigod Children
|
Partner |
Children |
| Unknown | Unnamed son (reborn as an einherji) |
Trivia
- Odin’s name can be translated as either "master of ecstasy" or "master of fury, the furious."
- Odin gained his nickname, the All-Father, because of his status as the spiritual father to all the Æsir gods, as well as his heritage: his father was an Æsir, his mother was a jotunn, and Odin himself is also associated with the Vanir god, Óðr.
- His Greco-Roman equivalent (in terms of supreme authority) is Zeus/Jupiter. In terms of attributes, however, Odin encompasses multiple roles shared by different Greek deities (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 deities (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 apart of a trinity of gods responsible for creating mankind from boughs, the other two being Vili/Honir and Ve (or Lodour).
- During the events of Ragnarök, the vicious wolf Fenrir will swallow Odin whole.
- The English weekday Wednesday was named after him (from Old English Wōdnesdæġ, "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.
- Odin is the second god to have a point of view in a series, the first being Apollo.
References
- ↑ http://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/the-aesir-gods-and-goddesses/odin/
- ↑ For Magnus Chase: Hotel Valhalla Guide to the Norse Worlds, p. 22