Odin’s quest for wisdom is never-ending, and he is willing to pay any price, it seems, for the understanding of life’s mysteries that he craves more than anything else. On one occasion, he hanged himself, wounded himself with his spear, and fasted from food and drink for nine days and nights in order to discover the runes.
On another occasion, he ventured to Mimir’s Well – which is surely none other than the Well of Urd – amongst the roots of the world-tree Yggdrasil. There dwelt Mimir, a shadowy being whose knowledge of all things was practically unparalleled among the inhabitants of the cosmos. He achieved this status largely by taking his water from the well, whose waters impart this cosmic knowledge.
When Odin arrived, he asked Mimir for a drink from the water. The well’s guardian, knowing the value of such a draught, refused unless the seeker offered an eye in return. Odin – whether straightaway or after anguished deliberation, we can only wonder – gouged out one of his eyes and dropped it into the well. Having made the necessary sacrifice, Mimir dipped his horn into the well and offered the now-one-eyed god a drink.
fur for scientology more like you owe me an apology
Daniel Diaz
Owe you an apology more like read your eulogy
Thomas Bennett
eulogy more like that's fine as long as it pertains to orthodoxy
Samuel Torres
Well, OP? You don't just open up with a paragraph like that and leave us hanging! Tell us more about the journey to the Well of Urd.
Carson Lewis
I like the sound of norse names. Also it's interesting to see how much a person can learn from mythology, passed down by people who didn't have access to as much information as us. The old stories somehow have these powerful messages embedded in them while still being entertaining, and the sublety of much of it always catches me off guard. Not just in norse mythology, but ancient mythology as well.
Liam Foster
Just as interesting are the ancient stories whose recordings are scattered across various places around the world, waiting someone to discover and complete them again. If I recall, several passages of the Epic of Gilgamesh are still missing and some were only discovered as late as 40 years ago.
Blake Smith
...
Andrew Baker
What are some good epics to read when you've got nothing better to do?
Charles Campbell
What texts does Lith schooling make you read? The Epic of Gilgamesh is an obvious choice, as is the Odyssey, and Beowulf. A less talked about but nevertheless very interesting tale in the mythology of Finland, particularly the story of Väinämöinen which chronological the transition from paganism to Christianity.
Nathaniel Morris
Bhagavad Gita is one of the must reads. I would go to Jow Forums and look for the Hinduism general and ask them what is a good translation to read.
John Hall
Are there any examples of "more contemporary" historical works with a similar vibe to the epics of old? Do you think there was any definitive time where these types of tales stopped generating and their only source was going farther back into history?
Brody Bailey
Tell me more stories kraut poster.
Isaac Reyes
Kind of rude of Odin
Cooper Morales
Odin drank out of the well of Urd to gather all the wisdom he could, but he was still left not knowing life or the purpose of it regardless how much wisdom he gathered. Odin and Mimir became friends after this encounter and Mimir became advisor from now on.
Hunter Perez
He did give a whole Eye in order to become wiser. Perhaps the wisdom he learned was that his blind pursuit of wisdom had cost him an eye.
Anthony Long
Did they ever fuck?
Christopher Long
No, but at some point he was just a decapatated head and Odin revived him with the powers he learned from the gods of Vanaheim
>Aegir (pronounced “EYE-geer;” Old Norse Ægir) and Ran (pronounced “RAN;” Old Norse Rán) are two of the most often-mentioned giants in Norse mythology. Unfortunately, as fragmentary as the sources for our knowledge of Norse mythology are, that doesn’t come out to a particularly large number of mentions. Still, some of the most general characteristics attributed to Aegir and Ran by the pre-Christian Norse can be discerned.
Alexander Williams
I always thought Ran was a nip name. Interesting to know she was named after Norse mythology.
Jason Mitchell
Tell me about the feet OP. How does one foot mate with the other?
Brayden Wood
You mean the ones that led to the frost giants?
Austin Sullivan
THREW
Sebastian Torres
HIS
Leo Reed
BANANA
Joseph Cox
AT
Blake Robinson
THE
Thomas Gutierrez
WELL
Jacob Murphy
OF
Adrian Roberts
MIRMIR
Justin Russell
AND
Julian Green
GAINED
Hunter Davis
WISDOM
Brayden Harris
Tell me about Odin. How did he become top-god?
Landon Hall
When did Odin tearing his eye out occur over the chronology of the sagas? Since the majority of depictions I've seen of him has him with both eyes while still looking old enough to be Gandalf.
Jaxon Watson
Okay.
Jack Scott
Very early basically by being the most competent, wise god how leaders normally come up
Parker Myers
He sacrificed himself to himself
Hunter James
No, he sacrificed himself for knowledge. The same knowledge that burns in the minds of all existentialists, or whatever they call themseles these days..
Is there any specific point where Odin became a King, or was that something he gradually assumed from being the wisest of the gods?
Ryder Morgan
>Odin’s Discovery of the Runes
>At the center of the Norse cosmos stands the great tree Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil’s upper branches cradle Asgard, the home and fortress of the Aesir gods and goddesses, of whom Odin is the chief.
>Yggdrasil grows out of the Well of Urd, a pool whose fathomless depths hold many of the most powerful forces and beings in the cosmos. Among these beings are the Norns, three sagacious maidens who exert more influence over the course of destiny than any other beings in the cosmos. One of the foremost techniques they use to shape destiny is carving runes into Yggdrasil’s trunk. The symbols then carry these intentions throughout the tree, affecting everything in the Nine Worlds.
>Odin watched the Norns from his seat in Asgard and envied their powers and their wisdom. And he bent his will toward the task of coming to know the runes.
>Since the runes’ native home is in the Well of Urd with the Norns, and since the runes do not reveal themselves to any but those who prove themselves worthy of such fearful insights and abilities, Odin hung himself from a branch of Yggdrasil, pierced himself with his spear, and peered downward into the shadowy waters below. He forbade any of the other gods to grant him the slightest aid, not even a sip of water. And he stared downward, and stared downward, and called to the runes.
>He survived in this state, teetering on the precipice that separates the living from the dead, for no less than nine days and nights. At the end of the ninth night, he at last perceived shapes in the depths: the runes! They had accepted his sacrifice and shown themselves to him, revealing to him not only their forms, but also the secrets that lie within them. Having fixed this knowledge in his formidable memory, Odin ended his ordeal with a scream of exultation.
>Having been initiated into the mysteries of the runes, Odin recounted:
>Then I was fertilized and became wise; >I truly grew and thrived. >From a word to a word I was led to a word, >From a work to a work I was led to a work.
>Equipped with the knowledge of how to wield the runes, he became one of the mightiest and most accomplished beings in the cosmos. He learned chants that enabled him to heal emotional and bodily wounds, to bind his enemies and render their weapons worthless, to free himself from constraints, to put out fires, to expose and banish practitioners of malevolent magic, to protect his friends in battle, to wake the dead, to win and keep a lover, and to perform many other feats like these.
>“Sacrificing Myself to Myself”
Christian Wilson
What?
Connor Carter
The frost giants were born of two feet mating with each other. No joke.
Xavier Garcia
Interesting.
Jason Rodriguez
>Norse myth traces the origin of the jötnar to the proto-being Ymir, a result of growth of asexual reproduction from the entity's body So, did they just come off like dandruff or something?
Asher Fisher
I'm not finding any specifics on how feet mate in order to produce offspring. It's something best left to the imagination of foot fetishists.
Carter Jackson
>In the beginning of time, there was nothing: neither sand, nor sea, nor cool waves. Neither the heaven nor earth existed. Instead, long before the earth was made, Niflheim was made, and in it a spring gave rise to twelve rivers. To the south was Muspell, a region of heat and brightness guarded by Surt, a giant who carried a flaming sword. To the north was frigid Ginnungagap, where the rivers froze and all was ice. Where the sparks and warm winds of Muspell reached the south side of frigid Ginnungagap, the ice thawed and dripped, and from the drips thickened and formed the shape of a man. His name was Ymir, the first of and ancestor of the frost-giants.
>As the ice dripped more, it formed a cow, and from her teats flowed four rivers of milk that fed Ymir. The cow fed on the salt of the rime ice, and as she licked a man's head began to emerge. By the end of the third day of her licking, the whole man had emerged, and his name was Buri. He had a son named Bor, who married Bestla, a daughter of one of the giants. Bor and Bestla had three sons, one of whom was Odin, the most powerful of the gods.
>Ymir was a frost-giant, but not a god, and eventually he turned to evil. After a struggle between the giant and the young gods, Bor's three sons killed Ymir. So much blood flowed from his wounds that all the frost-giants were drowned but one, who survived only by builiding an ark for himself and his familly. Bor's sons dragged Ymir's immense body to the center of Ginnungagap, and from him they made the earth. Ymir's blood became the sea, his bones became the rocks and crags, and his hair became the trees. Bor's sons took Ymir's skull and with it made the sky. In it they fixed sparks and molten slag from Muspell to make the stars, and other sparks they set to move in paths just below the sky. They threw Ymir's brains into the sky and made the clouds. The earth is a disk, and they set up Ymir's eyelashes to keep the giants at the edges of that disk.
Mason Ramirez
gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSOdin&Ymir.html >On the sea shore, Bor's sons found two logs and made people out of them. One son gave them breath and life, the second son gave them consciousness and movement, and the third gave them faces, speech, hearing, and sight. From this man and woman came all humans thereafter, just as all the gods were descended from the sons of Bor.
>Odin and his brothers had set up the sky and stars, but otherwise they left the heavens unlit. Long afterwards, one of the descendants of those first two people that the brothers created had two children. Those two children were so beautiful that their father named the son Moon and the daughter Sol. The gods were jealous already and, when they heard of the father's arrogance, they pulled the brother and sister up to the sky and set them to work. Sol drives the chariot that carries the sun across the skies, and she drives so fast across the skies of the northland because she is chased by a giant wolf each day. Moon likewise takes a course across the sky each night, but not so swiftly because he is not so harried.
>The gods did leave one pathway from earth to heaven. That is the bridge that appears in the sky as a rainbow, and its perfect arc and brilliant colors are a sign of its origin with the gods. It nonetheless will not last for ever, because it will break when the men of Muspell try to cross it into heaven.
What's the most obscure character of Norse mythology?
Justin Rodriguez
Probably Ran.
Brody Sullivan
In moderation, of course.
Logan Taylor
the cow that created the gods and fed the future-world-foundation
Asher Wright
Wait what
Isaiah Jenkins
>Then said Gangleri: "Where dwelt Ymir, or wherein did he find sustenance?" >Hárr answered: "Straightway after the rime dripped, there sprang from it the cow called Auðumla; four streams of milk ran from her udders, and she nourished Ymir." >Then asked Gangleri: "Wherewithal was the cow nourished?" >And Hárr made answer: "She licked the ice-blocks, which were salty; and the first day that she licked the blocks, there came forth from the blocks in the evening a man's hair; the second day, a man's head; the third day the whole man was there. He is named Búri."
>The brave and famous Hymir caught > two whales on his hook at once, > and back in the stern the kinsman of Odin, >Thor, cunningly laid out his line. >The protector of humans, the slayer of the serpent, >baited his hook with the ox’s head. >He whom the gods hate, the Circumscriber >beneath all lands, gaped at the bait. >Then very bravely Thor, the courageous one, >pulled the gleaming serpent up on board. >With his hammer he struck the head >violently, form above, of the wolf’s hideous brother. >The sea-wolf shrieked and the underwater rocks re-echoed, >all the ancient earth was collapsing >then that fish sank into the sea. - (The Poetic Edda. Hymir’s Poem (Hymiskvida), 21-24)
Joshua Diaz
Who is The Circumscriber?
Hudson Edwards
A thread on Norse mythology in Jow Forums?
Joshua Wright
THE BINDING OF FENRIR
>The Norse pseudo-god Loki, who is by turns the friend and the enemy of the other gods, had three fearfully hideous and strong children with the giantess Angrboda (“She Who Bodes Anguish”). The first was the serpent Jormungand, and the second was the death-goddess Hel. The third was the wolf Fenrir.
>The gods had terrible forebodings concerning the destiny of these three beings. And they were absolutely correct. Jormungand would later kill the god Thor during Ragnarok, the end of the great mythical cycle, an event which would be largely brought about by Hel’s refusal to release the radiant god Baldur from the underworld. During these cataclysmic events, Fenrir would devour Odin, the chief of the gods.
>In order to keep these monsters at bay, they threw Jomungand into the ocean, where he encircled Midgard, the world of humankind. Hel they relegated to the underworld. Fenrir, however, inspired too much fear in them for them to let him out from under their watchful eyes, so they reared the pup themselves in their stronghold, Asgard. Only Tyr, the indefatigable upholder of law and honor, dared to approach Fenrir to feed him.
>Fenrir grew at an alarming rate, however, and soon the gods decided that his stay in Asgard had to be temporary. Knowing well how much devastation he would cause if he were allowed to roam free, the gods attempted to bind him with various chains. They were able to gain the wolf’s consent by telling him that these fetters were tests of his strength, and clapping and cheering when, with each new chain they presented him, he broke free.
Gavin Gonzalez
>At last, the gods sent a messenger down to Svartalfheim, the realm of the dwarves. The dwarves, being the most skilled craftspeople in the cosmos, were able to forge a chain whose strength couldn’t be equaled; it was wrought from the sound of a cat’s footsteps, the beard of a woman, the roots of mountains, the breath of a fish, and the spittle of a bird – in other words, things which don’t exist, and against which it’s therefore futile to struggle. Gleipnir (“Open”) was its name.
>When the gods presented Fenrir with the curiously light and supple Gleipnir, the wolf suspected trickery and refused to be bound with it unless one of the gods would lay his or her hand in his jaws as a pledge of good faith. None of the gods agreed, knowing that this would mean the loss of a hand and the breaking of an oath. At last, the brave Tyr, for the good of all life, volunteered to fulfill the wolf’s demand. And, sure enough, when Fenrir discovered that he was unable to escape from Gleipnir, he chomped off and swallowed Tyr’s hand.
>The fettered beast was then transported to some suitably lonely and desolate place. The chain was tied to a boulder and a sword was placed in the wolf’s jaws to hold them open. As he howled wildly and ceaselessly, a foamy river called “Expectation” (Old Norse Ván) flowed from his drooling mouth. And there, in that sordid state, he remained – until Ragnarok.
