By Jackson Crawford, University of Colorado, Boulder
Odin, in the Norse mythology, is a fearsome, and feared, author of calamity. A lord of war and death. How does the naming of Wednesday for Odin, as the equivalent of Roman Mercury, in a subtle way, point toward his connection with the dead? Read on more to find out.
Wednesdaeg
In Old Norse, the name is Odin. But, in Old English, it turns to Woden or Weden. It is this last variant that is the source of Old English Wednesdaeg, i.e. ‘Woden’s Day’, our modern English Wednesday.
However, when it comes to Mercury, one might wonder why Odin would be associated with it in the first place. The obscure Tyr may have had some functions related to war like Mars. Thor’s name, that means ‘thunder’, is probably what identifies him with Jove to get Thursday, similar to how Frigg’s association with love gets her Venus’ day.
The Mercury-Odin connection, however, at first glance, is not very easily explained. Mercury, like Odin, has a salient role as the link between the realms of life and death. The connection lies in their similarity. Just as Mercury travels the whole Greek cosmos as the messenger of the Olympian gods, Odin, too, travels, even to Hel, the realm of the dead.
Odin does so in his desperate quest for wisdom and prophecy that might help to forestall the tragedies of Balder’s death and Ragnarok.
This article comes directly from content in the video series Norse Mythology. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
History of the Kings of Norway
A strange tale connecting Odin to the borders of life and death is related by Snorri in his History of the Kings of Norway. This is the brief tale of an ancient king named Aun in Sweden.
It is worth noting that the medieval dynasty of Norwegian kings has descended from an earlier dynasty of Swedish kings.
King Aun, at age 60, decided that he did not have enough life left. He, therefore, ‘gave’ his son to Odin. Odin promised Aun in return that he’d live another sixty years.
Odin’s Gift of Everlasting Life
When those sixty years were over, Aun killed another son in the same way, and Odin told Aun that he’d live forever as long as he kept sacrificing one son every tenth year.
But Odin’s gift of everlasting life did not stall the aging process, and by the time Aun had sacrificed his ninth son (one of the most significant number in Norse mythology), Aun was a 190-year-old, no longer capable of walking or even feeding himself. This, however, did not deter him. When Aun sacrificed his tenth son, the last one left, the people of Sweden rose up in revolt against him.
The incredibly aged man perished, and his surviving son became the next king after him.
Marked for Odin?
So, what exactly would Odin want with the man’s sons. The specific method by which Aun ‘gave’ Odin these men is not described, but if they were sacrificed by means of a spear, they might be able to enter Valhalla as men killed by weapons and, thus, augment Odin’s armed forces at Ragnarok.
Snorri, later in the History of the Kings of Norway, also alludes to another ancient king who died of sickness but had himself ‘marked for Odin’ before he died.
Odin is more than a collector of the dead; he is also a speaker to the dead. As he recites his various spells he knows at the end of his wisdom poem, Hávamál, he mentions this one:
I know a twelfth spell;
if I see, hanging from a tree,
a dead man’s corpse,
I carve some runes
and paint them,
and then that corpse will walk,
and speak with me.
Speaking with the Dead
The advantages in speaking with the dead are great. The Norse separated the dead into a category that was closer to the nonhuman than to living humans.
Dead men and women had crossed a certain boundary, and standing beyond the normal human perception of time, they could see the future more clearly than the living—even more clearly than a living god. No dead person would be more advantageous to speak with than one who was already skilled in seeing the future in life.
Mimir
Odin also has a special association with the dead Mimir or Mim; this being’s name is written inconsistently in the texts. Snorri’s own writings show that he was uncertain about what Mimir’s origin was; in the History of the Kings of Norway, he is called one of the Aesir gods, while in the Prose Edda Snorri calls Mimir one of the anti-gods.
Whatever Mimir’s family origins, two of his possessions are important in the myths: Mimir’s Well and Mimir’s Head. Mimir’s Well, beneath a root of the great tree Yggdrasil, has waters that, when drunk, make the drinker wise. Odin craved wisdom so much that he asked Mimir to let him take a drink.
Mimir’s price was that Odin must leave one of his own eyes in the well. Hence, Odin became the one-eyed god.
Celtic Myth and Folklore
In the mid-twentieth century, scholar Anne Ross demonstrated that there was an intimate association in Celtic myth and folklore between wells and the severed heads that were said to dwell within them. This is fascinating because this tradition must have influenced the Norse, who told of Mimir as only a severed head. Odin speaks with the head, seeking the wisdom of the well-drinker and the dead, right up until the last moments of Ragnarok.
Nonetheless, in spite of Odin’s formidable and unapproachable nature, and his well-established habit of communing with corpses and parts thereof, Odin was a prominent and lasting power in the pantheon of the north.
In some respects, Odin is the best-attested god in the old Germanic languages outside of Scandinavia.
Common Questions about Odin, the Lord of War and Death
Odin’s gift of everlasting life did not stall the aging process and by the time Aun had sacrificed his ninth son, Aun was a 190-year-old
Mimir’s price was that Odin must leave one of his own eyes in the well. Hence, Odin became the one-eyed god.
In Old Norse, the name is Odin. But, in Old English, it turns to Woden or Weden. It is this last variant that is the source of Old English Wednesdaeg, i.e. ‘Woden’s Day’, our modern English Wednesday.
