July 31, 2009

What Odin Says

Scandanavian mythology is primarily in two collections: The Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda. In the later, the poem "Havamal" (Sayings of the High One) tells of how Odin came to possess the runes:
"I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from were its roots run."

(Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) The Poetic Edda)

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