CHAPTER 15 - GODS' SOUND

CHAPTER 15 - GODS' SOUND

   The mythological god of Odin is strong in Carlisle.  Odin in Vines Dictionary is root word for "travailing".   Lets find out about this "Odin" character.   His name is related to oor, meaning "mind", "excitation," "fury" or "poetry," and his role, like many of the Norse pantheon, is complex.  He is a god of wisdom, war, battle and death.  He is also attested as being a god of magic, poetry, prophecy, victory and the hunt.  Odin sacrificed his left eye at Mimir's spring (I have seen in various places some sources say left eye and some say right eye) in order to gain the wisdom of the ages.  Odin gives to worthy poets the MEAD of inspiration.  Odin is associated with the concept of the Wild Hunt, a noisy bellowing movement across the sky, LEADING A HOST OF SLAIN WARRIORS.  Consistent with this, Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda depicts Odin as welcoming the great, dead warriors who have died in battle into his hall.  Valhalla, which is the hall of the slain.  THE FALLEN ARE ASSEMBLED and entertained by Odin in order that they in return might fight for and support the gods in the FINAL BATTLE OF THE EARTH, Ragnarok.
   He is also a god of war, appearing throughout Norse myth as the BRINGER OF VICTORY.  In the Norse sagas, Odin sometimes acts as the instigator of wars, and is said to have been able to start wars by simply throwing down his javelin Gungnir, and or sending his Valkyries to influence the battle toward the end that he desires.   The Valkyries are Odin's beautiful battle maidens that went out to the fields of war to select and collect the worthy men who died in battle to come and sit at ODINS TABLE in Valhalla, feasting and battling until they had to fight in the FINAL BATTLE, Ragnarok.  Odin would also appear on the battle field sitting upon the leader of the Norse as two ravens, one on each shoulder, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory), and two wolves (Geri and Freki) one on each side.  Parallels between Odin and Celtic Lugus have often been pointed out that both are intellectual gods, commanding magic and poetry.  Both have ravens and a spear as their attributes, and both are ONE EYED. 
   Odin ventured to Mimir's Well, near Jotunheim, the land of the giants.  Not as Odin, but as Vegtam the Wanderer, clothed in a dark blue cloak and carrying a traveler's staff.  To drink from the Well of Wisdom Odin had to sacrifice his left eye, symbolizing his willingness to gain the knowledge of the past, present and future.  As he drank, he saw all the sorrows and troubles that would fall upon men and the gods.  But he also saw why the sorrow and troubles had to come to men.  Mimir accepted Odin's eye and it sits today at the bottom of the Well of Wisdom as a sign that the father of the gods had paid the price for wisdom.  Sacrifice for the greater good is a reoccurring theme in Norse mythology.  Odin was said to have learned the mysteries of seid from the Vanic goddess and volva Freyja, despite the unwarriorly connotations of using magic. 
   Odin is attributed with discovering runes. The term runes is used to distinguish these symbols from Latin and Greek letters. It is attested on a 6th-century Alamanic runestaff as runa and possibly as runo on the 4th-century Einang stone. The name comes from the Germanic root run- (Gothic runa), meaning "secret" or "whisper". In the Celtic language Irish, the word rún means "mystery," "secret," " intention" or "affectionate love." Ogham is a Celtic script, similarly carved in the Norse manner. The root run- can also be found in the Baltic languages, meaning "speech". In Lithuanian, runoti means both "to cut (with a knife)" and "to speak". According to another theory, the Germanic root comes from the Indoeuropean root *reuə- "dig". The Finnish term for rune, riimukirjain, means "scratched letter". ^] The Finnish word runo means "poem" and comes from the same source as the English word "rune"; it is a very old loan of the Proto-Germanic *rūnō ("letter,literature,secret").^]
    He was hung from the tree called Yggdrasill while pierced by his own javelin.  He hung for nine days and nights, in order to learn the wisdom that would give him power in the nine worlds.   Some scholars hypothesize that this legend influenced the story of Christ's crucifixion.  One of Odin's names call him "Allfather" or "father of all."  Odin could see everything that occurred in the universe.