Introduction to King Odin’s Wisdom [Norse Mythology]
Norse
mythology is the source of most surviving information about Odin, his wisdom,
death, royalty, knowledge, battle, etc. It is the body of myths of the North
Germanic peoples. Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings,
and heroes. Described as an immensely wise, one-eyed old man, Odin has by far
the most varied characteristics of any of the gods in Norse mythology.
Odin is
considered to be the highest and oldest of all Norse gods. Odin was the wisest
of all the gods; from him, the others always sought counsel when the need
arose. He is known for his sacrifice and the donation of his right eye for
gaining wisdom. He acquired wisdom not for his personal benefit but for the
benefit of the world.
His role of
'All-Father' of the gods is more of a literary theme. He has two sons, Baldur
by his first wife Frigg and Thor by Jord. Odin wanted to know everything and
gain wisdom and knowledge of things hidden from him. He then hanged himself in
Yggdrasil, the tree of life for nine days and nine nights to gain knowledge of
the other world and be able to understand the runes.
He
sacrificed greatly to get the wisdom and understand the sorrows and troubles of
the world. He drew wisdom from the well of the giant Mimir. Having placed one
of his eyes in pawn with Mimir he appeared as one-eyed.
Summary of King Odin’s Wisdom [Norse Mythology]
Odin is the
eldest king of all the Norse gods. He is known for his sacrifices for the human
and Gods’ world. He wanted to save Asgard and Midgard from giants. For this, he
had to gain more wisdom.
He knows
about the Mimir well from his two messengers raven and the wolf. He wants to
drink a draught of water from that well. So he disguised himself as a Vegan.
Then, he travels to Mimir’s well.
On the way,
he meets a giant. He is Vafthrunder. As Odin seems men to men and giant to
giant, Vafthrunder sees Odin as a giant. Odin also knows about the Vafthrunder
from his messengers and he also knows that he gives wisdom to people. Odin asks
Vafthrunder for wisdom. Vafthrunder agrees on a condition. Odin has to answer
three riddles that Vafthrunder asks.
If Odin
gives the wrong answer Odin's head will be cut into pieces. Odin agrees with
Vafthrunder. Vafthrunder too needs to reply to Odin’s questions.
Odin becomes
ready to face Vafthrunder’s questions. Vafthrunder asks three riddles to Odin
and Odin answers all three questions. Vafthrunder is shocked because Odin is
one of the hundreds to give the right answer to his riddles. It is now Odin’s
turn to ask Vafthrunder questions.
When Odin
asks the questions to Vafthrunder, Vafthrunder recognizes that the person in
front of him is none other than Odin because the questions that Odin asks are
only known to Odin.
Odin, then,
asks Vafthrunder the price of drinking a draught of water from Mimir's well.
Vafthrunder tells that there is no price for drinking water from that well
because it is priceless. After drinking water from that well people know about
the present and the future.
After that,
Odin moves to Mimir’s well. When Odin reaches the well, he finds Mimir standing
there as he is the guard of that well. Odin asks the price of drinking a
draught of water from that well. Mimir replies it will take the cost of his
right eye. Odin accepts the cost of drinking the water. Mimir gives a horn full
of water from that well. Odin drinks that water takes his eyes and gives them
to Mimir. The pain was unbearable but he doesn't show that pain. Mimir throws
that eye into the well. Odin could see his eye sinking. Odin could see the
present and future now. That's how Odin saves Asgard and Midgard from giants.
King Odin’s Wisdom [question answer]
1. What did the Giant do to those who
went to him and why did they fail to answer his riddle?
Ans: The
giant asked riddles to those who went to him and they had to answer. If they failed
to answer, the Giant would take their heads off. His riddles were not easy to
answer so that they failed to answer. He would ask those riddles which were
known only to the gods and to the wisest of the gods and the wisest of the
Giants.
2. What condition did Vafthrudner
(Giant) set to Odin in the case of failing to answer each other's answer?
Ans: Vafthrudner asked to take off the head of the one who fails to answer the
other's riddle. In his own words. "My head to thee if I cannot answer any
question thou wilt ask. And if thou canst not answer any question that I may
ask, then thy head goes to me."
3. What were the three questions that the Giant Vafthrudner asked the God Odin? What were Odin's replies?
Ans: The three questions that the Giant Vafthrudner asked the God Odin are:
a. Tell me the name of the river that divides Asgard
from Jotunheim?
b. What are the names of the horses that day and Night
drive across the sky?
c. What is the name of the plain on which the last
battle will be fought? Odin's replies to these questions were as follow
respectively:
i. Ifling is
the name of that river.
ii. Skin
faxe and Hrim faxe.
iii. The
plain of vigard.
4. Why was Vafthrudner unable to answer Odin's
first question?
Ans:
Vafthrudner was unable to answer Odin's first question because only Odin knew
what his last words to Baldur would be. The last words that Odin would whisper
into the ear of Baldur, his dear son, were Odin's personal matter that was
difficult to guess for others.
5. Who is Mimir? What price did Odin
pay him to get wisdom from him?
Ans: Mimir
is a giant who guards the well of wisdom under the great root of Yggdrasil- the
root that grew out of Jotunheim. He had drunk every day from the well of
wisdom. He is the wisest of the world's beings. Odin wanted to have a draught
from the well of wisdom so he paid his right eye as a price to Mimir. Odin did
it to get wisdom from and it was to understand the sorrows and trouble of the
world. Having placed his right eye in pawn with Mimir, Odin appeared as a one-eyed
god.
6. What became clear to Odin after he
drank water from the well of wisdom? What did he see after in the world?
Ans: All the
future became clear to Odin after he drank water from the well of wisdom. He
saw all the sorrows and troubles that would fall upon men and Gods. He also saw
why the sorrows and troubles had to fall and he saw how they might be borne so
that Gods and Men, by being noble in the days of sorrow and trouble, would
leave in the world a force that one day, a day that was far off indeed, would
destroy the evil that brought terror and sorrow and despair into the world.
7. There was a terrible pain to Odin
while giving his right eye to Mimir. But he made neither groan nor moan. What
was the reason? Give your logic.
Ans: There
was no groan nor moan. The reason was that the eye was paid for his wisdom.
Odin was clear that sacrifice and gain are the two aspects of his life. The
wisdom that he got was more valuable than his eye to him. He was able to know
the world so he endured without making any groan or moan. This event tells us
that one cannot get anything without sacrifice.
8. How did the eye of Odin stay in
the water then?
Ans: Mimir
took the eye of Odin and let it sink deep into the water of the well of wisdom.
The eye of Odin stayed shining up through the water a sign to all who came to
that place of the price that the father of the Gods had paid for his wisdom.
King Odin’s Wisdom [original story]
Odin is the
highest and oldest of all Norse gods. He is known for his sacrifice, the donation
of his eye for gaining wisdom. He acquired wisdom not benefit but for the
benefit of the world.
And so Odin,
no longer riding on Sleipner, his eight-legged for his personal steed; no
longer wearing his golden armor and his eagle-helmet, and without even his
spear in his hand, traveled through Midgard, the World of Men, and made his way
toward Jötunheim, the Realm of the Giants.
No longer
was he called Odin All-Father, but Vegtam the Wanderer. He wore a cloak of dark
blue and he carried a traveler’s staff in his hands. And now, as he went toward
Mimir’s Well, which was near to Jötunheim, he came upon a Giant riding on a
great Stag.
Odin seemed
a man to men and a giant to giants. He went beside the Giant on the great Stag
and the two talked together. “Who art thou, O brother?” Odin asked the Giant.
“I am
Vafthrudner, the wisest of the Giants,” said the one who was riding on the
Stag. Odin knew him then. Vafthrudner was indeed the wisest of the Giants, and
many went to strive to gain wisdom from him. But those who went to him had to
answer the riddles Vafthrudner asked, and if they failed to answer the Giant
took their heads off.
“I am Vegtam
the Wanderer,” Odin said, “and I know who thou art, OVafthrudner. I would
strive to learn something from thee.”
The Giant
laughed, showing his teeth. “Ho, ho,” he said, “I am ready for a game with
thee. Dost thou know the stakes? My head to thee if I cannot answer any question
thou wilt ask. And if thou canst not answer any question that I may ask, then
thy head goes to me. Ho, ho, ho. And now let us begin.”
“I am
ready,” Odin said.
“Then tell
me,” said Vafthrudner, “tell me the name of the river that divides Asgard from
Jötunheim?”
“Ifling is
the name of that river,” said Odin. “Ifling that is dead cold, yet never
frozen.”
“Thou hast
answered rightly, O Wanderer,” said the Giant. “But thou hast still to answer
other questions. What are the names of the horses that Day and Night drive
across the sky?”
“Skin faxe
and Hrim faxe,” Odin answered. Vafthrudner was startled to hear on esay the
names that were known only to the Gods and to the wisest of the Giants. There
was only one question now that he might ask before it came to the stranger’s
turn to ask him questions.
“Tell me,”
said Vafthrudner, “what is the name of the plain on which the last battle will
be fought?”
“The Plain
of Vigard,” said Odin, “the plain that is a hundred miles long and a hundred
miles across.”
It was now
Odin’s turn to ask Vafthrudner questions. “What will be the last words that
Odin will whisper into the ear of Baldur, his dear son?” he asked.
Very
startled was the Giant Vafthrudner at that question. He sprang to the ground
and looked at the stranger keenly.
“Only Odin
knows what his last words to Baldur will be,” he said, “and only Odin would
have asked that question. Thou art Odin, O Wanderer, and thy question I cannot
answer.”
“Then,” said
Odin, “if thou wouldst keep thy head, answer me this: what price will Mimir ask
for a draught from the Well of Wisdom that he guards?”
“He will ask
thy right eye as a price, O Odin,” said Vafthrudner. “Will he ask no less a
price than that?” said Odin.
“He will ask
no less a price. Many have come to him for a draught from the Well of Wisdom,
but no one yet has given the price Mimir asks. I have answered thy question, O
Odin. Now give up thy claim to my head and let me go on my way.”
“I give up
my claim to thy head,” said Odin. Then Vafthrudner, the wisest of the Giants,
went on his way, riding on his great Stag.
It was a
terrible price that Mimir would ask for a draught from the Well of Wisdom, and
very troubled was Odin All-Father when it was revealed to him. His right eye!
For all time to be without the sight of his right eye! Almost he would have
turned back to Asgard, giving up his quest for wisdom.
He went on,
turning neither to Asgard nor to Mimir’s Well. And when he went toward the
South he saw Muspelheim, where stood Surtur with the Flaming Sword, a terrible
figure, who would one day join the Giants in their war against the Gods. And
when he turned North he heard the roaring of the cauldronvergelmer as it poured
itself out of Niflheim, the place of darkness and dread. And Odin knew that the
world must not be left between Surtur, who would destroy it with fire, and
Niflheim, that would gather it back to Darkness and Nothingness. He, the eldest
of the Gods, would have to win the wisdom that would help to save the world.
And so, with
his face stern in front of his loss and pain, Odin All-Father turned and went
toward Mimir’s Well. It was under the great root of Ygdrassil—the root that
grew out of Jötunheim. And there sat Mimir, the Guardian of the Well of Wisdom,
with his deep eyes bent upon the deep water. And Mimir, who had drunk every day
from the Well of Wisdom, knew who it was that stood before him.
“Hail, Odin,
Eldest of the Gods,” he said.
Then Odin
made reverence to Mimir, the wisest of the world’s beings. “I would drink from
your well, Mimir,” he said.
“There is a
price to be paid. All who have come here to drink have shrunk from paying that
price. Will you, Eldest of the Gods, pay it?”
“I will not
shrink from the price that has to be paid, Mimir,” said Odin All-Father.
“Then
drink,” said Mimir. He filled up a great horn with water from the well and gave
it to Odin.
Odin took
the horn in both his hands and drank and drank. And as he drank all the future
became clear to him. He saw all the
sorrows and
troubles that would fall upon Men and Gods. But he saw, too, why the sorrows
and troubles had to fall, and he saw how they might be borne so that Gods and
Men, by being noble in the days of sorrow and trouble, would leave in the world
a force that one day, a day that was far off indeed, would destroy the evil
that brought terror and sorrow and despair into the world.
Then when he
had drunk out of the great horn that Mimir had given him, he put his hand to
his face and he plucked out his right eye. Terrible was the pain that Odin
All-Father endured. But he made no groan nor moan. He bowed his head and put
his cloak before his face, as Mimir took the eye and let it sink deep, deep
into the water of the Well of Wisdom. And there the Eye of Odin stayed, shining
up through the water, a sign to all who came to that place of the price that
the Father of the Gods had paid for his wisdom.
King Odin’s Wisdom [word meaning]
|
art (aux.v.) |
Are |
|
cloak
(n.) |
a type of coat that
has no sleeves |
|
dost
(v.) |
second person singular simple present form
of ‘do’ |
|
Jotunhelm
(n.) |
the realm of the
Giants |
|
Midgard
(n.) |
the world of men |
|
Mimir
(n.) |
the Guardian of the
well of wisdom |
|
mythology
(n.) |
the study or knowledge of God, theology,
religion and divinity |
|
Norse
(n.) |
Norwegian people,
North Germanic group |
|
Odin
(n.) |
the supreme god of the Norse pantheons |
|
sleipner
(n.) |
eight legged steed |
|
stage
(n.) |
a male deer |
|
stakes
(n.) |
the money that is
paid to the winners |
|
steed
(n.) |
a horse to ride on |
|
thee
(pro.) |
You |
|
thou
(pro.) |
You |
|
thy
(pro.) |
Your |
|
wilt
(v.) |
will, (thou wilt = you will) |