the Sacrifice of Odin

"I know I hung on that windy Tree

nine whole days and nights,

stabbed with a spear, offered to Odin,

myself to mine own self given,

high on that Tree of which none hath heard

from what roots it rises to heaven.

None refreshed me ever with food or drink,

I peered right down in the deep;

crying aloud I lifted the Runes

then back I fell from thence.

Nine mighty songs I learned from the great

son of Bale-thorn, Bestla's sire;

I drank a measure of the wondrous Mead,

with the Soulstirrer's drops I was showered.

Ere long I bare fruit, and throve full well,

I grew and waxed in wisdom;

word following word, I found me words,

deed following deed, I wrought deeds.

Hidden Runes shalt thou seek and interpreted signs,

many symbols of might and power,

by the great Singer painted, by the high Powers fashioned,

graved by the Utterer of gods.

For gods graved Odin, for elves graved Daïn,

Dvalin the Dallier for dwarfs,

All-wise for Jötuns, and I, of myself,

graved some for the sons of men.

Dost know how to write, dost know how to read,

dost know how to paint, dost know how to prove,

dost know how to ask, dost know how to offer,

dost know how to send, dost know how to spend?

Better ask for too little than offer too much,

like the gift should be the boon;

better not to send than to overspend.........

Thus Odin graved ere the world began;Then he rose from the deep, and came again."

~~~ from stanza 34 of the Hávamál

I was just reading a Reuters article that posits that the Norse deity Odin may have actually existed. In Thor Heyerdahl's new book "The Hunt for Odin", he claims that evidence from his archeological digs by the Russian Sea of Azov point to the god being more than a myth. At the mouth of the Don River, his team found jewelry, armbands and belt buckles dating between 1st and 2nd century AD which were almost identical to Viking counterparts found in Sweden 800 years later. It is Heyerdahl's contention that Snorre Sturlason's 13th century norse sagas tell the true story of a god-king's exodus from Azov to Sweden after being driven out by Roman conquerors. While the saga Thor is mystical in nature, the tale of Odin is one of realistic battles and heroism set in real cities.

If Thor Heyerdahl's name sounds familiar, it should. He's the one who built the 'Kon-Tiki' raft from reeds and balsa and crossed the Pacific in 1947 to prove that South Americans travelled to Oceania.