(4) NORSE – HERO: ODIN

 

If Thor is the Superman of Norse mythology, then Odin is Batman – the wily strategist of gambits and plans, indeed, a trickster more akin to Loki than Thor.

So yes – once again (for the third time) I’ve included two gods from a pantheon in my top ten heroes of mythology but just have a idiosyncratic preference for the more ambiguously heroic or even outright anti-heroic figure. In this case, a preference for Odin over Thor, as I did for Osiris over Horus for the Egyptian pantheon and Shiva over Vishnu for the Hindu pantheon.

To some extent, that was reflected by the Norse themselves. While Thor was the more conventional heroic figure and favored by the common Norse farmer, Odin “was preferred by the warrior aristocracy” who favored his “more chaotic and bloodthirsty ways”. Of course, that’s a matter of interpretation. To some, those chaotic and bloodthirsty ways were his “theme of self-sacrifice” and “ruthless actions…necessary for preventing Ragnarok”.

Odin was the god of wisdom as well as “war, death, frenzy (literal and figurative), magic, nobility, poetry, healing, the pursuit of knowledge and the runic alphabet itself”. Leader of the Norse gods known as Aesir, he had hundred of names and titles – with one of my favorites as “lord of frenzy” or “leader of the possessed”.

He was “famously one-eyed, as he sacrificed his other eye” for wisdom. When he wandered the earth (Midgard), he characteristically did so as bearded old man with wide-brimmed hat. “He is sometimes accompanied by animal familiars, such as the ravens Huginn and Muninn and the wolves Geri and Freki.”

“Odin is widely regarded as a god of the dead and warfare”, receiving slain warriors at Valhalla (“Carrion-hall” or “Hall of the Slain”) in the realm of Asgard aided by the Valkyries. “In the mythic future”, Odin leads the valiant slain warriors at Ragnarok. “In some later folklore, he is a leader of the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession of the dead.”

And of course, Wednesday is named for him as Thursday is for Thor.

Like Thor, Odin has had an enduring influence in popular culture and imagination. Probably the best known thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is his adaptation along with Thor and the rest of the Norse pantheon within the fictional universe of Marvel Comics. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf has been likened to Odin as wanderer – and although it’s by no means an exact correspondence, there is more than a little Odin about Gandalf.

 

SUPERMAN-BATMAN SCALE

As I said, if Thor is the Superman of Norse mythology then Odin is Batman.

 

PUNCHING OUT CTHULHU RANKING

Well not so much punching out eldritch abominations but planning to win or at least hold the line against them.

 

PARTY ROCK RANKING

Odin scores high on my party rock ranking – Valhalla was a party every night!

 

RATING:

A-TIER (TOP TIER)