florilegium Othini

Odin

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 where its roots run.
(Sayings of the High One 139)


Do you know how to carve, do you know how to interpret,
do you know how to stain, do you know how to test out,
do you know how to ask, do you how how to sacrifice,
do you know how to dispatch, do you know how to slaughter?
(Sayings of the High One 144)


Much I have travelled, much have I tried out,
much have I tested the Powers;
what will Odin's life's end be,
when the Powers are torn apart?
(Vafthrudnir's Sayings 52)


I am called Mask, I am called Wanderer,
Warrior and Helm-wearer,
Known and Third, Thung and Ud,
Hellblind and High.
(Grimnir's Sayings 46)


The Poetic Edda. Carolyne Larrington (trad). OWC (1999).