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The book Norse Myths relates
the poetic story about the magic practices attributed to the high god Odin: "I mind I hung on the windswept tree
Nine whole nights,
Stabbed
by the spear, given to Odin
Myself to myself.
What roots it springs from.
No bread they gave me, no drink from the
horn,
Down I peered.
I took up the runes, howling I took them up, And back again I fell
Of that tree no man knows."
In a different context, Odin leads a group of supernatural beings who ride in the
night sky. Almost like an animal, Odin was the leader of the visionary Howling Host of warriors presumably of the same
nature as Odin. Through the centuries, many have claimed to have seen him leading his Norse troops through
the night air. Although dead, they were howling, snarling, and biting in all their ferocious clamor as they
rode after their prey.
"Another time
Odin pierced himself with Gungrir and hung as a corpse on Yggdrasil in order to learn the secrets of the runes. After
nine days and nights, his self-sacrifice was sufficient to reveal the hidden knowledge, whereupon he cast off death and
resumed his normal shape...Hanging was inextricably bound up with Odin worship, although sacrifices could also be offered
with a spear or fire...Moreover, the devastating Viking raid in AD 842 on the French city of Nantes, which probably left thousands
dead in the streets, was presumably the fulfillment of a barbarous pledge to Odin
Galgagramr (lord of the gallows), Geigudr (the dangling one) and Hangagud (the hanging god)" (Cotterell, 140).
The Mythic Image by Joseph Campbell translates
the verses about Odin's ordeal this way:
"I ween that I hung on the windy tree
Hung there for nights full nine
With the spear I was wounded, and offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs?"
Other translations of Odin's words might give us more insight. In What Life Was
Like When Longships Sailed, we read:
"I know that I hung
On the windswept tree
For nine whole nights...
I grasped the runes,
Screaming I grasped them" (Dersin, 47).
Screaming
in anger oand pain or realization and understanding?
Having undergone testing to his physical and mental limits, there was no doubt that Odin
was in a state of exhaustion and pain, and physical pain can provoke a response in the human body akin to anger.
Some
sources suggest that Odin's was a near-death experience. but not the pleasant, soothing type, it seems.
The "battle furor"
was a quality valued by Viking warriors, for like the Berserkers or Bear Men, it excited the emotions and heightened the level
of adrenalin before the battle.
The Viking Berserkers, A Special Breed of Norse Warrior
What
was Odin doing on that tree? According to The Mythic Image, the purpose dealt with a time and state of mind "when
such a realization of the nonduality of heaven and earth - even of non-being and being - will have been attained and
assimilated, life-joy will pour from all things, as from an inexhaustible cup" (Campbell, 198). Odin's quest was for a knowledge
that transcended the common world of reality.
"No one came to comfort me with bread". These words are Odin's
as he endured his ordeal. In ancient times there were prescribed rules of conduct for hospitality and receiving strangers
as guests. In the case of the proverbial Good Samaritan of the Bible, kindness and mercy were to be shown even to strangers,
especially to strangers. because they would need sustenance as they continued on their journey. In the J.M. Synge
play Riders to The Sea, Maurya and her daughters are worried that they forgot to give Bartley his bread and blessing
as he went down to the sea. They took this as a bad omen in regards to the missing son. Not only would they feel
regret at the seeming slight even if their brother returned home safely, but in a larger sense they failed to do their traditional
duty and their Christian duty.
Twice 9 is 18. That was the number of songs of wisdom Odin learned
in addition to the runes.
The Havamal is part of the Poetic Edda,
an important source for Norse mythology. In addition to describing Odin's feelings as he hung on the tree, it also tells
about the 18 charms or spells that he learned. These charms are constructed in a magical way, and like Ariel in Shakespeare's
The Tempest, could be magically sent on a mission commanded by a magician. or shaman.
These charms can give us a good idea of what men found valuable in that time. They deal with battle safety,
protection from harm and spells, succor and solace, escape from capture, protection from the supernatural and ghosts,
how to obtain the fullness of the riches of life, safe voyage on the ocean, divination, and how to seduce women.
No one may know what those charms
looked like when written, but they could have looked something like stick-men or resembling wooden runes.
The Havamal
The runes were a form of writing, yes, but they were much more. Writing
is a visible form of language, and as such, is a code that can be broken by learning the elements of the code.
When infants
first hear the sounds of their mother tongue, they start to understand the code of the spoken language. When they begin
learning the alphabet, the sounds of the letters, blended sounds, phonics, they are beginning to learn the
code of a language. They also understand that written symbols are a substitution for the sounds of language.
The Dutch word for clogs is klompen.
Dutch wooden shoes do make a kind of clomping noise when they are worn on a hard surface. In English a wooden shoe
is called a clog. Clogging is a country dance where different parts of the shoe or clog strike the hard surface of the floor
to make varied pitches of audible noise. These percussive rhythms produce a pleasing sound and the accompanying
dancing is also enjoyable.
Klap or klomp runes were a type of cryptography , "a kind of forerunner of the Morse Code, in which
a series of claps or knocks on wood represented specific runic characters (Pennick, 116).
Clogging
Knock on wood
is an expression like touch wood that is used for good luck and, more so, for protection against harm that comes
from tempting fate to exert its influence because of bragging or speaking out of turn. Along with saying these words,
the speaker also does knock or physically touch some wooden material to strengthen the charm against harm. The charm is against
pride and making too much of oneself and expresses the fear of the resulting punishment.
This is mostly regarded as superstition, but
many people do get a little nervous if they make good predictions about themselves or their loved ones and will jokingly knock
on wood.
Spirits
that knock are called poltergeists in German, which means knocking ghosts. Unable to communicate in human language,
it is thought that the noisy ghost tries to tap out a message much like Morse Code. Of course, there is no standard encryption
for poltergeists to use, so there is no way to know what the poltergeist is trying to say.
In folklore, creatures called knacks or knocks
make a knocking sound in the walls of mines, most often viewed as a warning to miners that a collapse is about to
happen. This is a simple code and the knock has one meaning.
Knocker, folklore
Trees were also associated with the runes. This seems logical because
the runes were often carved on wood or made from pieces of wood and used in divination.
"Modern rune research has rediscovered the
correspondences between the runes and trees, each of which expresses some quality of the rune (Pennick, 117).
This differs slightly from the
usual understanding of the wooden runes. In this case, the specific variety of tree with all its attributed qualities and
properties expanded the secret vocabulary of reading the runes.
A complete reading of the Havamal reveals Odin's lament
is about the runes: "Runes you will
find, and readable staves,
Very strong staves,
Very stout staves,
Staves that Bolthor stained,
Made by mighty
powers,
Graven by the prophetic God. For the Gods by Odin, for the
Elves by Dain,
By Dvalin, too, for the Dwarves,
By Asvid for the hateful Giants,
And some I carved myself:
Thund,
before man was made, scratched them,
Who rose first, fell thereafter.
| Know how to cut them,
Know how to read them,
Know
how to stain them,
Know how to prove them,
Know how to evoke them,
Know how to score them,
Know how to send them,
know
how to send them"
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Not only did Odin want his initiates to know how to make the runes,
by repeating twice the last line of knowing, he wanted men to have the wisdom to know when to use them, and maybe
by inference, when not to use them. They were, after all, sacred.
Odin hung on the tree for nine days. That number must be significant in other Norse ontexts. In The Viking World, there
is an account of an important festival involving the grim sacrificial cult practices of the god Odin and the number
nine. These festivals derived from the myths and legends of the Northern peoples,
an outworking of their religious beliefs.
Besides Odin, there were other gods whose fables influenced people. One such
Irish god was Lir, god of the sea, also called Aegir. In Norse Mythology, Legends of Gods
and Heroes, there is a story that also illustrates the closeness of Norse worship to their occupation and
preoccupation with the sea. Perhaps, not coincidentally, it also mentions the
number nine: "Aegir's wife Ran endeavored by all possible means to bring mischance upon mankind; she had in her possession
a net, with which she made it her constant pursuit to draw seafaring men down to herself in the deeps of the ocean. Aegir
and Ran had nine daughters; their names form various designations for the waves..." (Munch, 36).
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