Odin Gives His Eye For Knowledge Of Poetry and Runes

Within the cosmology of Norse Religion found in the rich tapestry of their myth and legends, is the tale of how Odin lost his eye. In Norse tradition it is said that Odin gave one of his eyes for wisdom.

Specifically, Odin gave one of his eyes for the gift of poetry and the knowledge of runes. Poetry — as we call it today — was greatly valued by the Norse people. However, we have to remember that what we call ‘poetry’ today, was not the poetry of the Norse.

The Poetry of the Norse

When we think of poetry, according to our modern world we might think of skinny, unathletic boys with glasses, long hair, and a beany. We might think of libraries, snobby spoken word clubs filled with hipsters, who may not be as insightful as the books they lug around might suggest. We might think of women.

What we don’t think of is long-haired vikings, armed with swords, drinking in the evenings of the winter, in their halls warmed with the fires burning in great hearths. This is not what we think of when we think about poetry.

Yet here, these men, their wives, and their children would listen to the learned of their people, the storytellers, the Nordic counterpart of the Celtic druids, who would recite the stories they knew by heart.

The stories of the gods and their kin. Of how the world came to be. Of the great wars, heroes, and times of old that have been — but are now long dead. And they will tell of the Ragnarok, and how Asgard will one day burn, and the world with it.

The poetry of the Norse was not like the poetry of the modern world. As so often happens, translation strips the original meaning of a word — or the meaning of the word in its context — completely. We have done this when we translate the Norse jotnar simply as “giants”, like when we translate Nephilim as “giants” (both of which are incorrect translations).

So too do we unintentionally do this with the Norse word poetry.

To the Norse, poetry was knowledge. Of the times that had passed. Of the heroes who had walked the Earth, led their people, and performed great deeds that echo still in the hallways of their so-called poetry. Deeds of such valour and greatness that every Norse man strives for, in the hopes that they can match one day, to earn their entrance into the hallowed hall of Valhalla. And live for eternity at the side of Odin.

(I have no doubt that not a few Norsemen also held lustful thoughts at the ideas of the Valkyries, warrior woman of beauty beyond imagination, who also remain at Odin’s side.)

Interpretation on the Meaning of Odin Giving His Eye

All of this knowledge, history, the memory of the gods, prophecy, the origins of their people and the world, all was recorded in their poetry. So their poetry was not poetry, but knowledge. All knowledge, the likes of which was possessed only by the learned and the wise. Lore.

In importance, it probably went hand in hand with their knowledge and skill in building ships, and halls, swords and armour. Farming, and medicine. And fighting too. If the great god Odin sacrificed his eye to learn it, it must have been important.

Since the story goes that Odin sacrificed his eye for the knowledge of runes and poetry, my interpretation is actually a reference encoded in myth of the damage that reading — and learning to read — does to the eyes in time. Especially in those days.

It is my belief that Odin sacrificing his eye for knowledge of poetry and runes refers to the literal act of learning to read. Literally, sacrificing your eyesight for knowledge. I feel that strongly, because I am doing the exact same thing.

Perhaps this detail included later by the learned scholars who kept the myths and legends of their time. Or perhaps, it is an ancient recollection that the storytellers during the time of the Norse c.800 CE at their height did not remember the meaning of. We will never know. If they did include it, it is because they learned how to read. And they knew the damage to the eyes caused by reading, pouring over symbols for hours a day.

Not a kenning exactly, or necessarily, but something like.

This is not an interpretation we will ever be able to prove accurate one way or another, since we have no way of knowing when details emerged in oral tradition. It doesn’t really matter, one way or another. It’s just a suspicion I have. Perhaps an instinct.

Sacred Traditions

It is well known that the Norse knew how to read and write. They actually learned the skill fairly early, as the runes of northern people were noted by Greek and Roman scholars and travellers in their writings. Germanic and Celtic peoples could write, but used it for different purposes. They chose not to write in the same way that we do today, and the Romans.

The Norse (like the Celtic Druids and Vedic Brahmins who are all related to one another by language, genetics, culture, and religion as Indo-European people) all chose not to write their traditions down, viewing them as too sacred to be trusted to such an untrustworthy form. They trusted the human mind more, and an ancestral lineage of teacher to student. I admire them for that. I also believe that they didn’t want to reveal their secrets in such an open fashion which, if true, I admire them for also.

While on the topic of this myth of Odin, and the Indo-European connection, it is interesting to note that giving of an eye — or the loss of an eye — is not unique to Odin. The Egyptian god Ra, and in some instances Horus, was also said to have given an eye. (According to one myth, he lost it in his great battle against Set.)

This is one of many connections between Ancient Egyptian Religion and the religion of the Northern Peoples as recorded at the time of the Norse (by c.1200).