I just had a thought.
Going off how Odin’s simultaneously a god of knowledge and a god of ‘fury/madness/whatever you want to call it’…
Would that make him affiliated with anxiety? Anxiety, but also the creative rush, when you’re so immersed in the creative process you lose track of time.
Yes, absolutely.
He’s also the good of madness, and he seems to have a soft spot particularly for the non-neurotypical.
it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Having anxiety is a pretty solid motive to give up an eye and hang yourself from a tree to gain universal knowledge – and having universal knowledge probably causes even bigger anxiety.
YEP BINGO.
This precisely.
Dr. Jackson Crawford, a scholar of Norse literature who wrote my favorite translation of the eddas, has done several youtube videos on old norse mythology and language, and he calls Odin “A profoundly anxious god.”
And he’s right. The knowledge of what is to come always hangs heavy on the Allfather, and it shapes many of his actions. And the more he learns to prevent it, the more it weighs on him.
Also, your tag is fucking great and needs to be preserved here
#Odin becoming blood brothers with one careless clown: This is my emotional support trickster