Such nicknames… Old One Eye and Old Bastard… are happily accepted. Hell. Half of his names in the norse stories mean similar things; “Harbard,” for instance, translates to ‘hoar-beard’.
Bölverkr translates to ‘bale-worker’, meaning ‘worker of evil’, which is a reference to his habit of causing bad luck and tragedy to those who piss him off.
Glapsviðr means ‘swift tricker’, for his cleverness and ability to outwit most enemies. One of my favorites,
Hrosshársgrani, translates literally to ‘Horse Hair Mustache” and I think we can all agree that that is a fantastic nickname.
Odin has thousands of names, most of which even his devotees do not know. He seems to take pride in this.
As to depictions of him in media…while not always accurate, well. Let me put it this way. One of his thousands of names is
Faðr galdr, or father of (magical) songs. He is the god of inspiration and creativity, particularly in storytellers.
Why do you think, dear nonnie, that images of Odin have crept their way into so much of pop culture? All the great popular stories…Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, the thousand fantasy and sci-fi stories they inspired…there he is. As Gandalf, and the thousand wizards inspired by him. As Obi-Wan, and Yoda. Look at any entry in the TV tropes ‘wizard classic’ category, and that’s him.
Why is this image of a wise old wizard figure so enduring? Why has the image of the Allfather in the form of a wandering wizard, changed in no significant way, been so enduring, despite efforts to stamp out the Norse pantheon?
Why, for that matter, were Christian monks driven to take down the stories of him, recording the Eddas and sagas through no small investment of time and energy, despite the fact that it represented a tradition that they found distasteful?
Guess.
He approves of his name and image being out there. He approves very much. He’s been quite carefully making sure that he is portrayed in such, for something better than eight hundred years.
Odin’s very wise, and very farsighted. He knows, better than most gods, that nothing lasts forever. He knew the Norse would not. He took steps to ensure that his name and the tales of him and the other gods survived. He’s taking steps now, and seems to be actively recruiting on a rather large scale for new devotees; this started, incidentally, some thirty years back, just as the rise of neo-nazis claiming his name began and even a little before; the Allfather, I think, saw that coming, and began actively recruiting non-shitty assholes to combat this. Many followers of Odin have noticed this; we are actively pushed to push back against such abuse of his name, and pushed towards causes such as environmental conservation.
The images of him in pop culture only aid this. They give him an opening, so to speak, through which to slip.
He used Gandalf to first contact me. He’s used other familiar faces for others.
So, TLDR; Odin approves of seeing himself in pop culture. Very much.
It’s completely staggering to me that I seem to be seeing posts similar to this one so often lately and never did before despite following plenty of Odin devotees and other heathen-leaning folk for years on this platform. It’s wild and I can tell you he’s definitely recruiting and he’ll use any face or name you’ll accept to reach you.
He knew, I think. He knew full well that this sort of social and political turmoil was coming, and he saw that some people who know nothing of him would try to use his name.
He took steps to counteract this. He’s still taking them. He seems, so far as I can tell, to be gearing up for something.
And knowing what I do of him….and I would never be so bold here as to claim to know everything about him. That’s not even possible for a mortal, I think. That’s not even possible, I think, for most other gods.
But what I do know of him tells me that what he wants for mortals closely coincides with what I do. A global information network? Free sharing of information? Healing and health for all, and science and exploration beyond our world and within our own? Knowledge and learning available to all, regardless of birthplace or status? Learning simply for the love of it, available to all who love to learn? Freedom to create, for artists, without fearing where their next meal will come from?
That is what he wishes for us. He saw, I think, that aspects of society would push back against such things…and took steps and is taking them to counteract them.
