The All-Father, king of war, wisdom, and poetry
The supreme ruler of Asgard, the one-eyed All-Father. He and his brothers Vili and Vé slew the primordial giant Ymir and made the world from its corpse. His hunger for wisdom borders on self-destruction — he gave an eye for a single draught from the well of wisdom, and hung himself on the World Tree for nine days and nights to grasp the runes. He knows Ragnarök is coming, and knows he will die in the jaws of the wolf Fenrir, yet he never stops gathering knowledge and the fallen, preparing for a battle he is fated to lose.
The price Mímir, keeper of the well of wisdom, named was an eye. Without hesitation Odin gouged out his right eye and cast it into the well, buying wisdom without bottom. Ever after he faced the world one-eyed — in Norse myth even the highest god must pay a permanent price for knowledge.
To grasp the secret of the runes, Odin pierced himself with a spear and hung upside down on the World Tree Yggdrasil, without food or drink for nine days and nights, "himself given to himself." On the ninth night he at last glimpsed the runes, screaming as he fell, and brought back the power of writing and magic.
He sends the Valkyries to choose the bravest of the battle-slain and bring them into the golden hall of Valhalla, to drill by day and feast by night. This is not a reward but a levy — Odin means, on the day of Ragnarök, to lead this army of the honored dead against the giants and monsters.
The passage of Odin "given to himself," hanging nine nights on the World Tree, is often compared to Christ’s crucifixion; scholars still debate whether it shows Christian influence or is pure native shamanic tradition, and this site states the text itself without settling the matter.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.