Scandinavian Myth Quotes

“Norse mythology hints at Odinic cults, with Odin being worshipped through a combination of ecstatic and seemingly shamanistic rituals. From the eddic poem The Sayings of the High One ( Hávamál ), he is said to have hanged himself in a sacrificial ritual on a tree. Barely surviving this ordeal, Odin gains arcane knowledge, including the use of runes, the ancient Scandinavian alphabet sometimes used for magical purposes. In the poem, Odin chants :
I know that I hung
on the wind-swept tree
all nine nights
with spear was I wounded
and given to Odin,
myself to me,
on that tree which no one knows
from which roots it grows.

Bread I was not given,
no drink from the horn,
downwards I glared;
up I pulled the runes,
screaming I took them,
from there I fell back again.

- excerpt from Jesse L. Byock's Introduction and Notes, of Sturluson's Prose Edda.”
― Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology

“Under the root *( of the Ash Yggdrasil ) that goes to the frost giants is the Well of Mimir.
Wisdom and Intelligence are hidden there, and Mimir is the name of the well's owner. He is full of wisdom because he drinks of the well from the Gjallarhorn.
All-father went there and asked for one drink from the well, but he did not get this until he gave one of his eyes as a pledge.
As it says in The Sibyl's Prophesy :
Odin, I know all,
where you hid the eye
in that famous
Well of Mimir.
Each morning
Mimir drinks mead
from Val-Father's pledge.
Do you know now or what ?
( The Sibyl's Prophesy. 28 )”
― Snorri Sturluson, The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology