[net.origins] Days of the week, Gods

barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) (12/04/85)

Odin and Mercury were both psychopomps (conductors of souls to the dead).
Odin's aspects as a death god are there if you look for them.  His animals
are wolves and ravens.  His priestesses are the Choosers of the Slain
(Valkyries).  His horse has eight legs (just like the four men who carry
a coffin).

I've read that the modern assessment of Odin as unchallenged Chief God of the
Norse is ...umm...dubious, partly due to the fact that Odin was considered
the patron of the poets who wrote the Eddas (and also due to the fact that
it's unlucky to offend a death god).  Certainly worship of Thor was very
popular, and it was Thor -- not Odin -- who showed up in the names people
gave their children.

--Lee Gold

ins_atrh@jhunix.UUCP (Thomas Richard Holtz) (12/06/85)

In article <2487@sdcrdcf.UUCP> barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) writes:
>I've read that the modern assessment of Odin as unchallenged Chief God of the
>Norse is ...umm...dubious, partly due to the fact that Odin was considered
>the patron of the poets who wrote the Eddas (and also due to the fact that
>it's unlucky to offend a death god).  Certainly worship of Thor was very
>popular, and it was Thor -- not Odin -- who showed up in the names people
>gave their children.

The dubiousness (?) of Odin's Chiefdom lies in what you define as being
Chief of the Gods.  Within the mythos itself, Odin is without question
the Chief of the current ruling race of Gods (Aesir), and Master of the
Universe via the runes on his spear Gungnir.
Within the real world, the gods chiefly worshipped were, according to
most accounts, Thor, Odin, Balder, Frey, and Freya.  Thus, if you define
"Chief of the Gods" as the god most popular with us mortals, Odin would
probably have to step aside for that loud son of his.
                                                            Tom Holtz

sjs4310@wucec2.UUCP (Steven Jeffrey Sittser) (12/12/85)

In article <2487@sdcrdcf.UUCP> barryg@sdcrdcf.UUCP (Lee Gold) writes:
>I've read that the modern assessment of Odin as unchallenged Chief God of the
>Norse is ...umm...dubious, partly due to the fact that Odin was considered
>the patron of the poets who wrote the Eddas (and also due to the fact that
>it's unlucky to offend a death god).  Certainly worship of Thor was very
>popular, and it was Thor -- not Odin -- who showed up in the names people
>gave their children.

I believe Odin was pretty certainly the leader of the gods, but Thor
was perhaps more popularly worshiped.  Odin was mainly a god of warriors,
and the souls of those killed in battle went to him.  Thor was the god
of the common folk, and he took the souls of those unlucky enough to
die in some mundane, non-violent manner.  Thor was also closely associated
with the harvest (along with Frey), and thus in some sense more significant
than Odin in the day-to-day life of the common farmer.

						-SJS