{
  "id": "odin",
  "type": "entity",
  "name": "Odin",
  "summary": "Chief of the Norse gods (\"Othin\" in Bellows), \"Allfather\" and \"Valfather\"; father of Thor and Baldr, husband of Frigg, lord of Valhalla, who hung nine nights on the windy tree to win the runes, pledged an eye at Mimir's well, and is fated to be swallowed by the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarok.",
  "locale": "en",
  "tags": [
    "norse",
    "deities",
    "aesir",
    "kings-of-the-gods",
    "wisdom-gods",
    "war-gods"
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "rel": "parent_of",
      "target": "thor"
    },
    {
      "rel": "parent_of",
      "target": "baldr"
    },
    {
      "rel": "consort_of",
      "target": "frigg"
    },
    {
      "rel": "killed_by",
      "target": "fenrir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "fought_in",
      "target": "ragnarok"
    },
    {
      "rel": "rules",
      "target": "valhalla"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "sleipnir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "mimir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "yggdrasil"
    },
    {
      "rel": "related",
      "target": "loki"
    },
    {
      "rel": "member_of",
      "target": "aesir"
    },
    {
      "rel": "attested_in",
      "target": "poetic-edda"
    },
    {
      "rel": "compares",
      "target": "zeus-vs-odin"
    }
  ],
  "questions": [
    "Who is Odin?",
    "Why did Odin hang himself on a tree?",
    "How did Odin lose his eye?",
    "Who are Odin's ravens and wolves?",
    "How does Odin die at Ragnarok?",
    "What are Odin's other names?",
    "Who is Odin's wife?",
    "Is Odin the father of Thor?"
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "c1",
      "text": "Odin gives men their souls at the creation: three gods find Ask and Embla \"empty of might\", and \"Soul gave Othin, sense gave Hönir, / Heat gave Lothur and goodly hue\" (Voluspo 17–18).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c2",
      "text": "Odin won the runes by self-sacrifice: in the Hovamol he says he hung \"on the windy tree\" for \"nights full nine\", wounded with the spear, \"offered ... To Othin, myself to myself\", took up the runes shrieking and fell back, then began to thrive and grow wise (Hovamol 139–142).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c3",
      "text": "Odin's eye is pledged in Mimir's well: the seeress tells him \"I know where Othin's eye is hidden, / Deep in the wide-famed well of Mimir\", from which Mimir drinks each morning (Voluspo 28–29).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c4",
      "text": "In Grimnismol Odin names his own animals: he feeds the wolves \"Freki and Geri\" while he himself lives on wine alone, and the ravens \"Hugin and Munin\" fly over the world each day, \"for Munin my care is more\" (Grimnismol 19–20).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c5",
      "text": "Odin chooses the slain: in Valhall he \"each day\" chooses \"the men who have fallen in fight\" (Grimnismol 8), and in Harbarthsljoth the ferryman says \"The noble who fall in the fight hath Othin, / And Thor hath the race of the thralls\" (Harbarthsljoth 24).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.92
    },
    {
      "id": "c6",
      "text": "At Ragnarok Odin is killed by the wolf. Voluspo says \"Othin fares to fight with the wolf\" and that \"there must fall the joy of Frigg\" (Voluspo 53); the giant Vafthruthnir states it flatly, \"The wolf shall fell the father of men, / And this shall Vithar avenge\" (Vafthruthnismol 53; Voluspo 54).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.95
    },
    {
      "id": "c7",
      "text": "Odin has many names: Grimnismol lists them (Grim, Gangleri, Herjan, Allfather, Valfather and dozens more) and closes \"A single name have I never had / Since first among men I fared\" (Grimnismol 46–49, 54); he travels as Vegtam to question the dead seeress (Baldrs draumar 6, 13).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.93
    },
    {
      "id": "c8",
      "text": "Odin won the mead of poetry by deceit: he tells in Hovamol how Gunnloth gave him \"a drink of the marvelous mead\" on a golden stool, how he left Suttung's hall, and how he had sworn an oath on his ring — \"Who now his troth shall trust?\" (Hovamol 104–110).",
      "sources": [
        "poetic-edda-bellows"
      ],
      "confidence": 0.9
    }
  ],
  "takeaways": [
    "Odin's wisdom is bought, each time at a price the poems name — nine nights on the tree for the runes (Hovamol 139), an eye for Mimir's water (Voluspo 28–29), a broken oath for the mead (Hovamol 110).",
    "He chooses half of the battle-dead for Valhall and Freyja the other half (Grimnismol 8, 14).",
    "His death is fixed and stated twice — the wolf swallows him, Vithar avenges him (Voluspo 53–54; Vafthruthnismol 53)."
  ],
  "faqs": [
    {
      "q": "Why did Odin hang himself on a tree?",
      "claim": "c2"
    },
    {
      "q": "How did Odin lose his eye?",
      "claim": "c3"
    },
    {
      "q": "Who are Odin's ravens and wolves?",
      "claim": "c4"
    },
    {
      "q": "How does Odin die at Ragnarok?",
      "claim": "c6"
    },
    {
      "q": "What are Odin's other names?",
      "claim": "c7"
    }
  ],
  "evidence_tier": "primary",
  "evidence": {
    "level": "theoretical",
    "source_types": [
      "paper"
    ]
  },
  "moat_flag": false,
  "winning_edge": "Encyclopaedias blend the Prose Edda's narrative into Odin's biography. This object cites only the Poetic Edda, stanza by stanza, so an agent can say which poem — Hovamol, Voluspo, Grimnismol — is the witness for each trait, and which traits the poems do not carry.",
  "confidence": 0.92,
  "last_verified": "2026-09-03",
  "media": [],
  "x": {
    "myth": {
      "pantheon": "norse",
      "kind": "deity",
      "group": "aesir",
      "domains": [
        "wisdom",
        "runes",
        "poetry",
        "war",
        "the dead",
        "magic"
      ],
      "symbols": [
        "spear",
        "ravens",
        "wolves",
        "the eight-legged horse Sleipnir",
        "one eye"
      ],
      "wikidata": "Q43610"
    }
  },
  "canonical_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/odin",
  "api_url": "https://mythosdata.dev/api/k/odin.json",
  "jsonld": {
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "name": "Odin",
    "description": "Chief of the Norse gods (\"Othin\" in Bellows), \"Allfather\" and \"Valfather\"; father of Thor and Baldr, husband of Frigg, lord of Valhalla, who hung nine nights on the windy tree to win the runes, pledged an eye at Mimir's well, and is fated to be swallowed by the wolf Fenrir at Ragnarok.",
    "url": "https://mythosdata.dev/k/odin",
    "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html",
    "dateModified": "2026-09-03",
    "citation": [
      {
        "@type": "CreativeWork",
        "name": "The Poetic Edda — tr. Henry Adams Bellows (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1923), XML edition by fjarri",
        "url": "https://github.com/fjarri/poetic_edda/tree/master/chapters"
      }
    ],
    "@type": "Article",
    "headline": "Odin"
  }
}