Odin's Runes (from the Edda)

The Norse god Odin (a.k.a. Odinn, Woden, and Wotan) sings of how he took up the secret craft of runes and rune-making in an ancient Scandinavian lay, "The Song of the High One" (Hávamal). Here is a key segment, translated from medieval Icelandic by Patricia Terry (in Poems of the Elder Edda, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990):

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Odin said:
I know that I hung on a high windy tree
for nine long nights;
pierced by a spear - Odin's pledge -
given myself to myself.
No one can tell about that tree,
from what deep roots it rises.

They brought me no bread, no horn to drink from,
I gazed toward the ground.
Crying aloud, I caught up runes;
finally I fell.

Nine mighty songs I learned from the son
of Bölthorn, Bestla's father,
and I came to drink of that costly mead
the holy vessel held.

Thus I learned the secret lore,
prospered and waxed in wisdom;
I won words from the words I sought,
verses multiplied where I sought verse.

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(First posted 30 August 2004)