Growing up in Norway, I was always interested in Norse mythology. There was something about the human-like ways of the Norse gods, how they were both good and evil, and the monsters, like the demon wolf Fenrir and the World Serpent Jörmungandr, both children of Loki.
I recently read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, and it brought me back to my childhood stories of gods fighting giants, or jotner, as we call them in Norwegian. It inspired me to make an illustration of Odin, as you can see above. Odin was the leader of the Aesir, the Norse gods, and the father of all, the Allfather.
Odin knew all and saw all. To achieve this he sacrificed himself by hanging in the world tree Yggdrasil for days, and he gave one eye to Mimir for a sip of his well for knowledge. He also had two ravens flying around the nine worlds, reporting back to him whatever they saw, and they saw everything.
He had two wolves, Geri and Freki, a magic spear named Gungnir, and two golden bracelets which reproduced themselves, making him the wealthiest of all. Magic items are quite common in Norse mythology, with Mjölnir, Thor's hammer, as the most famous one.
The Vikings feared Odin, more than they feared most of their gods, and they did fear them a lot. They made sacrifices to him, both of animals and humans. He was a god of war and violence, but also of knowledge and poetry. Odin might even be one of the oldest origins of Father Christmas, since he at midwinter used to travel the world and give present to good children and bring with him the bad ones. He's soften up quite a bit through the centuries.
One day, at Ragnarok, when the world will end, Odin will be eaten by Fenrir. Fenrir will also eat the sun, and it will all be over.
This is the sketch for the illustration:
I changed it a bit, because I wanted him to look mightier.
I wrote a little story about Odin after making the illustration, which you can read here, on Fictionspawn Monsters.
Over at Writing on Tangents there's a good rewiev of Gaiman's book, here.
And here's a bit more information about Odin.
Thank you for reading, please upvote and follow for more.
I should comment more when I upvote, but I feel that I'm just repeating myself: I love your art! There, I said the same thing again. :)
Don't worry, I can't hear that enough ;) Thanks!
This doesn't seem to a very friendly god, does it? :) Thank you for sharing the story. I've never heard about him. Also, thank you for showing him to us! :)
Thank you! He's quite nasty, to tell you the truth. Treacherous and mean when it suits him, but a very complex and varied character, with good sides and bad sides, like most of us. His origins goes way back, and he seems to have been some kind of night-god before he became the leader of the Aesir. Thanks for stopping by, and for commenting :)
Lovely art and lovely retelling about Odin, one of my favourite gods :).
I like that you drew him winking, not sure why but it is endearing to me ^_^.
Thank you! He lacks an eye, so he's kind of blinking permanently ;) :D
Hello @fictionspawn, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine. The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!
Love him! He looks like Odin, for sure, the one-eyed all father :D I love Norse mythology so coming across posts like this always makes me happy :D
Great! More might come... ;) Thanks for letting me know, Veryspider!
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
Well, since you can't hear it enough, I love it too!
Thanks a lot, Deirdyweirdy! Always happy for your comments :)
💀 The drawing reminds me of a Red man. 💀
Hmmmm.... What is a Red man?