Why did Odin hang from a tree? The following lines of poetry are well known by those who study Old Norse, but Christian scholars often think that the words are suggesting that Odin is replicating the act of Jesus at the Crucifixion. And in this video we will look at the evidence of that and work out what is really going on, although this is just one view of many...

I know that I hung from a branch of a windswept tree
For nine long nights, marked by a spear, and dedicated to Odinn
Myself to myself on that tree of which no one knows where its roots go
No one gave me food nor drink
And as I looked down, searching, I took the runes,
Shrieking, screaming, I took them,
And only then could I fall back

Just for a change I had the poem read by Grinters, a Morgan Freeman impersonator from Fiverr

And as always my Ukrainian friend, Mamontova, draws the thumbnails. She is also on Fiverr, and could really do with support and help right now. So if you have any illustrations you would like drawn please consider using her :)

References (sorry there's alot but I was writing another piece at the same time about the Yggdrassil, which I will make a video on soon)...

Liberman, Anatoly. 2016. Prayer and Laughter, Essays on Medieval Scandanavian and Germanic Mythology, Litreature, and Culture. Paleograph Press.
Magnússon, Eiríkr. 1895. Óðinn’s Horse Yggdrasill. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
Schjødt, Jens P. 2008. Initiation between Two Worlds: Structure and Symbolism in PreScandinavian Christian Religion. Translated by Victor Hansen. The Viking Collection. Studies in Northern Civilization 17. The University Press of Southern Denmark
Sundqvist, Olaf. 2009. The Hanging, the Nine Nights and the “Precious Knowledge” in Hávamál 138–145: The Cultic Context. Analecta Septentrionalia. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 649668
Faulkes, Anthony. 2008. The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturlusson. Everyman
Grønvik, Ottar. (1999) Hávamál: Studier over verkets formelle oppbygning og dets religiøse innhold
Hunke, Waltraud. 1952. Odins Geburt. Festschrift Genzmer

Chapters
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0:00 Introduction
1:20 Stanzas 138 and 139 of the Hávamál
2:09 Bugge and his Christian thoughts
3:46 The Old Norse Traditions
4:57 Death and the number nine
6:20 The role of the spear
7:19 Myself to myself
8:20 A sacrifice or a ritual?
9:04 Who would write this, what would it be based on?
11:43 Is Odin hanging a reflection of the Crucifixion of Jesus?