Odin of the Norse

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Odin, who could it be?
The survey part starts
Block from verses 1-9
A look into Snorre
Internet Havamal: The best links detected
"Odin and Solomon" compared

Odin

Few were as grave.

HERE ARE some stories centred on the Norse Odin. The Norse poem Havamal is attributed to him. Significant parts of it and the whole tenor compare with the wisdom literature of Solomon.
There is (1) the quasti-historical Odin, (2) a god of rites, and (3) perhaps a blurred idea of an Odin in any man too. [Ng, sv. "Starkad"]

Quasti-historical

Snorre Sturluson writes that Odin settled in both Odense (Denmark) and Sigtuna (Sweden). He is presented as a a law-maker who instituted Norse laws, rituals, and brought sports with him. Odin apparently spoke in verse, and taught runes. They are Norse alphabeth letters. [Agr]
Odin was a magician. Women in particular were taught Odin's magic, seid. Also, berserk warriors were devoted to Odin, who mastered to make his devoted men strong as bears and mad as dogs and wolves. It was thought that some Norse warriors perhaps could change themselves into fighting bears for a couple of hours, bringing death and ruin to an enemy. Norse berserks are much like Samson when he got the Spirit over him, in part. In one place, when it happened, in a rage he killed a thousand persons with the jaw-bone of a donkey.

[First Samson] went out and caught three hundred foxes [?] and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
The Philistines went up and burned [his wife] and her father to death. Samson [then] attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. [Then 3000 [?] men of Judah bound him with ropes and led him to the Philistines, who] came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came on him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand [?] men. [Judg 15:4-15, passim]

Worth noting about ancient Hebrew writings: Their alphabeth did not contain vowels, and 100 and 1000 and so on were written similarly, and so was 300 and 3000. The translation above rests on later interpretations of Bible writers. So maybe Samson did not manage to get 300 foxes - what a task!. And maybe it was not a thousand armed persons he killed with a fresh jaw-bone either.
Be that as it may. Stories tend to become more fanciful in time. It is a general drift, and found in very many religions or myths.
Odin lorded over dogs and wolves. He could allegedly make enemies go blind, and was handsome, noble and dangerous to behold for offenders. He also knew how to change colour and look. By his word alone he could make the sea still. By his word alone he could make the sea still. He could also make fire go out, and turn the wind in this and that direction. He could also make fire go out, and turn the wind in this and that direction.
At times Odin used to lie down. Then he could be turned into bird, animal, fish or snake (a shape-shifter). He could even be in other countries. Odin used to carry the head of a dead man with him for wise conversation.
Norsemen believed these things, and vital parts of the old Norse religion appears in the form of "folk beliefs" and superstitions in Scandinavia. [Nok 1:3-9; Daf]
Snapshot of Odin material on the site:

The Odin in Heimskringla, ie, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway by Snorre Sturlason (1179-1241).
Havamal, ascribed to Odin, a Norse teaching poem translated by Olive Bray.
Havamal, translated by Henry A. Bellows
Odin as mentioned in the medieval book of Younger Edda by Snorre Sturlason.

Teachings

At a very strange threshold, no matter what it is or where, it could pay to continue being polite and sparing of speech, that is, reserved in some okay way.
Havamal is Norse teaching poetry. The poem consists of 164 verses, and is found in the Poetic Edda (or Edda Saemundar, or the Elder Edda). Medieval Snorre Sturlason wrote a second Edda, called the Younger Edda, or the Prose Edda. Together, these Eddas are "the fullest and most detailed source for modern knowledge of Germanic mythology" [Ebu]
The hold of Snorre's various outputs stem from mythological stuff, great or savage men described in dialogues and otherwise, and the old Norse style he made use of. His writings reflect an Icelanders' interest in pagan ancestors.
In Heimskringla Snorre described the descent of kings of Norway from gods.

The following is extracted mainly from Inger M. Boberg's book on Danish folk tradition:
"Praise of wisdom, recurrently voiced in proverbs of Solomon, is likewise found in Havamal," says Inger M. Boberg, and "Solomon's proverbs and Havamal have many points of view in common." [Daf 135]. A telling side to this so-called wisdom is not to reveal much. "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue." [Proverbs 17:28]
"Havamal consists largely of warning and teaching (instructive) proverbs that were to be urged on the Scandinavians of old. They are the oldest Nordic proverbs known", Boberg also informs. [Daf 133]. Not a few proverbs look better than they work, for "much goes worse than expected", says Havamal, verse 40.
Be that as it may, the fittest proverbs suggest how to accommodate in a tradition, very often linked up to hailed and exemplary personages of the past. Some proverbs deal in prejudice.

Literature
Daf: Boberg, Inger M.: Dansk folketradition i tro og digtning og deraf afhængig skik. (Danmarks Folkeminder; 72) Munksgaard. Copenhagen, 1962.
Nok: Hødnebø, Finn & Magerøy, Hallvard eds: Norges kongesagaer. bd 1-4. Gyldendal. Oslo, 1979.

Havamal sources

Kinnes, Tormod: Håvamål. New Norwegian. —— Easily read.
Holm-Olsen, Ludvig: Edda-dikt. Cappelen. Oslo, 1985. —— It reads well. A very good rendition in Norwegian (bokmaal).
Mortensen-Egnund, Ivar, tr: Håvamål. 8th ed. Det norske Samlaget. Oslo, 1986. —— Old-fashioned Norwegian translation. It is well "knit" aspiring to reflect the Bardic ways with words, and remains one of the translations that are closest to the original. But passages of it may be quite unreadable for Norwegians today.
Erik Brate (1857-1924), tr: Den höges sång —— A very skilled work. The style is partly antiquated. I have brought in on-line.
Gjellerup, Karl, tr: Den ældre eddas gudesange 1. Thaning and Appel. Copenhagen, 1973. —— Annoyingly shuffled verses.
Karl Joseph Simrock (1802-76), übersetzer: Havamal: Des Hohen Lied (first published 1851).
Olive Bray, tr, ed: Hávamál: The Words of Odin the High One. —— Bray's translation from 1908 is a useful translation from The Elder or Poetic Edda, commonly known as Sæmund's Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (London: The Viking Club, 1908), pp. 61-111.
Bellows, Henry A. tr: Hovamol: The Ballad of the High One —— Well explained for most part. Edition from 1938.
Dominick Clos, tr: Havamal: Les dits du tres haut —— "J'ai pris connaissance de la traductions de Régis Boyer, que je considère comme un expert, ainsi que de celle de Gérard Lemarquis d'après une traduction de Matthias Vidar Saemundsson, et me suis inspirée de leurs travaux pour mes hésitations." [The translator/editor]
NN, tr. Hávamál (Icelandic)
Sophus Bugge (1833-1907) , tr: Hávamál —— Norse version. The original text for Feinschmeckers - Sophus Bugge prepared what is considered to be one of the most outstanding critical editions of the Poetic Edda. A professor of comparative philology and Old Norse at the University of Christiania (now: Oslo), he published his edition of the Edda in 1867.

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