Odin, a Trickster?
I was recently watching a video by Arith Härger entitled “Animism: The Trickster Spirit.” In it Arith is talking about what the purpose of Trickster spirits are in lore from around the world. Of course he is using Loki as an example in this context. However, it had me revisiting one of my recurring thoughts about Odin and how he sometimes also plays a Trickster role in the lore.
Odin is able to shapeshift into animals, but also disguise his own appearance to men, and the Jotunn, and even his own son, Thor. It is always through a mix of wile and charm that he gets his way. Odin disguises himself as Gagnráðr to challenge Vafþrúðnir, wisest of the Jotunn in a battle of wits. In another story Odin disguises himself as Grimnir to check his foster-son Geirroth’s hospitality in a wager with Frigg. Further on in the Poetic Edda, Odin disguises himself as Greybeard, a ferryman, and taunts Thor. In the Prose Edda Odin takes on the persona of Bölverkr to gain access to the mead of poetry. There are many more stories that I could bring up illustrating the same trickster behaviour Odin uses to achieve his ends.
Despite all of this some of the lore just never sits with me right. I think it is how much the stories have changed over the years in different retellings. The character of Odin and Loki both don’t remain consistent between stories. I don’t want to get into Loki too much here or it will be even longer, so instead I will focus on Odin.
Now I get that Odin is supposed to have many faces, but that doesn’t account for some of the complete changes of character that occur in the lore. The stories were never meant to fool the reader (or listener, in the oral traditions…) only the other characters within the stories, so there is no reason for the character of Odin to change so much that the reader (listener) does not recognize him anymore.
My thoughts on why this occurs are because the people who wrote down the Sagas and Eddas either did not understand, or deliberately changed Odin’s character in order to fit their own narratives. The result is a confusing picture of the nature of this god, and also it partially obscures his Trickster nature. This is problematic in understanding his purpose in historical context.
As Arith points out in his video the Aesir usually represent order and are the gods of the nobility, whereas Loki as a trickster figure appealed to the common people. I am not sure it is that simple. Sure, the nobility liked Odin because at some point he became a war god as one of his functions, but he is not a god of order. Not really. Odin does things for his own purposes and by his own means.
There is nothing more suspicious in the sagas than an unsolicited gift from Odin. Take for example the sword he thrusts into Barnastokk in the Volsung Saga. What was the price for that gift? Sigmund loses his life, and while Sigurd is initially very successful the whole Volsung lineage begins a very pointed decline shortly thereafter. It is no surprise to see Odin on the battlefield to take Sigmund’s life himself. That was what Odin sought from the start.
The purpose of a Trickster figure is to create progress and change. Order has to be broken for something new to form. Odin creates the world with his brother’s by creating chaos from the order that existed previously. Yes, order is reestablished in a new and different way.
But even as Odin fights to maintain the new order he has created, he befriends Loki and seeks a certain kinship with him. I think that Odin recognizes something of himself in Loki.
Loki makes a lot of mistakes but always rights them and the Aesir get out ahead each time. That is until we reach the point in the Lore where Loki gets associated with the death of Baldur and then later comes before the Aesir and insults all of them. Suddenly, Odin turns on him. This always sat with me wrong. The other gods turning on Loki made sense, but Odin swore Loki would always be welcome in his hall. And Odin saw ahead what would happen to Baldur, and he also saw Ragnarok. With all that foresight he must have seen if he turned on Loki that it would bring about his own demise.
Yet in every other story Odin seeks to prevent Ragnarok, and change fate. And in every other story Loki is redeemable. Every time I read this part of the lore I feel it must have been recorded incorrectly. There were either details omitted or added that change the narrative. It is the pivotal point where something goes amiss. Odin goes against his own character. And yet, it depends what Odin actually wants. Does he want to prevent Ragnarok like he strives to do for so long? Or does he see it suddenly more clearly that the chaos of Ragnarok will lead to a change that is necessary and will bring about something new and positive after that strife? In that moment, does he realize that he and Loki are key to how fate will play out and that he doesn’t want to change his fate anymore?
I am still exploring these ideas. There are always certain stories in the lore that I go back to again and again and see something different in them each time. I think that is in some ways the purpose of them. In the oral tradition stories had to be meaningful to be told again and again and passed down over centuries. It makes total sense there would be layers of meanings within them that could teach you something different at different times in your life. Don’t even get me started on the Binding of Fenrir! Perhaps another time.
Sources:
“Animism: The Trickster Spirit” by Arith Härger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQdZzxwsDzU
The Poetic Edda translated by Henry Adams Bellows https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/index.htm
The Prose Edda of Snorri Sturlson translated by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/index.htm
The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok translated by Jackson Crawford
Image Source:
Costume design by Carl Emil Doepler (1876) https://www.flickr.com/photos/54525871@N05/5059842950/in/album-72157624969947145/
