A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Search Ask Greg

Search:
Search type:

Displaying 1 record.


Bookmark Link

MtMagus writes...

In Norse mythology, Odin traded his eye (as well as a number of other nasty things that happened to him) for knowledge of the Universe which partly came in the form of 2 ravens known as "Thought" and "Memory". The fact that Odin is allowed to recover the eye and the notable absence of the Ravens in his first appearance suggests that he has lost the knowledge that he traded for. If this is true, what happened to the knowledge he received?

Greg responds...

I wouldn't read the myth that way. I don't ever recall the Ravens as being part of the bargain. It seems to me they were his familiars already. Odin was a knowledge junky. He gained a ton of info by sitting atop his perch in Yggdrasil. That led him to Mimir the wise frost giant, who agreed to trade Odin's eye for a drink from his Well of Knowledge. (Am I getting this right? Someone backstop me.)

Anyway, it seems to me that the eye got away from Mimir (Hard to hold onto something after you've been beheaded.) Which means it is fair game for anyone to salvage, whether Xanatos, Fox, the Archmage, Goliath or Odin himself.

Don't read too much into the absense of the Ravens. As always, the list of what we didn't have time to include could fill a set of encyclopedias.

Response recorded on January 31, 2000