Odin and Wisdom 

This video from 2018 mentions a Discord community connected to my Patreon page. This Discord was a brief experiment that was discontinued later in 2018 and no longer exists.

So Havamal is basically Odin's tweets. Neat.

"Never laugh at an old man. There is often wisdom in what old men say; wise words will often come from a gray-bearded mouth."

"...I also don't think of him as an old man." Nice save. :)

You know every time I go to your Channel, I am always inspired. And it's nice to know that someone with your depth of understanding about an extremely obscure subject has almost 80,000 followers. It gives hope to Independence like myself that if you can do it I can too. I've studied Norse mythology since I was a young man I am now 63 years old. I don't have anywhere near the knowledge that you do, but please keep reducing videos keep writing books. This knowledge has to be transferred to a younger generation . European culture has Deep Roots and should be respected and shown the proper place in the world.

YESSSSSSSSSS THIS IS HOW TO START A TUESDAY

I have enjoyed Ecclesiastes as well, and especially appreciate the injunction to not be “too wise,” which Oðin also mentions. And I am mildly annoyed by people who argue about “which culture influenced other cultures earlier,” as if there is a cosmic competition to be the first culture to have had someone write down an idea in a form which reaches us.

I'd love to see a pocket sized version of the Cowboy Havamal complete with some your slides sir...that'd be awesome.

I’m from Montana originally. I love to see the backdrop of the beautiful Rockies. It’s a soothing balm to my homesickness. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and knowledge. Blessings

Your grandfather sounds like the most awesome cowboy that ever lived.

There is a scene in Don Quixote De La Mancha where Don Quixote is giving advice to Sancho Panza before he leaves his service as a squire and becomes govener of an "island". I read this about a week after I first read the Poetic Edda, and I was quite taken by the similarities between the advice given by Don Quixote and by Óðinn in Hávamál.

I have become more and more enthralled (not to be confused with the lowest level of Norse Society:) with your presentations and and seeking them out here on YT. I had forgotten how good it felt to attend classes.I plan on becoming a Patreon member. Thank you.

Every day is a bad day. Every day is a fight. At the end of the day, I am victorious.

Convergent evolution of thought. I really liked the lecture style tone of this video, and the comparison to twitter.

This topic clearly means a great deal to Dr Crawford. It really is ok to let go, admit you're basically "heathen" or "pagan" in your soul, or maybe you kinda shade in that direction. You feel something there. You wouldn't pursue this so ardently if you didn't. :wink wink: Well, ok, I'll be a good girl for now, but if you ever decide to come on over to the dark side just know this: You'd be hugely welcome We. Have. Cookies.

Outstanding. Thank you.

Thanks for the video Dr. Crawford.

Amazing video like always, thanks a lot to share your wisdom and knowledge

thanks as always Dr Crawford - very wise words

Thanks!

Tusen tack för dom kloka orden. Kram och solsken 🌞 N

I enjoyed it a great deal. :) Thank you :)

That's a great perspective to have. Hopefully someday recognizing parallels will be commonplace and we won't have to fight over who was first/superior/inspiring/correct/absolute with their ideas and concepts.

Sweet True Detective Reference

I'd love to see a full video comparing the two literary notes.

Stabbing yourself hurts 😢 ~Odin~

When it comes to the part of Hávamál that talks about it being better to be alive than dead, I am reminded of Ecclesiastes, 'Better a live dog than a dead lion.'

In new zealand there are many examples of old men that have gone the opposite way...I've met 12 year old with more grace and maturity than most of these guys. (They're usually city dweller/townies) When you met a truly wise man though; he changes your life :)

happy Tíwesdæg!!

makes sense to me

very interesting to see that stanza about the alcohol and what it does to men and the wise, and then on top that odin doesn’t eat and only intakes wine. does this perhaps suggest that the knowledge he gained was to great to bear?

You are so interesting. I listen for hours sometimes, driving or doing projects or house work. Thank you for enriching our lives!

Just goes to show how similar people are.

I am always on an Odin kick LOL.

3:15 I think the lesson here is not necessarily a pure dichotomy between being wise and unwise. There is a middle ground one might call common sense. It is neither wise, nor unwise, but rather a baseline of expected behavior to keep you out of trouble. The unwise may lack the common sense of cows to stop eating when full, but the alternative (having this common sense) does not necessarily make one wise, it just makes the /not/ unwise. :) Those we consider wise are simply sharing experience, often hard-won through past unwise behavior. Heed their warnings and learn from their mistakes.

Dat intro

How powerful must light be that it pushes back the darkness at that speed 🤷‍♂️ you can flip that phrase pretty easily to a more optimistic view. Seems more fitting to me.

This reminds me of Jantelagen in some ways

I'm stuck thinking about the self-sacrifice of Odin and the self-sacrifice of Siddhartha Gautama. Both were self-centered sacrifices to try to obtain wisdom through suffering. When I read through the Havamal, my question isn't, "Is the Bible in this?" but rather "This has a faint whiff of Buddhist thought and Eastern wisdom." I'm kind of stuck thinking about the Buddha statue found at Helgo. Any thoughts on this?

Any word on the progress of your childrens book?

9:54 that's in AC!

interesting that even 1500 years ago the Norse looked askance at Al K. Hall

Loved this! Super interesting video. I especially like how you find connections and resemblances between wisdom literature from different epochs and places, where there seemingly have not been any exchange (of ideas, or trade, or anything else). The parallel between the Christian sacrifice of Jesus, son of God (emphasizing OF God, i.e. God Himself) for the benefit or purchase of something (redemption, of fallen mankind) and Odin’s sacrifice of himself to himself is obvious; not least in the manner the sacrificial ritual is carried out. It’s one thing that there might be this age-old pattern in human life since before history that you need to let go of something of value in order to gain something of HIGHER value (that’s the sacrifice). This wisdom pattern could then pop up in different religious and spiritual traditions around the world. But why this particular parallel between Odin and Jesus? The sacrifice could have been carried out differently, for any of them. Why not throw yourself off a cliff? Why not being burnt alive? Or eaten by wild animals? Dying (and then rising again) is not enough; you have to die a certain way (on display, with an audience, at least in the case of Jesus) and then this hanging-on-a-piece-of-wood-thing. Or maybe it was just the common way of executing people, by ways of hanging, in both the times of Old Norse Myths and 1st century Jerusalem (with the exception that neither Odin nor Jesus were ’people’ according to their respective mythology). Also, the chronology confuses me here: why assume that Christianity influenced Old Norse Mythology when it probably was the other way around? Or possibly both ways? Does the Christian timeline and mythology stretch further back than the Old Norse? Some of the core ideas and concepts and rituals could have been there before written time, or maybe most of them. What’s to say that the idea of Odin, god, sacrificing himself to himself (God to God) on a piece of wood could not have trickled down southwards through the ages, and ended up in 1st century Jerusalem (or anywhere else for that matter 🙂). It’s an intriguing thought, not even counting the spiritual possibility (that Divinity has revealed itself in different times and different places but in similar fashion). Greetings from (modern) Sweden.

Any links to the Egyptian and Sumerian sources mentioned?

Odin leaves his signature in a way that can be read from aeon to aeon. That signature is a reoccurring story that he leaves behind in each lifetime so that humanity can see the work that he has been doing. Odin and King Solomon are one and the same. Thanks for the video.

Odin didn't kill the first thing explicitly, just the first jotunn. Wolves, snakes, and other hostile things are presumed to be older. It's interesting that both show up so much in the lore, perhaps as a callback to those primeval powers, but I'm likely overthinking it.

Do your books contain the untranslated texts too?

Maybe I am only paraphrasing what you said, but I think that phrasing proverbs in the negative accomplishes something else. By spotlighting the attributes and actions of "the lesser man," the speaker is including the listener in the group of beings who are (again negative) not of the group that includes "the lesser man": Us against Them. The speaker, by virtue of that inclusion, is inviting the listener to contemplate wisdom and to seek it merely by assuming that the listener is already doing so. To me, it has the flavor of an inside joke but the intention (or effect) is that of a Keeper of The Way, or more properly, a Torchbearer Toward The Way. The line in the sand has been drawn; the listener must then choose the side.

eg skulle ynskja allfader var på twitter

What was that comment about Odin sacrificing himself in something like ... Brunathal? What is that word?

How do you keep your sweat off that hat?

Is there a Norse word dictionary? Just asking 👍

Hej mr. Crawford, have you been to Europe to see the language you studied and teach? any interest in archeology or to see the runes in person?

So, would you say, to an extent, that pursuing less wisdom would be wise?

Do you have an episode that speaks of Odin's 3 drinking Horn's of wisdom?

I think the reason age is associated with wisdom and why the wise old man archetype exists is because for the majority of human history you'd be lucky to get to 40 so someone in their 60s or 70s must know a thing or two.

Any word on the Textbook Introduction to Old Norse?

Is the grandfather you reference in some of your videos your mother's father? I ask that to ask this...what is his surname? Do you have Norse roots from that side of your family?

Eth and thorn are used interchangeably. Their pronunciation depends on whether they are used initially, finally or medially in a word. If at the beginning or end of a word, they are voiceless as in "thin" and "thick." If in the middle of a word they are voiced as in "thus" or "then."

lost it at "spineful as a whale"

9:30 No s_-T..

Wisdom is Odin😶

Odin continually good Leadership. He walks his talk and has the scuff marks too prove it. Hard Experence is one way to acquire Wisdom or Brain Death. Cinch up your head gear!

Well, technically we use writing, the wheel, the clock... literature and what not because of the Sumerians. We all are heavily (although indirectly influenced by them). Even though we live in 21. century our live is so much influenced by the Shumerians, more so perhaps than by any other people, at least any other non-European.

First?

third

My Gods you must have been miserable at Berkeley.....

You are ready for a rodeo show Jackson that's my opinion and comment you guys went and recognize fossils if you had them in your hands I brought your colleagues some real stuff up there the other week. And they were real they're out for lunch and on good drugs. I would love to have your PhD for your degree and challenge you on these items that I have. They need to be x-rayed seriously. But you guys are out for lunch all the time and can't see what's real in front of you. I wished I got paid good to walk around and look like a genuine cowboy.

Indo European wisdom influenced the bible. Norse stories influenced the bible

I've never met a wise man who thought he was wise.