With Odin’s self the strife of wit,
Wisest of the wise that breathe:
Our stake was life, and thou hast won.”
Vafthrudni’s-mal (W. Taylor’s tr.).
As is the case with so many of the Northern myths, which are often fragmentary and obscure, this one ends here, and none of the scalds inform us whether Odin really slew his rival, nor what was the answer to his last question; but mythologists have hazarded the suggestion that the word whispered by Odin in Balder’s ear, to console him for his untimely death, must have been the hopeful term “resurrection.”
Invention of runes.
Besides being god of wisdom, Odin was god and inventor of runes, the earliest alphabet used by Northern nations, which characters, meaning mystery, were at first used for divination, although in later times they served for inscriptions and records. Just as wisdom could only be obtained at the cost of sacrifice, Odin himself relates that he hung nine days and nights from the sacred tree Yggdrasil, gazing down into the immeasurable depths of Nifl-heim, plunged in deep thought, ere, after wounding himself with his spear, he won the knowledge he sought.
“I know that I hung
On a wind-rocked tree
Nine whole nights,