Of which no one knows
From what root it springs.”
As he thus hangs, himself the sacrifice offered to himself as god, he composes a song of twice nine runes, and the result of the twelfth is:—
“If on a tree I see
A corpse swinging by a halter,
I can so grave runes
And them write
That that man shall with me
Walk and converse.”
That is to say, every victim hung on a tree becomes one of Odin’s band, with whom he rides in the storm blast over the earth.