From Odin to Christ

Long before the Cross rose over Europe, the North already whispered of a god who would hang upon a tree.

In the Hávamál, Odin offers himself to himself — pierced by a spear, suspended upon Yggdrasil, the World Tree, in search of wisdom.
For nine nights he hangs in silence, wounded and alone, until the runes of truth are revealed.
He descends not triumphant, but transformed — bearing the knowledge men could not find on their own.

It is a haunting image: the god who suffers not for punishment, but for revelation.

When the light of Christ came to the North, it did not erase this story — it fulfilled it.
For on another tree, upon another hill, the mystery deepened:
the God who hangs there is not seeking wisdom, but giving it.
He is not pierced to learn, but to redeem.
The blood that falls from His side is not a bargain with Himself, but a ransom for all.

Where Odin grasped after truth, Christ became it.
Where one ascended through pain to gain knowledge, the other descended through pain to give life.

Perhaps that’s why the Norse myths endured — because somewhere in them was the shadow of a greater light.
The longing for a sacrifice that would end all sacrifices.
The yearning for a wisdom that was not taken, but given.

✨ Lesson:
Every myth is a fragment of the same truth — the heart’s attempt to remember the God who wrote redemption into the story of the world.