Odin was the king of the Norse gods, but he was very different from the Greek king Zeus. According to the legends, Odin was wise and quiet, hungry to learn every secret in the universe. He had only one eye, because he had given the other one away in exchange for a sip from a magical fountain of wisdom.
Two ravens helped him keep track of everything. They were called Huginn, meaning “thought,” and Muninn, meaning “memory.” Every morning the ravens flew off to scout the world, and every evening they returned to perch on Odin’s shoulders and whisper everything they had seen into his ears.
Odin also rode an eight-legged horse named Sleipnir, the fastest horse in all the nine worlds the Vikings believed in. Wednesday is actually named after him - in Old English his name was “Woden,” and “Wednesday” originally meant “Woden’s day.” Vikings believed Odin gathered the souls of brave warriors after battle.
