Editing Hávamál (section)

===''Rúnatal''===
[[Image:Odin's Self-sacrifice by Collingwood.jpg|thumb|"Odin's Self-sacrifice" (1908) by W. G. Collingwood.]]
[[File:Jelling gr Stein 3.JPG|thumb|The younger [[Jelling stone]] (erected by [[Harald Bluetooth]] c. 970) shows the [[crucifixion of Christ]] with the victim suspended in the branches of a tree instead of on a cross.<ref>cf. Patton 2009:271.</ref>]]
'''''Rúnatal''''' or '''''Óðins Rune Song''''', ''Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins'' (stanzas 139–146) is a section of the ''Hávamál'' where Odin reveals the origins of the [[runes]].
In stanzas 139 and 140, Odin describes his sacrifice of himself to himself:


"Vęit ec at ec hecc<br />
vindga meiði a<br />
nętr a''l''lar nío,<br />
geiri vndaþ''r''<br />
''oc'' gefi''nn'' Oðni,<br />
sialfr sialfo''m'' m''er'',<br />
a þei''m'' meiþi,<br />
er mangi veit,<br />
hvers h''ann'' af róto''m'' re''nn''.

Við hleifi mic seldo<br />
ne viþ hórnigi,<br />
nysta ec niþ''r'',<br />
na''m'' ec vp rv́nar,<br />
ǫpandi na''m'',<br />
fę''l''l ec aptr þatan."


''I know that I hung on a windy tree''<br />
''[[Numbers in Norse mythology|nine]] long nights,''<br />
''wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,''<br />
''myself to myself,''<br />
''on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.''

''No bread did they give me nor a [[Drinking horn|drink from a horn]],''<br />
''downwards I peered;''<br />
''I took up the runes,''<br />
''screaming I took them,''<br />
''then I fell back from there.''<ref name=LARRINGTON34>Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) ''The Poetic Edda'', p. 34. [[Oxford World's Classics]] {{ISBN|0-19-283946-2}}</ref>


The "windy tree" from which the victim hangs is often identified with the world tree [[Yggdrasil]] by commentators. The entire scene, the sacrifice of a god to himself, the execution method by hanging the victim on a tree, and the wound inflicted on the victim by a spear, is often compared to the [[crucifixion of Christ]] as narrated in the [[gospel]]s.
The parallelism of Odin and Christ during the period of open co-existence of Christianity and Norse paganism in Scandinavia (the 9th to 12th centuries, corresponding with the assumed horizon of the poem's composition) also appears in other sources. To what extent this parallelism is an incidental similarity of the mode of [[human sacrifice]] offered to Odin and the crucifixion, and to what extent a Pagan influence on Christianity, has been discussed by scholars such as [[Sophus Bugge]].<ref>a sketch of the problem is given by  Kimberley Christine Patton, ''Religion of the gods: ritual, paradox, and reflexivity'' Oxford University,  {{ISBN|978-0-19-509106-9}}, chapter 7 "Myself to Myself: The Norse Odin and Divine Autosacrifice".</ref>

The persistence of Odin's self-sacrifice in Scandinavian folk tradition was documented by Bugge (1889) in a poem from [[Unst]] on the [[Shetland Islands]]:

''Nine days he hang' pa de rütless tree;''<br />
''For ill wis da folk, in' güd wis he.''<br />
''A blüdy mael wis in his side —''<br />
''Made wi' a lance — 'at wid na hide.''<br />
''Nine lang nichts,  i' de nippin rime,''<br />
''Hang he dare   wi' his naeked limb.''<br />
''Some dey leuch;''<br />
''Bid idders gret''.<ref name=bugge>[https://runeberg.org/bsheltsagn/1/0318.html Bugge, Sophus. (1889) ''Studier over de nordiske gude- og heltesagns oprindelse'', p. 308f.]</ref><br />