ODILON
298
ODIXGTON^
Otlio III, St. Henrj-, Conrad the Salique, Henry the Black (liis son) ; Hugh Capet and Robert, kings of France ; and also Sanchez, Kamir, and Garsias, kings of Spain, showed the greatest veneration for him. Odilo obtained deserved praise on account of his many char- itable works, especially among the poor people during a severe famine in France, and was so much thought of by the populace as to be reputed even to have worked miracles. He died at Souvigni .Ian. 1, 1049. The Church commemorates him on Jan. '2 and .June 21 ; Bail- let indicates April 12 and Nov. 13. Odilo wrote a life of St. Adelaide, the wife of emperor Otho I, which was first published by Canisius (^Lectiones Anfiqua, vol. iii). Basnage claims that it is erroneously attributed to Odilo, but his arguments are refuted in the edition accompanied by a preface published by Duchesne and ^Marrier {Bibli- otheca Chiniacensis, p. 353). Odilo wrote also a biog- raphy of his predecessor, St. ]\Iaieul, published by Surius and the Bollandists under the date of May 11, and in the Bibl. Cluniacensis, p. 279 ; the latter work contains also fourteen sermons of Odilo, and two others are given by Martene (A necdnta,\. (>21). Most of his letters, which according to Jotsaud, one of his biographers, were very numerous, are now lost; there are four given in the Bibl. Cluniacensis, and three others by Luc d'Acherj' {Spicilegium, ii, 386). Finallv, the Bibl. Cluniacensis gives under his name some small poems, a writing enti- tled CreduUtds, etc. See Gallia Christiana, vol. iv, col. 1128; Hist, litter, de la France, vii, 414; Jotsaud, Vita de eodem (id.); Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum, viii, G80; S. Odilonis (Bibl. Cluniacensis) ; Basnage, A uctorum Testimonia; Canisius's Zec^jo«e.s (1725); Baxmann,/'o- litik der Pdpste, vol. ii ; (Jieseler, Ch. Hist, ii, 176 ; Ne- ander, Ch. Hist, iii, 418 ; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. xxiii, 35 sq. (J. II. W.)
Odilon, a French monastic, flourished in the open- ing of the 10th century. He died about 920. All that is known of the circumstances of his life is that he had intimate relations with Hucbald of Saint-Araaud and Ingranne, dean of Saint-Medard, who was created bishop of Laon in 932. The writings of Odilon are, a recital of the removal of the bodies of St. Sebastian and St. Greg- ory the Great from Kome to Saint-^NIedard de Soissons, published by Bollandus and Mabillon, Acta Sanct. Ord. S. Bened. v, 383 : — another history, of the removal of the relics of St. Marcellin, St. Peter the exorcist, and others, in the same volume of the Acta, p. 411: — a letter to Hucbald, given to the public by Martene, A mpliss. Col- lect, vol. i. The authors of the Hist, litteraire speak of some other works, but they are attributed to the monk Odilon only by simple conjecture. See Hist, litter, de la France, vi, 173. — Hoefer, Xouv. Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 478.
Odin is the name of the principal divinity of North- ern mythology. According to the sagas, Odin and his brothers. Vile and Ve, the sons of Boei; or the first- born, slew Yraer or Chaos, and from his body created the world, converting his flesh into dry land ; his blood, ■which at first occasioned a flood, into the sea ; his bones into mountains ; his skull into the vault of heaven ; and his brows into the spot known as Miilgaard, the middle part of the earth, intended for the habitation of the sons of men. Oilin, as the highest of the gods, the A l/'ader, rules heaven and earth, and is omniscient. As ruler of heaven, his seat is Valaskjalf, whence his two black ra- vens, Huginn (Thought) and Muninn (Memory), fly daily forth to gather tidings of all that is done through- out the world. As god of war, he holds his court in Walhalla, whither come all brave warriors after death to- revel in the tumultuous joys in which they took most pleasure while on earth. His greatest treasures are his eight-footed steed Sleipncr, his spear Gung- ner, and his ring Draupner. As the concentration and source of all greatness, excellence, and activity, Odin is called also by many other names. By drinking from Mimir's fountain he became the wisest of gods and men,
but he purchased the distinction at the cost of one eye. He is the greatest of sorcerers, and imparts a knowledge of his wondrous arts to his favorites. Frigga is his queen, and the mother of Baldur, the Scandinavian Apollo ; but he has other wives and favorites, and a nu- merous progeny of sons and daughters. Although the worship of Odin extended over all the Scandinavian lands, it found its most zealous followers in Denmark, where he still rides abroad as the wild huntsman, rush- ing over land and water in the storm-beaten skies of winter.
The historical interpretation of this myth, as given by Snorre Sturleson, the conifiiler of the Ileimskrintjla, or Chronicles of the Kings of Norway prior to the intro- duction of Christianity, and followed in recent times by the historian Suhm, is that Odin was a chief of the Qisir, a Scythian tribe, who, fleeing before the ruthless aggressions of the Komans, passed through Gerinany to Scandinavia, where, by their noble appearance, superior prowess, and higher intelligence, they easily vanquished the inferior races of those lands, and persuaded them that they were of godlike origin. According to one tra- dition, Odin conquered the country of the Saxons on his waj'; and leaving one of his sons to rule there and introduce a new religion, in which he, as the chief god Wuotan, received divine honors, advanced on his vic- torious course, and making himself master of Denmark, placed another son, Skjold, to reign over the land, from whom descended the roj'al dynasty of the Skjoldiugar. He next entered Sweden, where the king, Gylfi, ac- cepted his new religion, and with the whole nation worshipped him as a divinity, and received his son Yugni as their supreme lord and high-priest, from whom descended the royal race of Vuglingars, who long reigned in Sweden. In like manner he founded, through his son Seeming, a new dynasty in Norway ; and besides these, many sovereign families of Northern Germany, including the Anglo-Saxon princes, traced their descent to Odin. As it has been found impossible to refer to one individual all the mythical and historical elements which group themselves around the name of Odin, Wo- din, or Wuotan, it has been suggested by Suhm and other historians that there may have been two or three ancient northern heroes of the name; but notwithstand- ing the conjectures which have been advanced since the very dawn of the historical period in the North in regard to the origin and 4iative country of the assumed Odin, or even the time at which he lived, aO that relates to him is shrouded in complete obscurity. — Chambers, Cyclop, s. V. It is much more probable, however, that the myth of Odin originated in nature-worship. See also Clarke, Ten Great Religions ; Thorpe, Xorthern l^Iy- thology, i, 164, 229, 274 sq.; Westminster Rev. Oct. 1854, art. i ; Smith, A ncient Britain ; Anderson, Northern My- thology (see Index). See Nokse Mythologv.