Question about the Norse gods

[David19]

I've got a question about the Norse gods. I was reading an article by Diana Paxson (http://www.vinland.org/heathen/mt/earth.html), and she talks about Asatru and various things relating to it, but she also mentions this:

Although the deeper thinkers of all cultures seem to recognize an underlying Divine Principle which is beyond personification (perhaps seen in the Norse myth in the mysterious references to the High One, Just-as-High, and Third),

I haven't really read much of the Norse sagas like the Eddas, but who is 'the High One', is it supposed to be something like the Deist god (an impersonal creator) or is it something else, i've heard that Odin was also called 'the High One' (i think), do any of the sagas say who it is, or is it just left as an 'open ended' thing (like, a 'mystery').

Thanks for any help you can give me.

[Rick]

It is one of Odin's personfications

[mothwench]

:uhhuhuh:
in the havamal http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/havamal.html odin is referred to as the high one. but i've never heard of the just-as-high or third. dunno where those came from. :huh:

[Garm]

:uhhuhuh:
in the havamal http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/havamal.html odin is referred to as the high one. but i've never heard of the just-as-high or third. dunno where those came from. :huh:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm

[mothwench]

aha. thanks! :graduate: i found it in this paragraph:

Then asked Gangleri: "Where is this god, or what power hath he, or what hath he wrought that is a glorious deed?" Hárr made answer: "He lives throughout all ages and governs all his realm, and directs all things, great

[1. High.

2. Equally High.

3. Third.]

{p. 16}

and small." Then said Jafnhárr: "He fashioned heaven and earth and air, and all things which are in them." Then. spake Thridi: "The greatest of all is this: that he made man, and gave him the spirit, which shall live and never perish, though the flesh-frame rot to mould, or burn to ashes; and all men shall live, such as are just in action, and be with himself in the place called Gimlé. But evil men go to Hel and thence down to the Misty Hel; and that is down in the ninth world." Then said Gangleri: "What did he before heaven and earth were made?" And Hárr answered: "He was then with the Rime-Giants."

but i'm confused about the context. why is it squished into the paragraph like that? looks very weird.

[Garm]

aha. thanks! :graduate: i found it in this paragraph:



but i'm confused about the context. why is it squished into the paragraph like that? looks very weird.

Looks weird because the change from text to HTML didn't come off quite right, the 1 2 and 3 are the footnotes to page fifteen, you'll see the numbers near the top of that page in brackets beside the words they are defining,

"and his name is Hárr;[1] but the next is named Janhárr;[2] and he who is uppermost is called Thridi."[3]

[mothwench]

oh, okay. right-o. thanks. :kooky:

[wolf]

I'm wondering if some of those concepts weren't grafted onto the tales later, given that they've been filtered through 2,000 years of Christianity.

[Rick]

This above link is from the Prose Edda by Snorri... let each draw his/her own conclusion regarding Christian influence... from the Poetic Edda (pre-Christian), the title of the poem Havamal translates to something like "Sayings of the High One"