The principal god in Norse mythology. According to one story, Odin sacrificed one of his eyes into Mimir's Well of Wisdom, so that he might drink from it and learn of the future. Another tale holds that Odin spent nine nights and days hanging from Yggdrasil, the World Tree, also to gain wisdom, and it was during this time that he discovered the runes (including algiz and also gar, which is associated with Odin's spear, the object he used in his hanging). Odin was known as Master of the Wild Hunt, referring to a mythical horseride across the skies.

Norseman Olaf made reference to Odin's eye during his encounter with Team 4 of Series 2.

In the Can You Beat The Challenge? story, Treguard talks in a dream to an old man who compares himself to Odin and other such mythical figures.

Odin appears as a character in one of the Knightmare gamebooks, Fortress of Assassins, in detail though not in name. He is stuck in the World Tree, and if the player helps him down, he allows them to fill a flask from one of the nearby magical pools. One of them, the Pool of Wisdom, has an eye in it. If the player refuses to help Odin, he transforms them into a horse and rides them in the Wild Hunt, ending the adventure.

Odin is part of the special significance that Norse mythology holds for KM author Dave Morris, as he revealed in an interview with Il Mondo dei Librogames in 2008:

'The first book I remember taking out the library was a volume of Norse mythology that was almost as big as I was. I just buried myself in the darkness and ice and mystery and that’s still there, right at the roots of all my thinking: Loki with the serpent spitting poison in his eyes, Odin gouging out an eye and hanging himself on the World Tree to gain knowledge... Great formative stuff for a seven year old!'

[Previous versions: 2010-06-13 15:26:04, 2006-05-17 19:46:42]

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