Which traditions do they belong to?

Both belong to the Norse Pantheon.

Side by side

Höðr vs Odin

Q: What do Höðr and Odin have in common?

They share no domain in this atlas: Höðr holds darkness, winter (by later association with his brother Baldr's death), while Odin holds wisdom, war, death, poetry, magic, knowledge.

Höðr and Odin are recorded in a parent-and-child line within the Norse Pantheon.

At a glance

Norse Pantheon

tradition

Norse Pantheon

darkness, winter (by later association with his brother Baldr's death)

domains

wisdom, war, death, poetry, magic, knowledge

mistletoe (as the instrument of Baldr's death)

symbols

spear Gungnir, ravens Huginn and Muninn, eight-legged horse Sleipnir, wolves Geri and Freki, one eye

Hod, Hoder, Hother (Saxo Grammaticus)

also called

Allfather, Woden, Wotan, The Wanderer

Where they meet

The atlas records no shared domain or symbol between them. What connects them is elsewhere: Höðr and Odin are recorded in a parent-and-child line within the Norse Pantheon.

Where they part

Höðr alone

darkness, winter (by later association with his brother Baldr's death)

Odin alone

wisdom, war, death, poetry, magic, knowledge

How each was worshipped

Höðr

Cult sites: No attested cult site.

No independent cult of Hodr is attested. He survives only within the narrative of Baldr's death, first as tragic instrument, later, in Voluspa's prophecy of the world after Ragnarok, as a reconciled figure restored alongside the brother he killed.

Odin

Cult sites: Temple at Uppsala (Adam of Bremen), with Thor and Freyr, No surviving named stave-church equivalent; mounds, trees, and halls.

Festivals: Yule, Sacrifices for victory (sigurblót).

Hanged god, poetry, and the war-dead. Wednesday keeps his name. Uppsala tradition put him with Thor and Freyr. Spear, ravens, and the high seat are the cult signs; evidence is later and Christian-filtered, and should be read that way.

Höðr

Norse Pantheon

A blind son of Odin who, in Snorri Sturluson's telling, unknowingly kills his brother Baldr with a mistletoe dart at Loki's instigation. Saxo Grammaticus preserves a very different, non-mythological account of the same figure as a rival human prince.

Höðr was a blind son of Odin. When Loki discovered that the mistletoe alone had never sworn an oath to spare Baldr from harm, he fashioned a dart from it and guided the blind Höðr's hand to throw it at Baldr during the gods' game of hurling weapons at him, killing Baldr instantly and unintentionally making Höðr his brother's killer.

In Snorri Sturluson's *Prose Edda*, Höðr is a son of Odin described simply as blind, but immensely strong. He plays the tragic, unwitting instrument in the death of his brother Baldr, the best-loved of the gods.

Read the full Höðr entry

Odin

Norse Pantheon

King of the Aesir and god of wisdom, war, and death. Odin sacrificed his eye at Mimir's well for wisdom and hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days to learn the runes.

Odin is the son of the primordial beings Borr and Bestla. Along with his brothers Vili and Ve, he slew the giant Ymir and created the world from his body.

Odin is the chief of the Aesir, a relentless seeker of wisdom. He sacrificed his eye to Mimir's Well for knowledge and hung himself from Yggdrasil for nine nights to discover the runes.

Read the full Odin entry

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At a glance

Norse Pantheon

tradition

Norse Pantheon

darkness, winter (by later association with his brother Baldr's death)

domains

wisdom, war, death, poetry, magic, knowledge

mistletoe (as the instrument of Baldr's death)

symbols

spear Gungnir, ravens Huginn and Muninn, eight-legged horse Sleipnir, wolves Geri and Freki, one eye

Hod, Hoder, Hother (Saxo Grammaticus)

also called

Allfather, Woden, Wotan, The Wanderer

How each was worshipped

Höðr

Cult sites: No attested cult site.

Odin

Cult sites: Temple at Uppsala (Adam of Bremen), with Thor and Freyr, No surviving named stave-church equivalent; mounds, trees, and halls.

Festivals: Yule, Sacrifices for victory (sigurblót).