The more I read up on Odin , the more I see him as not to nice a god. Only really caring about war and Ragnarok not much else.

It almost seems as if Loki is the good guy in it all.

Then again so many stories with crazy turns and twist.

You get to understand when they say you just cannot fathom the motives of gods.

ya, I just read a few books on Norse mythology in the last 6 months or so and Odin is definitely not seen overall in a very good light. Thor is the real good guy of Norse mythology imo. He is the champion of the common man while Odin was more associated with the nobles and the seers and war. He was also known as the Deceiver in northern Europe because of the idea that people could gain glory through combat but they would usually come away maimed or dead and with a different view on war. Loki was also added as a god about the same time that most of Europe was no longer pagan as were many of the stories in the Eddas. He wasn't really part of the traditional Norse pantheon.

Considering he was a deity of both war and death, among other things, I suppose it wasn't in the cards he was the nicest of the lot. But then again, he wasn't the sort of chap that would shave the heads of other people's wives for the fun of it... which Loki did.

Thats more to do with him being a Jotun at heart and that he didn't have any traits to him that was worth worshiping him for. Like he is considered the Trickster God, but in his case the trick is getting a blind man to kill an otherwise invulnerable god.

@outside_85: I don't think there is any record of him existing prior to about 7-800 ad. That is when stories about him started to surface. Many were also created after the Norse people had converted to Christianity. He wasn't really a god that had temples and other aspects of religion associated with him. He was more of an antagonist just for the eddas. Also, in the eddas he is seen as Odin's brother.

-Well that's right smack in the middle of the Viking Age, so that shouldn't be a problem.

-Plus you have to consider that Skandinavians didn't write much of anything down other than on runestones, everything else was delivered orally. The exception is the Eddas' mostly written in Iceland and a hundred years or two after the Viking Age ended in Skandinavia.

-Depends on which edda you are reading.