48 The Hávamál, no. 138: ‘Nine nights I hung upon the Tree, wounded with the spear as an offering to Odin, myself sacrificed to myself’. The Hávamál, which means ‘Sayings of the High One’ (i.e. Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology), is a ninth century composite poem of 164 maxims or strophes in Old Norse. It is one of the poems collectively known as the Elder Edda.