Why did Odin sacrifice his eye?

Inspired by: Norse Mythology - how Odin lost his eye.

So how did Odin become the One-Eyed God?

The short answer for the impatient: his eye was a sacrifice exchanged for knowledge and wisdom.

But why the eye specifically?

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The story explained

Odin was known for his search for wisdom. In this tale, he visits the Well of Urd hidden among the roots of Yggdrasil (the world tree).

The water from the well is known to grant cosmic knowledge to whoever drinks it.

But one can’t simply approach the well and reap its rewards.

The giant Mimir, known for his unparalleled wisdom, guards the water. And to grant access, he requires from Odin a meaningful sacrifice.

That’s where we get to his eye.

The eye – besides being a rather important body part – often represents perception, truth, and holds spiritual meaning.

Odin sacrifices one mode of perception for another. Giving up a part of himself for something better.

You probably already know where I’m going with this…

The story fits the theme of making sacrifices for your goals.

But I want to highlight the word ‘meaningful’.

A sacrifice can’t be easy. Otherwise, I’d argue it’s not a sacrifice at all.

And the bigger the goal you’re aiming for – the more meaningful, and painful, will your sacrifice have to be.

Hopefully you won’t have to gouge out your eye…

But you need to realize you can’t have everything.

You will be forced to sacrifice something. Constantly, throughout your whole life.

But the good part is, that the things you sacrifice, are what give your choices meaning.

And I firmly believe that for most of us, the only thing stopping us from achieving our goal, is whether we can pay the required sacrifice.

I’m not sure if you know this.

But I’m making all of the cover illustrations myself.

At some point I abandoned the path of an illustrator, but recently I find myself looking forward to this part of preparing the next issue. Looks like my love for drawing is back, at least a little bit.

I might just gather some of the illustrations and turn them into wallpapers for you.

Actually – I already made a sample.

Feel free to take a look below and let me know if you like it!

Łukasz Skoneczny, Unwritten Tomes