Odin: Allfather? More Like Somefather
Everyone Knows Odin Had One Eye… but Almost Nobody Knows This
Why the god of wisdom might want to tone down his résumé just a bit…
For centuries, people have wandered around calling Odin the Allfather, as if he personally assembled the cosmos with a bit of rope, a raven, and a well-timed stanza.
But when you actually poke at the bureaucracy of Snorri Sturluson and check the primary sources, a slightly awkward detail emerges:
Odin isn’t the father of all.
He is the father of… five.
Five.
Let’s look at the source-verified children — stripped of creative genealogy tricks and Snorri’s medieval “let’s make this a neat nuclear cosmos-family” aesthetic.
1. Baldr
The Shining Favorite
The golden child. Pure, good, universally loved. Proof that perfection is just a target painted on your chest.
Mother: Frigg (probably)
2. Hodr (Höðr)
The Tragic Brother
Blind, manipulated, and framed for Baldr’s death. Living proof that even gods can get thrown under the mythological bus.
Mother: Frigg
3. Váli
The One-Day Avenger
Mythology’s most intense infant. Born solely to avenge Baldr, grows up in one day, executes the mission, exits stage left.
Mother: Rindr.
Purpose: Singular.
Childhood: Cancelled.
4. Vidar (Víðarr)
The Silent Powerhouse
Half-giant, half-god, fully unsettling. Survives Ragnarök and dismembers Fenrir with a shoe that deserves its own museum wing.
Mother: Grid (Gríðr) — the jotun woman who once helped Thor
5. Hermod (Hermóðr)
The Crisis Manager
Sent to Hel as the family’s designated negotiator. Not explicitly called “son” everywhere, but tradition gives him a folding chair at the table.
Mother: Frigg (probably)
That’s it. Five kids.
Not Heimdall.
Not Freyr.
Not Freyja.
Not Tyr.
And Thor? Only if you’re deeply committed to Snorri’s genealogical fanfiction.
So why the inflated title?
Because Odin is a marketing genius.
The man hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days just to learn more words.
You really think he wouldn’t embellish the résumé a bit?
Allfather sounds cosmic.
Somefather sounds… actuarially correct.
And that contrast is delicious.
Why this matters
Strip away the pomp and you see something strange and beautiful about Norse mythology:
These gods were never a tidy family tree. They were forces of nature, local cult figures, drifting oral traditions stitched together across centuries. Snorri’s later systematization gives us one big divine family; the older sources give us a wilder, looser cosmos.
Odin as Allfather is a cosmic rebrand.
Odin as Somefather gives you the raw texture: a god whose authority comes not from fatherhood but from sacrifice, mania, and a borderline psychotic hunger for insight.
Five kids or not — the man left a crater in culture.
The family tree? Meh.
Maybe it’s all just a misunderstanding?
Some linguists argue that the Old Norse word Alföðr might not actually mean “All-Father.”
There is a theory that it stems from Alförðr, which would mean something closer to “All-Orderer” or “Father of the Age/World.”
This is lnlikely though, as the word is pretty clear.
But here’s the twist: “Father” doesn’t actually mean “Dad”.
The real mistake is our modern definition of “Father.”
In the Viking Age, “Father” (Faðir) was primarily a legal and hierarchical title.
The title simply means the boss, in other words. And suddenly, every piece falls into place.
The Norse Scriptures
The Poetic Edda is the unfiltered pulse of Norse myth—brilliant, broken, and scattered like divine shrapnel. For the first time, you can read a clean, coherent overview of it all in The Norse Scriptures—no Snorri-stench, no medieval patchwork perfume. Just the myths, raw and readable.
Your turn
Tell me in the comments: which ‘official truth’ in Norse myth do you trust the least?