Rúnatal or Óðins Rune Song

[Adisa]

Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins (stanzas 138-146) is a section of the Hávamál where Odin reveals the origins of the runes. In stanzas 138 and 139, Odin describes his sacrifice of himself to himself:

I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered,
I took up the runes, screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there.