Odin was a jerk

I've been reading up on Norse mythology in vaguely research-like pursuits.  It's only vaguely research, because I frequently get too into it and probe much farther than my project really demands.  A good recent example is the Runic Calander, or primestaff.  It had symbols that represented days of the year, coupled with a second set that represented what year it was in a 19yr metonic cycle based on the phases of the moon.  They used it as a perpetual calendar, which is to say that after 19 years had passed they started over at the beginning.  It was sophisticated enough that it took 214 years or so before it was so far off that they needed to have a leap-day (compare that to ours, which needs a leap-day every 4 years).

In all the various books and web-pages, there were plenty of partial pictures of various primestaves and other runic calendars.  But they were all visual examples, no real calendars that said what meant what.  After a few unsuccessful hours in the library and several online, I decided that if I wanted a complete calander I'd just have to make one myself!  This is about the point where the term 'research' no longer applies.  Understanding the concept, I probably could have just made up my own calendar.  There was no need for me to collect all those partial calendars, decipher the terminology of their runes, look up the statistical data on phases of the moon, then build my own calendar from day 1 of the 19year cycle.  On the other hand, this way is much more fun!

One thing I can't help but notice while I'm reading these old poems and legends, is that Odin and Thor and the rest of the Norse gods really act like a bunch of assholes sometimes.  I'm finding Neil Gaiman's portrayal of them in American Gods very approprate.  It wasn't a 'what if' story about some old gods that got bitter about being set aside and forgotten, like I originally thought it was.  There's lots of actual myths about Odin and the other Aesir being sneaky and underhanded, sometimes even in dealing with the gods of other pantheons.  Really, it's just more proof that Neil Gaiman is a freaking genius.