Odin

A copy of Peter Madsens cover for "Valhall, tredje stora boken" (Valhall, the third big book) representing the head of nordic gods, Odin (some write it Oden). I recomend reading all the valhall comics, I know you can get them atleast in Danish, Swedish and Finnish, they're really fun and inventive!

A little bit of background on Odin:

The germanic mythology has inspired people trough the ages, from court jesters (you know, those medievial clowns that had a wierd hat) to Tolkien (Odin is quite a bit like Gandalf, for example) and the composer wagner. The head god in GM (Germanic mythology, GM from now on) is Oden, and I've heard that there still are actually a cult or two that still worship him.
Some say he's father to everyone ("allfadir") while other sources say he's more like a brother to them. His backgroud changes quite a bit locationally, as does his name. In Britain, for example, he was worshipped as "Woden". If some Icelander happens to come across this I would very much appreciate giving some enlightement on this matter (I presume the truth is found in the Edda books?).
Here's what I'm absolutely sure of:
-He has shapeshifting abilities, also sometimes he dresses up as an old man.
-He has an unsatisfiable thirst for knowlegde, in one story he sacrified one of his eyes (it is not known which one) so that he would be allowed to drink from a spring of knowlegde while in an other he hang himself on a tree in order to learn the secrets of runewriting. Allthough he's supposed to be allseeing he has two ravens, Hugin and Munin that comes with news for him every morning
-He has a magical spear, Gungnir, which is forged by dwarves and never misses. He also has an eight legged horse that goes by the name Sleipnir.
-he employs (I'm not sure if "employs" is excactly the word use...) Valkyries, that bring dead soldiers to Valhalla, kingdom of the gods