Odin won the runes through nine days of self-sacrifice

Evidence

In his ninth night of suffering, peering down into the dark depths below the tree, Odin at last cried out — and seized the runes, the secret signs of wisdom and power, which rose up to him out of the deep. Then he fell back from the tree, and rose renewed, carrying the runes and their magic to gods and to humankind. The Norse honored Odin as the god who understood the hardest truth of all: that the deepest wisdom is never free — that to gain real understanding, a person must be willing to suffer, to sacrifice, even to give up a part of themselves. — , A Year of World Stories, 13426

Categorization

• XREF: Resonates with the self-hanging sacrifice in other shamanic and initiatory traditions worldwide.