gallows god

English

Noun

gallows god (plural gallows gods)

  1. (Norse mythology) A byname for the God Odin, so called for being hanged on the world tree Yggdrasil.
    • 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 20:
      It is from this tree that Odin hanged himself in sacrifice, making the world-tree a gallows and himself the gallows god.
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