The saga of Odín
The Norse words of Odín Rally, the 8 ranks with their story and what each one requires, the Odín Prize and Landnám.
Odín Rally borrows words from the Vikings and their gods. Here is what each one means and what you need to do to rise in rank. Almost everything we know about the Norse gods comes from texts written in Iceland in the 13th century, when the Icelanders were already Christian (the Eddas and the sagas): so what is myth, we tell as myth.
The words of Odín Rally
- Odín
The chief god of Norse mythology: god of wisdom, poetry, war and the dead, whom they called the All-Father. According to the myths, he gave an eye to drink from the well of wisdom and hung for nine nights from the world tree, Yggdrasil, to discover the runes. He liked to wander the world disguised as a traveller.
In Odín Rally: the name, because here too you travel to discover.
- Huginn and Muninn
Odín's two ravens: their names come from “thought” and “memory”. Legend has it, in a poem of the Edda, that every day they fly over the whole world and, on their return, tell Odín what they have seen.
In Odín Rally: they are the ravens flying over the motorbike while your route is being worked out.
- The saga
The sagas are stories written in Iceland between the 12th and 14th centuries. They tell of the lives of families, kings and travellers, many from the Viking Age (from the late 8th to the mid-11th century). They mix history and literature: they were written two or three centuries after the events they tell.
In Odín Rally: your saga is the passes you add up. Hence the motto: “Write your saga, pass by pass”.
- Conquer and dominate
The Vikings did not only raid: above all they traded, explored and settled. They settled Iceland from around 870, reached Greenland and, around the year 1000, Newfoundland, in America (the ruins at L'Anse aux Meadows confirm it). In 911 the king of the Franks gave the Viking leader Rollo the lands around Rouen, the origin of Normandy.
In Odín Rally: conquering means discovering and riding, never going fast. You conquer a pass by riding over it while the app records, and it is yours forever; a territory (a comarca, Andorra or a French département) is conquered with half of its passes and dominated with all of them.
- Valhalla
In mythology, “the hall of the slain”: Odín's great hall. Warriors killed in battle and chosen by the valkyries go there; by day they fight to train and by night they feast, waiting for Ragnarök, the battle at the end of the world. It is legend: the Eddas tell it.
In Odín Rally: those who reach the last rank, Einherjar, are the chosen of Valhalla.
- The Vegvísir
The symbol in the logo: “the one that shows the way”, a compass of runes. It is not from the Viking Age: it appears in a 19th-century Icelandic book of magic, which says that whoever carries it will not lose their way in storms, even when the way is unknown.
In Odín Rally: it is our compass: on a mountain route, what matters is not getting lost.
The 8 ranks
Your rank grows with the territory you conquer, never with speed. Each rank asks for its own and everything the previous ones asked for, and only routes recorded with the app count.
1 Drengr · the young warrior
On the runestones of Scandinavia, the brave young man, often a warrior in a lord's band. Calling someone “a good drengr” was one of the highest praises.
To get there: conquer your first pass.
2 Karl · the free man, with his land
The free man: the farmer with his farm, who could bear arms and speak at the assembly (the thing). He was most of the people. A poem of the Edda tells, as legend, that all free farmers descend from a certain Karl.
To get there: conquer your first territory.
3 Víkingr · the one who sets out on expeditions
Víkingr was not a people but an activity: someone who set out on an expedition by sea, to trade, explore or raid. Most Scandinavians of the time were farmers who never went on one.
To get there: have 3 territories conquered, spread over at least 2 provinces.
4 Huscarl · the jarl's elite guard
Húskarl means “house man”: the warriors who lived with a lord or a king and protected him. Those of King Cnut, who in the 11th century ruled England, Denmark and Norway, were his elite guard.
To get there: conquer 10 % of all Odín Rally passes and dominate a territory (all its passes).
5 Hersir · the local chieftain
The local chieftain, above all in Norway early in the Viking Age: he led the men of his area in war and on expeditions. Over time, the jarls and the kings took his power away.
To get there: conquer 20 % of all Odín Rally passes.
6 Jarl · the lord of a region
The great lord of a region, just below the king (and sometimes his rival). The jarls of Lade ruled much of Norway, and those of Orkney ruled those islands for centuries. The English word earl comes from jarl.
To get there: conquer 35 % of all Odín Rally passes and conquer every territory in a province.
7 Konungr · the king
The king. Early in the Viking Age there were many small kings; little by little, large kingdoms formed. Around 965, Harald Bluetooth had it carved on the great Jelling stone: he won for himself all of Denmark and Norway and made the Danes Christian.
To get there: conquer 55 % of all Odín Rally passes and have a conquered territory in every province.
8 Einherjar · the chosen of Valhalla
In mythology, the dead warriors whom the valkyries choose to live with Odín in Valhalla until Ragnarök. Not history but legend: the highest rank in Odín Rally.
To get there: conquer 75 % of all Odín Rally passes.
- The Odín Prize
Above the last rank lies the Odín Prize, the All-Father's own. We are preparing it: it will be very hard, and when it is ready we will explain here what it takes.
- Landnám
Old Norse for «land-taking»: the name given to the settlement of Iceland, roughly between the years 870 and 930. The first to arrive kept the land; the Book of Settlements (Landnámabók), recorded in the Middle Ages, tells who took each valley.
In Odín Rally: it is the name of the most authentic version of Odín Rally, which we are preparing: from 1 January to 31 December, the first to reach a pass conquers it and nobody else can conquer it that year; every 1 January all passes are free again. The usual version, with your ranks and your territory, never resets. Whoever conquers the most passes in the season will get the app free for 12 months (the rules, when it is ready).