hangi

m. a body hanging on a gallows (hann settist undir hanga).

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a, m. a law term, a body hanging on a gallows, Fms. v. 212: the mythol. phrase, sitja, setjask undir hanga, to sit under a gallows, of Odin, in order to acquire wisdom or knowledge of the future;—for this superstition see Yngl. S. ch. 7;—whence Odin is called hanga-guð, hanga-dróttinn, hanga-týr, the god or lord of the hanged, Edda 14, 49, Lex. Poët.; varðat ek fróðr und forsum | fór ek aldregi at göldrum | … nam ek eigi Yggjar feng und hanga, I became not wise under waterfalls, I never dealt in witchcraft, I did not get the share of Odin (i. e. the poetical gift) under the gallows, i. e. I am no adept in poetry, Jd. 3 (MS., left out in the printed edition). According to another and, as it seems, a truer and older myth, Odin himself was represented as hangi, hanging on the tree Ygg-drasil, and from the depths beneath taking up the hidden mystery of wisdom, Hm. 139; so it is possible that his nicknames refer to that; cp. also the curious tale of the blind tailor in Grimm’s Märchen, No. 107, which recalls to mind the heathen tale of the one-eyed Odin sitting under the gallows.