Deciphering the Words of The Allfather, Odin

Auden's translation of Odin's Havamal (often known as the Windy Tree Poem) into English, which is then translated for meaning by me.

They gave me no bread,

They gave me no mead,

I looked down;

with a loud cry

I took up runes;

from that tree I fell. I translate this to mean, his captors do not offer him anything to eat or drink.  He looks down at them in frustration and lets out a loud cry.  Then the runes themselves lift up from the ground, causing the earth and the tree to tremble, thus loosing the god from his noose and down he falls. Nine lays of power I learned from the famous Bolthor, Bestla' s father: He poured me a draught of precious mead, Mixed with magic Odrerir. I take this stanza to mean Odin learned nine methods of warfare from Bestla's father Bolthor.  The next lines infer the mutual respect they have for one another, in that Bolthor pours Odin a drink of very special mead, made by Odrerir. He is now attempting to calm down those that have captured him, that left him to die (as most living folks do after nine days and nine nights gravely injured without food or drink, hung upside down). They have just realized the man they captured is none other than the very god they worship. But instead of yelling at them or attacking them, he tells them a story.

Living with ghosts

Ghost stories I have many! I was fortunate to have lived in several haunted houses. One in Ashby was haunted by my next door neighbor's grandparents. The lights in the kitchen and living room would shut off around 9 pm each night and the television would turn itself on. My dog Dylan would freak out. He almost clawed down a window one night trying to get out. I would take my baby daughter and go sit out on the front step. I had nowhere else to live and nobody's place to go to so eventually we would go back inside. The dog would wait until sunrise.

One night though, my baby tried to climb out of bed and tripped herself on the blankets. As I rushed to grab her, someone else didj they caught her midair and set her right side up so that her little feet gently touched the floor first. Then I wasn't afraid anymore. The dog remained terrified of the invisible ones, however.