The Hanged God: Óðinn Grímnir: Artisanal Edition 24K – Shani Oates (Anathema Publishing)

Description

The Hanged God is the first volume of Shani Oates’s Óðinn Trilogy, part of Anathema’s Northern Otherworld series. It is a demanding, deeply researched re-examination of the mysteries at the heart of the Northern tradition: Óðinn’s sacrifice on the tree, his winning of the runes, and the mead of poetry.

Oates goes back to the primary sources, including the Hávamál, Vǫluspá, Grímnismál, Skáldskaparmál, Heimskringla and the Ynglinga saga. She draws on archaeology, folklore, etymology and anthropology, along with her own practice, and argues that Óðinn’s three ordeals of Mound, Tree and Sacral Kingship form a coherent magical formula for rebirth and resurrection. Along the way she challenges long-held views on Yggdrasil, Sleipnir and Mímir, sacrifice and shamanism. She also puts forward new readings of Valhǫll and of Óðinn’s ancestral bond with wolves, and argues that a hidden cultus was bent on surviving Ragnarǫk through sorcery. The book is fully referenced and written for readers already at home in the sagas, not beginners.

This is the Artisanal Edition, the finest state of the book, with edges in 24K gold leaf. It is bound in “Stagecoach Bark” genuine leather, with gold foil blocking on the cover and rounded spine, raised bands, and blind embossing on the back board. It has handmade marbled endpapers by the renowned paper marbler Robert Wu, a bronze satin ribbon, and silver and black head and tail bands. A hand-numbered bookplate signed by Shani Oates is pasted inside. The book is housed in a slipcase wrapped in gold handmade Nepalese Lokta paper, printed with a wrap-around image of Óðinn on the eight-legged Sleipnir, after the Tjängvide image stone.

Only 39 Artisanal copies were made in total, across the 18K painted-edge and 24K gold-leaf versions combined. The 24K version is now sold out at the publisher.

Anathema Publishing, 2022. Artisanal Edition. 5.25 × 8.5 in, 240 pp. Fully illustrated, printed on Husky Opaque archive-quality paper. Genuine leather, 24K gold leaf edges, signed and hand-numbered, in a slipcase.