Alfadir
Alfadir (Alfadur) (all-father) In Norse mythology, a title for Odin, chief of the gods, and often used in Christian times for God. In the Prose Edda the Alfadir is said to have existed “from all ages.” He formed “heaven and earth, and the air, and all things there unto belonging.”
Also in the Prose Edda it is said:
“Odin is the foremost and eldest of the aesir; he rules all things, and as powerful as the other gods are, they serve him as children do a father. . . . Odin is called Alfadir.” He is credited with the creation of man and is said to have “given him a soul which shall live and never perish though the body shall have moldered away, or have been burnt to ashes. And all that are righteous shall dwell with him in a place called Gimli, or Vingolf; but the wicked shall go to Hel, and thence to Niflheim, which is below, in the ninth world.”
SOURCE:
Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, Third Edition – Written by Anthony S. Mercatante & James R. Dow
Copyright © 2009 by Anthony S. Mercatante