To this section I will eventually add some more comments I have on paper from a quick scan of H.R. Ellis Davidson's Scandinavian Mythology. In that book the outer cover boat uplifted by five waves could represent the crescent moon after five full moons but that might be stretching it. There are also horned Bronze age helmets which I link to waning crescent and waxing crescent moon horns. Also my personal interpretation of one-eyed gods in general is that they represent or derive from a sky god with one eye the sun and one eye the moon, which winks, and is closed or almost so at the time of raven new moon inpiration. Of course the Aesir/Vanir tradition has other tales associiated with the sun and moon as well. But I believe the wisdom of Mimir and the mead of Sutung are like my rare waning crescent inspired poetic/mystic highs (five times of 2-6 days each from 1991 to 1994, none since).
For more stuff on bull/lightning paths which I link to Bronze Age Scandinavian horned helmets, see the section entitled Lode of Bull.
Last year while glancing in the book Remarkable Women of Newfoundland and Labrador I saw the story of Gudrid Torbjornsdatter and the native woman she was about to befriend. It says "Just as Gudrid held out her hand and bade the woman sit down next to her, there was a loud noise and the stranger vanished." I interprete the "loud noise" as "several loud men," and think that the native woman was gang-raped. So perhaps an Asatru (and more) healing ritual at L'Ans aux Meadows would help.
Way back in the Scaldic Poem thread, I mentioned some skaldic verses that I could not remember properly but which have special meaning to me. Three of them are:
I wot that I hung on the wind-tossed tree all of nights nine, wounded by spear, bespoken to Othin, bespoken myself to myself, [upon that tree of which none telleth from what roots it doth rise.] Neither horn they upheld nor handed me bread I looked below me-- aloud I cried-- caught up the runes, caught them up wailing, thence to the ground fell again. Then began I to grow and gain in insight, to wax eke in wisdom: one verse led on to another verse, One poem led on to another poem. Stanzas 138, 139 and 141 of Havamal, The Poetic Edda (Hollander's translation).
When I first saw the poem, I related this series of verses to my powerful solar-triggered sundance/thorn climb/blue rose vision Sept. 5/6, 1991, just before/at new moon. "Wounded by spear" I relate to the thorns, "the tree that has no root" I relate to the thorn vines which I could not root from cuttings later even with rooting powder, amd which, though I didn't try too hard or dig, seemed to have a deep root so I couldn't easily pull up a piece with root to transplant.
The mead of Sutung (stanza 140) is like the pre-new-moon dark night of enlightenment, or the drops of elixir in kundalini yoga, or the fountain at the centre of circles of fire in the "Defense of the Chair" in the Taliesin (celtic) tradition.
Now here is some more detail from the soc.religion.paganism debate on whether Odin's closed or missing eye represents the new moon. I know the Aesir/Vanir traditions have other stories of the sun and moon, but it is possible to consider the sun and moon as subsystems of a sky god yet distinct. Also the one-eyed nature of Odin derives from an earlier sky god, and one-eyed deities occur in several paths.
Odin as a one-eyed sky god I personally interpret as: say that the two eyes of heaven are the sun and the moon. The moon winks, and is almost closed just before new moon and closed at new moon. So I associate Odin with the late waning crescent poetic highs, and with my new moon sundance/thorn climb/blue rose vision. However no doubt the common academic interpretation of the one eye of one-eyed deities is different from mine. I may expand on this eventually in a section on one-eyed deities, when this stuff on Odin would be moved there and linked from here.
Again, I said Odin was a sky god, with the open eye of Odin the sun and the closed eye of Odin the new moon, like the druidic crack of the cauldron (of rebirth), by which the druid or skald must wind down, after partaking of the Mead of Sutung (of inspiration) in the days leading up to that RARE new moon (5.5 lunar months after a psychic test experiences, and preceded by a solar flare).
It is based on examination of the mystic calls of shamans/druids/prophets/ mystics/avatars/christ/buddha in various religions/mythology/folklore, a work which is partially completed, and on comparison with my own shamanic initiation at age 27.5 and since, and somewhat on my own occasionally divinely guided (thumbs) interpretation of mythological poetry and art. Such art and poetry can have multiple meanings but important scientific information is often encoded in the oral tradition and more apparent to one who has had a similar call. Those you reference, scholars who may have commented on the same poetry and art for centuries, may all be referring back to a source that is still distant from the original writer or artist or inspired shaman. Hence my interpretation may be as good as any scholarly paper with a hundred references. That said, I hope to substantiate some of my claims in the future and no doubt will have to correct some, so thanks for the healthy skepticism; I must follow a balance of self/nature-observation, inspired or rational deduction, and reference to the past, more to the original shamans of many cultures if possible than to scholarly interpretations, though many of those have much value.
I have more information in my notebook, some comments on Davidson's book in particular, but it is not here; I will add those eventually when I dig through my old papers. But I would like to know of any mentions of the number five, like the five waves (full moons?) beneath the boat (crescent moon) in the inside cover of Davidson's book, in Asatru/Eddas. Numbers that are specified in oral tradition generally have some significance. E.g. Amergin's "I am a stag of seven tines" may mean he was a seventh child, like me. But any Norse counterpart to Taliesin's five cauldrons would be appreciated.
Someone on soc.religion.paganism pointed out that Odin's eye was plucked out to gain wisdom, that it was not the sun. I was claiming that the remaining one eye represented the sun and the one missing or closed the new moon (dark of moon).
In reply I again commented that the one-eyed sky deity probably goes back before the name Odin was used, or poetic stories of him were inspired. How far back does the one-eyed god, one-eyed figure go?
Odin is a sky god. Look at the sky. There are two eyes. One is the sun. One is the moon. The moon winks. Wisdom comes to rare new moon mystics in mountain (high) or boat/salmon (crescent moon) or waning horn of bull inspiration, often after clear sky lightning after a solar flare during solar sunspot cycle high and medium years, starting at age 2.5 solar sunspot cylcles, about 1-2 times a year from my personal experience. There are multiple meanings in every story. Absence of moon (new moon) could mean a plucking out of the eye or a winking or closing of the eye. And the Wisdom of Mimir and the Mead of Sutung are similar to one another and to Ceridwen's inspiration in the Taliesin stories and to the bow that holds in the Noth American native story of Salmon's Magic Bath.
The other option is that the Wisdom of Mimir and the Mead of Sutung are not similar to one another but that the first is sustained productivity after release from the low years and the second refers to the waning crescent inspirations. I will do more reading on them later.