I know that I hung on a wind-rocked tree, nine whole nights...

July 21, 2015 10:18 PM

The Norse god, Odin, in his guise of the Traveller, is usually described as wearing a blue or black cloak and a broad-brimmed hat. Cosplayer MeFites: what *kind* of hat would you wear, based on that description?

I'm seeing a lot of pictures of Odin wearing a hat reminiscent of what Gandalf wore in the recent LotR and Hobbit movies, but I'm not sure that feels... accurate? Is there a more 'official' representation of what he might have worn? Bonus points if there is a version purchasable on the Interwebz.

posted by hanov3r to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (6 answers total)

Best answer: I always pictured something with a flat top, like this. I can't find any for sale, though.
posted by Gneisskate at 10:31 PM on July 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Odin wears a soft wide-brimmed hat that he can pull down to cover his missing eye.

I believe a soft, wide-brimmed, low-crowned hat like a medieval farmer's hat, worn with a hooded cape pulled up over it, would be appropriate.
posted by erst at 1:33 AM on July 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

Found a decent source here which suggests it may have been a straw hat.

However, I then also found this stark warning against straw hats.

This thread suggests that it may have been a mistranslation and he was wearing a hood.

My guess is that nobody really knows as material finds from Viking-era excavations have found skull-caps but textiles decay. YMMV.
posted by kariebookish at 2:41 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

FWIW, I always pictured it like the first two comments!
posted by Drexen at 3:58 AM on July 22, 2015

Best answer: I don't think you'd go at all wrong with an unfinished hat blank.
posted by Faint of Butt at 4:58 AM on July 22, 2015 [3 favorites]

Gandalf is pretty explicitly modeled after Odin, so a Gandalf hat is not wrong, exactly.
posted by Alioth at 7:16 AM on July 22, 2015