Abstract
The article compares two myths found in the Poetic Edda - Óðinn's quest of the Mead of Poetry and Vǫlundr's captivity and escape - and finds a series of analogies between both narratives: in both cases the protagonist is first tricked or left by a woman and afterwards he himself tricks and leaves a woman. In both cases the hero attempts at reaching his goal by hard work, which does not lead to success and then resorts to trickery, which brings success. Óðinn as well as Vǫlundr undergo (either literal or symbolic) snake metamorphosis and a bird metamorphosis.
Both myths end with pregnancy, one literal and one symbolic. This complex analogy is then interpreted via the exploration of the mythological context and by revisitation of similar episodes in other myths.
One of the recurrent ideas stressed in the article is the thesis that myths work like Rorschach blots and that we cannot 'solve' them by finding their 'meaning', we should rather study their form so we better understand their ability to evocate a multitude of meanings.