👉 Osmussaar - the island where Odin is buried.
Seven kilometers to the northwest of mainland Estonia lies the tiny island of Osmussaar. This small landmass stretches four and a half kilometers in length and one and a half kilometers in width, with a coastline that spans 14 kilometers and a total area of merely 4.7 square kilometers. So why does this diminutive island stand out among the fifteen hundred other Estonian islands? The answer is both simple and astonishing - Odin is buried here. Yes, the very same Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, the leader of the Aesir, and the ruler of the resplendent Valhalla, found his final resting place on this tiny patch of land amid the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.
It is said that the great Odin fell in the final battle of Ragnarok, in a duel with the enormous wolf Fenrir, who had devoured the Sun itself. Legend has eternally linked Odin’s name with this desolate Estonian isle. The Swedish name for the island, Odensholm (Odin's Island), directly associates it with the leader of the Aesir.
In the autumn of 1941, Soviet troops defending the island blew up a massive boulder to obtain materials for building defensive structures. According to legend, this boulder was Odin’s gravestone.
Today, the island is home to only four people who maintain the lighthouse. Like many other Estonian islands, Osmussaar is now a landscape reserve. The most famous of the remaining boulders on the island are known as the Twins.