HAVAMAL (Sayings of Har)
1. Scrutinize an entrance before passing through; Uncertain it is where foe is sitting.
2. Hail, generous ones! A guest has arrived. Show him a seat. He has haste who must prove himself at the fire.
3. Warmth is needed by one who comes in from the cold; Food and drink needs the man who comes in from the mountains.
4. Water needs he who comes to his host, a towel and greetings; A kindly reception for one who seeks words and a friendly hearing.
5. Wits needs the wanderer in foreign lands. At home all is easy. Boast not your deeds among those who are wise.
6. Display not your cleverness; have a care; the wise man sits silent. On another’s ground, and arouses no anger. Better friend has no man than good sense.
7. The wary guest at the feast keeps silent when there is whispering; He heeds with his ears, seeks with his eyes; so the wise man observes.
8. Happy the man who gains honor and esteem; But uncertain the gain borne in another’s breast.
9. Happy is he who has himself honor and wisdom in living; Other’s advice is often bad counsel.
10. No better burden can a man bear than good sense and manners; Better than gold it serves, a strong support in need.
11. No better burden can a man bear than good sense and manners; And no worse provender is borne than an excess of ale.
12. Ale is not so good as they say for the race of men; The more a man drinks the less he knows how to keep his wits about him.
13. In raving delirium is one who noises in his cups; It steals his senses; By that bird’s feather was I fettered in Gunnlod’s court.
14. Drunk was I, senseless drunk in the hall of peaceful Fjalar; Best is that ale feast when each goes home retaining sense and reason.
15. Agreeable and cheerful shall be the son of man, and valiant in battle; Gay anf friendly a man shall be as he awaits his bane.
16. A coward thinks he can live forever if he avoids the fight; Yet old age will not spare him, though he be spared by spears.
17. A fool at a feast sits staring and mumbling to himself; But if he takes a drink his mind stands stark revealed.
18. He who is well traveled Expresses each thought well.
19. Keep not the tankard long, drink moderately, speak sense or hold your peace; None will hold you uncivil if you retire early to bed.
20. A greedy man without manners will make himself ill; A boor’s stomach becomes the butt of jokes in clever company.
21. Cattle knows when to leave the pasture and go home; But a fool knows not the measure of his stomach.
22. The wretch of mean disposition derides everything; He knows not, as he should, the lacks not faults himself.
23. A fool lies awake night worrying over many things; Feeble is he when morning breaks, and matters are still as before.
24. The fool believes all who smile at him are his friends; He knows not how they speak of him.
25. The fool believes all who smile at him are his friends; He finds ou only in court, when few will speak for him.
26. A fool thinks himself all-wise in a sheltered corner; He knows not what to say when tested by strong men.
27. A fool among his elders should hold his peace; No one knows how little he understands if he keeps silent.
28. He seems wise who makes questions and answers; But no fault on earth can be hidden.
29. He who speaks much sys ill choosen words; A tongue unreined speaks its own undoing.
30. Mock not another who comes from your kin; Many feel wise on their own mountain.
31. He thinks himself smart when leaving, the guest who has mocked another; Who pokes fun at tables sees not the anger around himself.
32. Often friends will bicker and tease at the board; This may arouse contention of guest against guest.
33. One should eat each meal at due time and not go hungry as guests; Else he may sit choking, with no question to ask.
34. It’s a long detour to a faithless friend, though he live by the road; But to a good friend, however distant, there are many shortcuts.
35. A guest shall leave betimes and not stay too long; Pleasure palls if he lingers too long at another’s board.
36. Better your own home where each is his own master; Two goats and thatch are better than begging aboard.
37. Better your own home where each is his own master; The heart bleeds in one who must beg for his food at each meal.
38. Weapons should never be left more than a step away on the field; Uncertian it is how soon a man may have need of his spear.
39. I saw none so lavish that he declined what was offered; Nor any so generous that wage was unwanted when earned.
40. He who has money dose not suffer need; But saving is a virtue than can be carries to a fault.
41. With weapons and garments friends please one another; Gifts to and fro help a friendship endure.
42. To a friend be a friend, and give gift for gift; Jest should be taken with jest, wile with wile.
43. To a friend be a friend, both to him and his friend; But to an enemy’s friend be not bound by friendship.
44. If you know a friend, believe in him and desire his good will; Go share his tastes, and gifts exchange, go often seek him out.
45. If you know one who evil thinks but you desire his goodwill, speak him fair though you falsely feel; Repay lies with cunning.
46. This also applies to one you distrust, whose mind is uncertain; Meet him with smiles, choose your words well; Repay gifts in kind.
47. When I was young I traveled alone and wandered away from the road; I thought myself rich when I met with a man, for a man is good company.
48. Noble, courageous men live best; They seldom harbor sorrow. A foolish man fears many things and begrudges every gift.
49. I gave of my cloths to two wooden men in a field; They felt in fine fettle, robbed in rags; Naked, a man suffers shame.
50. The fir tree withers on a dry knoll without shelter of bark or needles; So too dose a man whom no one lones; Why should he live for long?
51. Hotter than fire may be the love of a peaceful man for his faithless friend for five days; But on the sixth his friendship dies.
52. Not much it takes to give a man, oft praise is bought with little; With half a bread, a draught from the horn, I won a faithful comrade.
53. Small piles of sand and tiny streams, small are the minds of men; All are not equally strong in wisdom; Each age is of two kinds.
54. Wise in moderation should each one be – not over wise; Life smiles the fairest who well knows what he knows.
55. Wise in moderation should each one be – not over wise; For a wise man’s heart loses gladness if he hinks himself all-wise.
56. Wise in moderation should each one be – not over wise; His fate beforehand no one knows; The soul is thus carefree.
57. Fire is lit by fire till it dies, and flame is lit by flame; Man knows man by his speech, the speechless by his silence.
58. Early to rise is one who seeks another’s life or possessions; The sleeping wolf rarely gets a bone or a sleeping man victory.
59. Early to rise is one who has few laborers and himself goes to work; Much is neglected by one who sleeps late; The prompt is half rich.
60. Of kindling and roof bark a man knows the measure; likewise of firewood how much suffices for a whole or half a season.
61. Clean and fed shall he ride to the Ting, even though poorly clad; None need feel shame over patches on shoes nor over inferior mount.
62. Question and answer were made with forethought by one who would be called wise; Take only one into your confidence; What three know the world knows.
63. He studies and stares when he wanders the wave, an ern on the ancient sea; So too dose the man who comes into a crowd where few will speak for him.
64. A wise man keeps within proper bounds his right and authority; In concourse of worriors he will find none the most valiant.
65. For every word he speaks, a man will pay in kind.
66. To many a place I came too soon, to others much to late: The ale was
drunk, or not yet brewed; ill guests come ill timed.
67. In some places I would have been invited if I needed no food; If two hams hung at my friends where I had just eaten.
68. Among children of men, fire is the best and the shining sun; If man may have the gift of health, and live without vice.
69. No man is unhappy in all things though his health be poor; One is blessed with sons, another with friends, a third with full barnes, a fourth with good deeds.
70. Better to live and live happy; A good man can get a cow; I saw the fire die out in a rich man’s house; Death stood at the door.
71. A lame man can ride, a handless herd cattle, a deaf may be a fine warrior; Better blind than burn on the pyre; No one needs a corpse.
72. A son is better even though born late when his father’s life is ended; Memorials are seldom raised unless by kin.
73. The two are companions-in-arms, but the tongue is the bane of the head; Beneath each fur I expect a fist.
74. One night may you trust to our provender but short are ship’s bisquits, and quickly changes an autumn night; The weather shifts much in the course of five days, much more in a month.
75. He knows not who little knows that many are fools to others; One may be rich, another poor. No blame attaches to this.
76. Cattle die, kinsmen die, you likewise must die; But the voice of honor never dies for him who has earned a good name.
77. Cattle die, kinsmen die, you likewise must die; One thing I know never dies; A dead mans reputation.
78. Full sheepfolds I saw at the rich man’s sons; They now bear the beggars staff; Riches are like the wink of an eye, the most fickle of friends.
79. When a fool gains goods or a woman’s favor, his pride grows but not his sense; He walks in a fool’s blindness.
80. This then is known; When you ask for runes known but to the ruling powers; About those there scribed by the bard of secret wisdom he had better be silent.
81. Day may be praised, a woman on her pyre, sword’s edge when tested; Maiden when wed, ice when crossing is over, ale when it has been drunk.
82. Trees should be felled when the wind blows, sail when the breeze is fair; In darkness dally with maiden, for many eyes see by day; You need speed from a ship, protection from a shield, blows from a blade, kiss from a maid.
83. By fire drink ale, on ice score with skates, buy a horse when it’s lean, and a blade when it’s rusty. The horse you can fatten and the hound you can train.
84. Trust not a maid’s words, nor a wife’s; for on the whirling wheel were born their hearts and fickleness fixed in their breast.
85. Trust not breaking bow, flaring flame, gaping wolf, carping crow, bellowing boar, rootless willow, waxing wave, bubbling caldron.
86. Airborne arrow, breaking wave, night-old ice, coiled snake, bride’s words in bed, broken sword or a playful bear, nor the children of a king;
87. Sick calf, stubborn thrall, sibyl’s fair words, newly killed whale; Such may no man trust to appearances.
88. Depend not on a new-sown field, nor too soon on a son; Nor on a brother’s bane, even on a wide road.
89. Nor on a house half burnt, a horse swift as the wind(he would be useless with a broken leg); No man is so confident that he trusts these.
90. So is the love of women, fickle ones, like riding on slippery ice with uncleated horse, a lively two-ear old, ill-trained, or rudderless sailing in violent storm, or like a lame man’s reindeer chase on bare slippery rock.
91. Openly I declare, for I know both, how treacherous is man’s mind toward women; When we speak most fair we think most false; This traps even the cunning.
92. You should speak fair and offer gifts if you desire a maid’s love; Devote praise to the fair one’s beauty, a young wooer shall get his wish.
93. For his love shall no man blame another! Often a wise man, not a fool, is beguiled by a pretty face.
94. Nor shall one man censure another for what befalls many a man; A sage is often made a fool by overwhelming desire.
95. Mind only knows what lies near the heart, it alone sees the depth of the soul; No worse ill assails the wise than to live without inner peace.
96. This I learned, crouched in the reeds, waiting for my love; My body and my soul seemed wise to me, yet I have her not.
97. Billing’s maid was found by me, white as the sun asleep; All princely joy seemed naught to me beside life with her beauty.
98. “Toward evening, Odin, shall you come, if you win the maid; It would be unfitting if we alone knew not of this.”
99. Back I ran and deemed myself lucky, went to learn the wise one’s wish; I had hoped to have her tenderness and joy.
100. When I returned all the gallant warrior band was awake; With blazing torches and high borne lights, the road was perilous to me.
101. I returned in the morning, the watchers were asleep; I found a dog by the holy woman’s bed.
102. Many a sweet maid. If you seek, is unfaithful; This I learned when the clever maiden I had hoped to lure with wile made mockery of me; I gained not the lovely wife.
103. A man glad in his home, gay among guests, shall always take a wise stand; of good memory and easy speech, if he would be wise and speak sagely; An idiot has naught to say, this is a sign of a fool.
104. I sought the old giant, now am I retuened; Little did I there gain by silence; Many words won me success in Suttung’s halls.
105. Gunnlod on the throne gave me a draught of the precious mead; ill did I repay her for her pain.
106. Rate’s mouth made room for me, gnawed through the rock; Over and under me ran giants’ roads. Great was my peril.
107. A well-earned draught I enjoyed; He wise lack little; Odraerir now has come up here to earth’s ancient shrine.
108. I doubt I had even yet escaped from the giants’ dwelling; Had I had not Gunnlod, the good woman, in my arms.
109. The following day, frost giants went to hear Odin’s counsel in the High Hall; They asked Bolverk, whether he had begged his freedom, or been vanquished from Suttung. Odin, I mind, gave oath on a ring that he had overcome.
110. How may his troth be trusted? Suttung bereft of his mead, Gunnlod in tears!
111. It is time to speak from the speakers chair, by The Well of Urd; I saw and kept silent; I watched and I thought; I listened to what was said; I heard runes discussed. There was no lack of knowledge, in the High Hall. In the High Hall I heard it said.
112. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; You will gain if you keep it, benefit if you follow it; Do not rise in the night unless something occurs or you must visit the outhouse!
113. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Do not sleep locked in the limbs of a sorceress; She can contrive that you do not go o the Ting or assembly; Food will not please you, nor human company; You will sadly go to sleep.
114. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Never lure another’s wife with soft words.
115. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; If you expect danger on mountains of fjord, supply yourself well with provisions.
116. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Let no evil man see your misfortunes; From a man of ill will you receive no thanks for your trust.
117. I saw a man hurt by a treacherous woman’s words; Her poisonous tongue wounded him to death and without truth.
118. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; If you know a friend you trust, go often seek him out; Brambles and grass grow high on untrodden paths.
119. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Attract good natured men to you with happy runes, sing songs of joy while you live.
120. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Be not quick to break the bond of love for your friend; Sorow will rend the heart, if you do not tell another your whole mind.
121. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Exchange not words with a fool.
122. For from ill-minded man you will have no good return; But a noble man may honor you with his nobility.
123. A friendship is firm when each can speak his mind to the other; All is better than broken bonds; No friend is he who flatters.
124. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Waste not three words in quarrel with a villain; Oft the better man cedes, while the worse deals blows.
125. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Make your own shoes and the shaft of your spear; A shoe may be ill formed, a spear may be warped if tha maker wills you ill.
126. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; When you meet anger take it as meant for you; Give your foe no peace.
127. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Never rejoice over evil revealed, but always rejoice over good.
128. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Gaze not in the air during battle -- Humans may walk like boars – Lest you lose your wits.
129. I ell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; If you wish to bind a good woman in wedlock and win her favor, you must promise handsomely amd keep your word; None wearies a good gift.
130. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; I bid you be wary; Be most careful with ale, with another man’s wife, and third be on guard against thieves.
131. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; never mock a wandering man or a guest.
132. They who are seated often know not what manner a man enters; None is so good he lacks all fault, none so wretched he lacks virtue.
133. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Smile not at the graying storyteller; Often is good what the old ones sing; Wrinkled lips may speak choice words, from him whose head droops, whose skin sags, who limps between canes.
134. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; Abuse no guest nor turn any away; The poor do you well receive.
135. It takes a strong hinge to keep the door open to all; Yet give of alms lest one wish you ill.
136. I tell you Loddafner, heed you the counsel; When you drink ale, seek the aid of earth’s force, because earth counteracts it, as fire dose disease; Oak is a laxative, grains against sorcery, the home against bickering, the moon against hate, biting helps snakebite, runes against ill designs, field of dirt makes flood abate.
137. I know that I hung in the wind torn tree NINE whole, spear pierced, consecrated to Odin, myself to my Self above me in the tree, whose root no one knows whence it sprang.
138. None brought me bread, none served me drink; I searched the depths, spied runes of wisdom; Raised them with song, and fell once more thence.
139. Nine powerful chants I learned, from the wise one of Boltorn, Bestla’s father; A draught I drank of precious mead, ladled from Odraerir.
140. I began to thrive, to grow wise, to grow greater, and enjoy; For me words led from words to new words; For me deeds led from deeds to new deeds.
141. Runes shall you know and rightly staves, very great and powerful staves, drawn by the mighty one who speaks, made by wise Vanir, carved by the highest rulers.
142. Odin among the Aesir, Dvalin among elves, dain among dwarfs, Allvitter among giants, I myself have also carved some.
143. Know you how to write? Know you how to interpret? Know you how to understand? Know you how to test? Know you how to pray? Know you how to sacrifice? Know you how to transmit? Know you how to atone?
144. Better not to pray than to sacrifice in excess, gift always tends to return. Better send naught than too send too much. Thus wrote tund for the passage of years, where he arose, where he came again.
145. I know songs unknown to the wife of a king or to any son of man; Aid is one, and it can help you, in sadness and sorrow and difficult trouble.
146. A second I know that should be known by those who would be healers.
147. A third I know, if need be, that can fetter any foe. I can dul their blades so that sword or deceit cannot harm.
148. A fourth I know; If warriors place links of chain on my limbs; I can sing a charm that will make me free. Fetters fall from my feet and the hasp from my hands.
149. A fifth I know; If I see hurled, arrows hard at my horde; Through rapid their flight I arrest them air, if I see them clearly.
150. A sixth song I sing; If a man dose me harm, with the roots of wild weeds, or a Hel-man hates me, he brings harm to himself, not to me.
151. The seventh I sing; If a fearsome fire, flames in the hall where the warriors sit; So broad burns he not that I cannot quench him; This charm is one I can chant.
152. The eighth I sing is for everyone, the most fortunate lore he can learn; When hatred is harbored by children of chiefs, this I can hastily heal.
153. The ninth that I know, if need there should be, to save my boat on the billow, the wind I can lay to rest on the wave, and still the stormiest sea.
154. A tenth I am able, when witches do ride high aloft in the air; I can lead them astray, out of their forms, out of their minds.
155. Eleventh I can, if forth into war, old friends into battle I lead; I sing below shields so that they draw with force whole into the fight, whole out of the fight, whole where so ever they go.
156. Twelfth I am able, if I see a tree with a hanged man hovering high, I can carve and draw runes, so that he that hanged, hastens to speak to me.
157. Thirteenth I know, if they wish me to sluice with water a citizen’s son, he shall not fall, though out numbers he be, he shall not fall by sword.
158. Fourteenth I can name to the warriors’ horde the names of beneficent Gods; The Aesir and Elves, I can all distinguish as unwise man cannot.
159. Fifteenth I know what the Setter-in-motion sand at the doors of Dawn; He sang power to Aesir, progress to elves, mind force to the god of gods.
160. Sixteenth I can chant, if I desire the wise maid’s joy and favor, the white-armed woman’s love I can win, and turn her mind to me.
161. Seventeenth I sing that not soon may be parted from me the beloved maid. For a long, long time shall you, Loddafner, be lacking these lays. It were good that you keep them concealed, you are fortunate to learn them, it were useful to heed them well.
162. The eighteenth I sing as I never have sung, to a maid, or to any man’s mate. All that is best is known only to One, she who embraced mme as a sister. This is the end of the song.
163. Now is sung the High One’s Song in the end High One’s Hall; Useful to children of men; Useless to giants. Hail Him who sang! Hail him who knows! Happy is he who receives it!!!
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