Havamal, Part 9

Blessings Darlings!             

It certainly has been a while since I did a Havamal installment.  I'm sorry about that.  But I plan to get back to them regularly now - well, there are only going to be one or two installments after this one, but I figure to do them once a week again. 

What was I doing while away?  Part of it was working on marketing.  Which means I'm reading business and marketing lessons into this segment of the Havamal.  Of course, I see most of life as being about business and marketing, so that's nothing new.

Let a man with his guests be glad and merry,
Modest a man should be"
But talk well if he intends to be wise
And expects praise from men:
Fimbul fambi is the fool called "
Unable to open his mouth.
Fruitless my errand, had I been silent
When I came to Suttung's courts:
With spirited words I spoke to my profit
In the hall of the aged giant.
Some people say that it's hard to find the sweet spot between being too quiet in a group and babbling too much.  If I might be so bold - I'd suggest that it's not that difficult to find.  If you read the front page stories in any paper regularly, have a hobby or two, pay bills, buy/cook/eat food, etc, then you have things to talk about that work their way into most conversations at one point or another.  And if you listen to what others say, and let them have their say, you easily avoid being obnoxious and monopolizing the conversation.  Here Odhinn did talk.  He talked with, not to, Gunnlod, won her confidence, and ended up winning the Mead.

The following day the Frost Giants came,
Walked into Har's hall To ask for Har's advice:
Had Bolverk they asked, come back to his friends,
Or had he been slain by Suttung?

Odhinn, they said, swore an oath on his ring:
Who from now on will trust him?
By fraud at the feast he befuddled Suttung
And brought grief to Gunnlod.

Uh - isn't Har another name for Odhinn?

It is time to sing in the seat of the wise,
Of what at Urd's Well I saw in silence,
saw and thought on.
Long I listened to men
Runes heard spoken, (counsels revealed.)
At Har's hall, In Har's hall:
There I heard this.

Yes - listen.  Yes - watch. Yes - THINK ON.  These things you can do while holding up your end in a conversation.  And certainly do the thinking all the time. Remember, the fountain of Urd is in Asgard, Odhinn is silent and thinking even there.    

Now, on to advice.  "Rede" if you will.... It's mostly about building community, one person at a time.  Aligning with the honorable and wise, avoiding the fools, putting distance between you and the evil. 

Loddfafnir, listen to my counsel:
You will fare well if you follow it,
It will help you much if you heed it.

Never rise at night unless you need to spy
Or to ease yourself in the outhouse.
I wonder if in the original this is "to watch" - to be on guard. 

If you must journey to mountains and firths,
Take food and fodder with you.

Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.

If others don't trust someone, there is often a reason.  If it's because they've been shitty to others, they WILL turn on you when it is to their advantage.

If you know a friend you can fully trust,
Go often to his house
Grass and brambles grow quickly
Upon the untrodden track.

Nurture good relationships.  Invest in them.  Yes, I AM typing this at a writing date with Suz, why do you ask?  Friends that you can trust and, at times, vent to are a need in life.  They will help you sort of the gold from the dross, and help you find the right word to use when writing. 

With a good man it is good to talk,
Make him your fast friend:
But waste no words on a witless oaf,
Nor sit with a senseless ape.

Gawds, once in high school, ages and ages ago, I was desperately trying to finish writing a paper due later that day.  I was in the library in a two-person cubicle with  my best friend.  She WOULD NOT SHUT UP.  I ended up screaming at her, walked out, and finished writing in the loud, active cafeteria - it was easier to do their.  The witless will sap your strength and attention.

Cherish those near you, never be
The first to break with a friend:
Care eats him who can no longer
Open his heart to another.

An evil man, if you make him your friend,
Will give you evil for good:
A good man, if you make him your friend"
Will praise you in every place,

Affection is mutual when men can open
All their heart to each other:
He whose words are always fair
Is untrue and not to be trusted.

Bandy no speech with a bad man:
Often the better is beaten
In a word fight by the worse.

THAT advise is SO hard for me to follow!  Some of you know me well, and know that I ... uh ... tend to enjoy a verbal joust rather too much.  I tend to find douchebaggery entertaining when I turn them into targets.

Be not a cobbler nor a carver of shafts,
Except it be for yourself:
If a shoe fit ill or a shaft be crooked"
The maker gets curses and kicks.

If aware that another is wicked, say so:
Make no truce or treaty with foes.

And THAT is how I justify my targeting/identifing/pointing out douchebags. 

Never share in the shamefully gotten,
But allow yourself what is lawful.
Stop the piracy.  We're software developers, ffs, bit torrents are killing us.

That's it for now.

Frondly, Fern

Havamal, Part 4

Some day reading the Havamal reminds me of the saying "the problem with common sense is that it's so uncommon.   So much of this can be summarized by as 'Don't be a Douche'!

Be restrained in your drinking - if you can't remember the night before, you failed and were a fool.  Talk little, let your bold, brave actions be your statement.   Don't be a pig, especially one who eats/drinks too much then complains that you're SO FULL or so wasted.  Don't disrespect others at a gathering, not only because it makes you look bad but if you cause a fight it screws up EVERYONE.  Be able to judge who is laughing with  you vs laughing at you, your friends from everyone else.  Don't count on others taking care of your needs.

Yup.  Don't be a douche.

I-forget is the name men give the heron

Who hovers over the fast: 

Fettered I was in his feathers that night,  

When a guest in Gunnlod's court 

 

Drunk I got, dead drunk, 

When Fjalar the wise was with me: 

Best is the banquet one looks back on after,  

And remembers all that happened, 

 

Silence becomes the Son of a prince, 

To be silent but brave in battle: 

It befits a man to be merry and glad  

Until the day of his death, 

 

The coward believes he will live forever

If he holds back in the battle, 

But in old age he shall have no peace  

Though spears have spared his limbs 

 

When he meets friends, the fool gapes, 

Is shy and sheepish at first, 

Then he sips his mead and immediately 

All know what an oaf he is, 

He who has seen and suffered much, 

And knows the ways of the world, 

Who has travelled', can tell what spirit 

Governs the men he meets, 

Drink your mead, but in moderation, 

Talk sense or be silent: 

No man is called discourteous who goes  

To bed at an early hour 

 

A gluttonous man who guzzles away 

Brings sorrow on himself: 

At the table of the wise he is taunted often,  

Mocked for his bloated belly, 

 

The herd knows its homing time, 

And leaves the grazing ground: 

But the glutton never knows how much  

His belly is able to hold, 

 

An ill tempered, unhappy man 

Ridicules all he hears, 

Makes fun of others, refusing always  

To see the faults in himself 

 

Foolish is he who frets at night, 

And lies awake to worry' 

A weary man when morning comes,  

He finds all as bad as before, 

 

The fool thinks that those who laugh 

At him are all his friends, 

Unaware when he sits with wiser men  

How ill they speak of him. 

 

The fool thinks that those who laugh 

At him are all his friends: 

When he comes to the Thing and calls for support,  

Few spokesmen he finds 

 

The fool who fancies he is full of wisdom 

While he sits by his hearth at home. 

Quickly finds when questioned by others .  

That he knows nothing at all. 

 

The ignorant booby had best be silent 

When he moves among other men, 

No one will know what a nit-wit he is 

Until he begins to talk; 

No one knows less what a nit-wit he is  

Than the man who talks too much. 

 

To ask well, to answer rightly, 

Are the marks of a wise man: 

Men must speak of men's deeds,  

What happens may not be hidden. 

 

Wise is he not who is never silent, 

Mouthing meaningless words: 

A glib tongue that goes on chattering  

Sings to its own harm. 

 

A man among friends should not mock another: 

Many believe the man 

Who is not questioned to know much 

And so he escapes their scorn. 

An early meal a man should take 

Before he visits friends, 

Lest, when he gets there, 

he go hungry,  

Afraid to ask for food. 

 

The fastest friends may fall out 

When they sit at the banquet-board: 

It is, and shall be, a shameful thing  

When guest quarrels with guest,

Havamal, Installment 2

Blessings  Darlings!

In our last installment of the Havamal, I sort of declare that it was aimed at .... a business traveler.  Doesn't matter it the traveler is a trader or raider, I suppose, ultimately, the point is to return richer than when you set out.  So, where does the text take us now?

The man who stands at a strange threshold
Should be cautious before he cross it. 
Glance this way and that:
Who knows beforehand what foes may sit
Awaiting him in the hall?

Greetings to the host, 
The guest has arrived,
In which seat shall he sit?
Rash is he who at unknown doors 
Relies on his good luck.


Well, what do you know - it sound like skills from the Ninjitsu training I had!  Situational awareness - scope out your surroundings at all times.  Especially in a group of people you are meeting for the first time, you will not know all the alliances, and certainly not all the history.  

We were rather in that situation a year ago, when we moved.  Among our neighbors, who were the power brokers?  Would the HOA really enforce the rules on garbage cans, and if so, who would be reporting violations?  What families don't get along?  Scoping out the hidden alliances and sand traps was necessary!

Our approach - rely on courtesy, our operating motto "Don't embarrass the neighbors". Keep the yard neat, help neighborhood upkeep, wave at every car we pass/passes the house if we're outside.

It's also our business approach, but more on that in a few verses.

Fire is needed by the newcomer
Whose knees are frozen numb,
Meat and clean linen a man needs
Who has fared across the fells.

Water, too, that he may wash before eating,
Handclothes and a hearty welcome,
Courteous words, then courteous silence
that he may tell his tale. 

The ball is back in the host's court here.  Hosts have responsibilities.  Hang up their coats. Show them to the restroom.  Get them a cup of coffee, or meal or whatever the situation is.  And then scope the guest out!  

The assorted rights and responsibilities of guests and hosts are very much like the handshaking done by the machines when you send a fax.  They make sure that everyone is using a communication platform that works at both ends.

While you're at it, check their company's D&B listing.  

More in our next installment!


Frondly, Fern

Havamal, Part 1

Blessings Darlings!

So, how does the Havamal start?  Like this:

Young and alone on a long road,
once I lost my way: 
Rich I felt when I found another;
Man rejoices in man,


A kind word need not cost much, 
The price of praise can be cheap:
With half a loaf and an empty cup
I found myself a friend,


Two wooden stakes stood on the plain,
On them I hung my clothes;
Draped in linen, they looked well born,
But, naked, I was a nobody.


Too early to many homes I came,
Too late, it seemed, to some:
The ale was finished or else un-brewed,
The unpopular cannon please,

Some would invite me to visit their homes,
But none thought I needed a meal,
As though I had eaten a whole joint,
Just before with a friend who had two.


We start the poem on the road.  Which  makes sense, since Odhinn would be talking to His people, not to Thor's people or Heartha's people, etc. (Thor's men, being working men, are more tied to the lands/fields of home.)  Being on the road means you have given up the comforts of home in search of something more.  It's not like doing this make you the equivalent of the 'superior man' in the I Ching, but it DOES speak of a certain amount of ambition or drive to better oneself and ones position in life.

Or, as we say in Ar nDraiocht Fein (ADF) - why not excellence?

And yet ....

There's clearly a difference between leaving one's comfort zone and being lost and alone.  Guides, companions ... humans were then, and still are now, tribal.  We may define tribe differently now, it can be family/kith/kin, neighbors/garth, religion based, politically based, economically based, whatever.  But no one does it totally alone.  Your tribe IS part of your riches.

Which leads, of course, to the issue of hospitality and how one treats strangers and travelers.  Not only could you be the stranger/traveler soon, but the stranger at your door could be Odhinn (or Zeus, or Hermes, or Macha, or Finn, or.... well, you Pagans get it).  True, being on the road now isn't a much a life-threatening challenge it was back in the day.

 Simple politeness is clearly the essence of hospitality.  Giving kind words, sharing half a loaf.

Then the 'don't mistake fine clothes for a fine person'.  Just as true now with fashion ad pricy clothes as it was then with linen vs. rough working folks clothes!

And don't mistake having fine clothes with being well-fed, either on the road or at home, actually.  Assume that others need care and feeding - offer food, drink, again, common courtesy.

Actually, this sort of brings up eating with your guests/business meetings/etc.  "Gosh we've run out of food' for you, or "we don't eat good food here, so have none to share" are old tricks.  Egyptians not eating with others is mentioned in the Bible, and now kashrut laws for Jews and Halal vs Haram food issues for Moslems, not to mention trying to offer hospitality to vegans or trying to account for food allergies, can really cause problems in offering hospitality.  Where do the responsibility of good host vs good guest get drawn?  Back then, it was just 'share what you have'.  Now - we smoke a damn fine pulled pork here, but it's sure not something I can offer my kosher relatives (some of which won't eat in my house at all).

Thus ends part 1 of our look at the Havamal.  More to come! This WILL take a while, and may or may not be a daily thing - depends on how life goes. After all, I still have recipes to share, and opinions on what's happening in the world to spout, too.

Frondly, Fern

Winter Nights

Blessings Darlings!

Back in the day - and I mean REALLY back in Europe, from the iron age until industrialization - winter was the time for learning history, poetry, culture, wisdom.  After all, in summer the herds would be out in the fields being watched by the original cow boys from dawn till dusk.  And dawn was really early, and dusk really late.

But in winter, the thinned herds were kept in the village so you could easily feed and water them.  Dawn was late, dusk early, so you didn't crash as soon as the sun went down.  And, in Ireland, even the Fianna bunked in towns during the winter.  So after dinner you could head over to the neighbor's place and the elders would tell the stories, share the poetry and tales. 

So I think I'll go there in this blog for a while.  I'll start with the words of the Havamal and some of my own commentary on it, how it applies to MY life.  I'm not going to pretend to be overly knowledgeable about the time it comes from, after all!

The Havamal is part of the Poetic Edda, a collection of Old  Norse poetry.  It is, fundamentally, common sense served up by Odhinn.  Common sense being, well, awfully uncommon lately, it seems like a great place to start.

I'll be using the Auden & Taylor translation, which is all over the interwebs and appears to be public domain.

If any of y'all are knowledgeable about the times this comes from, or have other insights to add, PLEASE add comments as we go along!  I'm no expert historian, nor am I Asatruar or anyone who has really studied this in context.

Frondly, Fern