Blessings Darlings!
We're still going thru' general advice here. And I'm still just generally running off at the fingers.
Never lift your eyes and look up in battle,
Lest the heroes enchant you,
who can change warriors
Suddenly into hogs,
Focus on the task at hand. One opponent at a time. Use your to-do list - planning 'ahead of the battle' (before you start your day) lets you identify which opponent to fight when.
With a good woman, if you wish to enjoy
Her words and her good will,
Pledge her fairly and be faithful to it:
Enjoy the good you are given,
Don't be a douche. Put a ring on it.
Be not over wary, but wary enough,
First, of the foaming ale,
Second, of a woman wed to another,
Third, of the tricks of thieves.
Oh! Among the survivalists/preppers I hand with I see the overwary often: Everything seen as an immediate critical threat. No ability to relax in any circumstance. It's more than balanced among those who don't prep at all, who are not at ALL wary of the /thievesgovernment/wars/pandemics/other threats that do exist.
Mock not the traveller met On the road,
Nor maliciously laugh at the guest:
Scoff not at guests nor to the gate chase them,
But relieve the lonely and wretched,
The sitters in the hall seldom know
The kin of the new-comer:
The best man is marred by faults,
The worst is not without worth.
Never laugh at the old when they offer counsel,
Often their words are wise:
From shrivelled skin, from scraggy things
That hand among the hides
And move amid the guts,
Clear words often come.
Don't be a douche. Listen to everyone. Evaluate, of course, but listen.
Heavy the beam above the door;
Hang a horse-shoe On it
Against ill-luck, lest it should suddenly
Crash and crush your guests.
Medicines exist against many evils:
Earth against drunkenness, heather against worms
Oak against costiveness, corn against sorcery,
Spurred rye against rupture, runes against bales
The moon against feuds, fire against sickness,
Earth makes harmless the floods.
I need to understand those more. Earth against drunkenness - not sure about that. Fire against sickness - fire purifies in general and destroys sources of contageon. Beltain is tomorrow as I type, when herds would be driven between two fires. Turns out that helps kill off lice and other insects that carry disease.
And, dang, why translate whatever the original word was to "costiveness"? I just looked the damn thing up - it's CONSTIPATION. I assume they mean eat green leaves to fight that, because I'd use the tannins of bark and acorns in teas to fight diarrhea (and possibly the worms they use heather against).
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advice. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
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
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
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Havamal, Part 3
Blessings Darlings!
So, we've gone over some of the rights and responsibilities of host/guest, or neighbors, or business interactions, or politics (for all of them are social situations, thus fundamentally the same). Now the Havamal moves on to more situational awareness and survival, then 'thrival', strategy.
Who travels widely needs his wits about him,
The stupid should stay at home,
The ignorant man is often laughed at
When he sits at meat with the sage.
Of his knowledge a man should never boast,
Rather be sparing of speech
When to his house a wiser comes:
Seldom do those who are silent
Make mistakes; mother wit
Is ever a faithful friend.
A guest should be courteous
When he comes to the table
And sit in wary silence,
His ears attentive, his eyes alert:
So he protects himself.
I consider the above verses wisdom on situational awareness, especially when on the road/in a business situation/in ANY social situation. It's less succinct and ... cutesy than "you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak".
They speak about a really basic truth - anyone who is clearly trying to impress others DOES tend to impress them ... negatively. If you're so hot, those around you won't need you to tell them. And if you're talking smack about how rich your family is, all that you're going to do is set them up to be raided, especially if you're explaining exactly where your defenses are at the same time!
And if you keep YOUR mouth running, you can't evaluate those around you. You need to know who is sensible, who bullshits, who sees everything negatively, who sees everything too positively, who talks behind others' backs, etc.
Fortunate is he who is favored in his lifetime
With praise and words of wisdom;
Evil counsel is often given
By those of evil heart.
Blessed is he who in his own lifetime
Is awarded praise and wit,
For ill counsel is often given
By mortal men to each other
Evil counsel and ill counsel are only different in what motivates them. Their effect, if you follow the counsel, is the same for you. You'll be sorry. Always consider the source when folks give you advice, and their motivation.
BTW - you ARE evaluating my words here that way, too, aren't you? What are my motives in posting this, and in my amplifications?
Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
Better than riches for a wretched man,
Far from his own home.
Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
A more tedious burden than too much drink
A traveler cannot carry.
Less good than belief would have it
Is mead for the sons of men:
A man knows less the more he drinks,
Becomes a befuddled fool.
Yes, drinking can cause problems. I suppose that this advice comes from the time before everyone drank because the water was fouled by human contamination? It's a bit of a wonder, tho', since in all the Eddas and Sagas you don't hear about people being served fresh cold water to drink, or even herbal teas, and the only time I recall milk being mentioned was when it was poured down a well to drive out poison. For that matter, the only time I recall Thor drinking water was when he was enchanted and thought he was drinking ale from a big horn .... the other end of the horn was the ocean! So just what WAS one expected to drink if not mead and ale?
On that note, I'm off to make myself another cup of tea.
Frondly, Fern
So, we've gone over some of the rights and responsibilities of host/guest, or neighbors, or business interactions, or politics (for all of them are social situations, thus fundamentally the same). Now the Havamal moves on to more situational awareness and survival, then 'thrival', strategy.
Who travels widely needs his wits about him,
The stupid should stay at home,
The ignorant man is often laughed at
When he sits at meat with the sage.
Of his knowledge a man should never boast,
Rather be sparing of speech
When to his house a wiser comes:
Seldom do those who are silent
Make mistakes; mother wit
Is ever a faithful friend.
A guest should be courteous
When he comes to the table
And sit in wary silence,
His ears attentive, his eyes alert:
So he protects himself.
I consider the above verses wisdom on situational awareness, especially when on the road/in a business situation/in ANY social situation. It's less succinct and ... cutesy than "you have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you speak".
They speak about a really basic truth - anyone who is clearly trying to impress others DOES tend to impress them ... negatively. If you're so hot, those around you won't need you to tell them. And if you're talking smack about how rich your family is, all that you're going to do is set them up to be raided, especially if you're explaining exactly where your defenses are at the same time!
And if you keep YOUR mouth running, you can't evaluate those around you. You need to know who is sensible, who bullshits, who sees everything negatively, who sees everything too positively, who talks behind others' backs, etc.
Fortunate is he who is favored in his lifetime
With praise and words of wisdom;
Evil counsel is often given
By those of evil heart.
Blessed is he who in his own lifetime
Is awarded praise and wit,
For ill counsel is often given
By mortal men to each other
Evil counsel and ill counsel are only different in what motivates them. Their effect, if you follow the counsel, is the same for you. You'll be sorry. Always consider the source when folks give you advice, and their motivation.
BTW - you ARE evaluating my words here that way, too, aren't you? What are my motives in posting this, and in my amplifications?
Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
Better than riches for a wretched man,
Far from his own home.
Better gear than good sense
A traveler cannot carry,
A more tedious burden than too much drink
A traveler cannot carry.
Less good than belief would have it
Is mead for the sons of men:
A man knows less the more he drinks,
Becomes a befuddled fool.
Yes, drinking can cause problems. I suppose that this advice comes from the time before everyone drank because the water was fouled by human contamination? It's a bit of a wonder, tho', since in all the Eddas and Sagas you don't hear about people being served fresh cold water to drink, or even herbal teas, and the only time I recall milk being mentioned was when it was poured down a well to drive out poison. For that matter, the only time I recall Thor drinking water was when he was enchanted and thought he was drinking ale from a big horn .... the other end of the horn was the ocean! So just what WAS one expected to drink if not mead and ale?
On that note, I'm off to make myself another cup of tea.
Frondly, Fern
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
