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 8 - The Mating Game

Blessings Darlings!

This week in the Havamal - Odhinn trashes women. And men. Or at least dating. Or speaks of the challenges of actually finding intimacy. 

While the words used usually say love here .... more of the time it sounds like lust, or day dreams.  For all logic, all sense is thrown away.  This is not about finding someone to spend the rest of your life with! 

At best it's love as illness, love as destroyer.  Tristan and Isolde-level strurm und drang.  I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, given the era this came from.  Survival then really did depend in large part on wise choice in a mate and their family.  You had a role in the survival of your extended family, your clan, your tribe, your village to uphold.

It didn't matter if you were gay or straight, for that matter.  You  needed to marry, to form an alliance to strengthen your tribe and to have children, explained   Alexi Kondratiev in a class at Sacred Space Conference some years back.  The group was more important than the individual.

No man should trust a maiden's words,
Nor what a woman speaks:
Spun on a wheel were women's hearts,
In their breasts was implanted caprice,

To love a woman whose ways are false
Is like sledding over slippery ice
With unshod horses out of control,
Badly trained two-year-olds,
Or drifting rudderless on a rough sea,
Or catching a reindeer with a crippled hand
On a thawing hillside: think not to do it.

Naked I may speak now for I know both:
Men are treacherous too
Fairest we speak when falsest we think:
many a maid is deceived.

Gallantly shall he speak and gifts bring
Who wishes for woman's love:
praise the features of the fair girl,
Who courts well will conquer.

Never reproach another for his love:
It happens often enough
That beauty ensnares with desire the wise
While the foolish remain unmoved.

Never reproach the plight of another,
For it happens to many men:
Strong desire may stupefy heroes,
Dull the wits of the wise

Yeah, the blood leaves the brain and goes to regions farther south, in both men and women.

The mind alone knows what is near the heart,
Each is his own judge:
The worst sickness for a wise man
Is to crave what he cannot enjoy.

So I learned when I sat in the reeds,
Hoping to have my desire:
Lovely was the flesh of that fair girl,
But nothing I hoped for happened.

I saw on a bed Billing's daughter,
Sun white, asleep:
No greater delight I longed for then
Than to lie in her lovely arms.

"Come" Odhinn, after nightfall
If you wish for a meeting with me:
All would be lost if anyone saw us
And learned that we were lovers."

Afire with longing" I left her then,
Deceived by her soft words:
I thought my wooing had won the maid,
That I would have my way.

After nightfall I hurried back,
But the warriors were all awake,
Lights were burning, blazing torches:
So false proved the path

Towards daybreak back I came
The guards were sound asleep:
I found then that the fair woman
Had tied a bitch to her bed.
WHY is it that "All would be lost if anyone saw us and learned that we were lovers'?  I'm thinking that would have been a question he should have asked and dealt with up front.  Probably back to individual pleasure over the needs of the tribe?

Many a girl when one gets to know her
Proves to be fickle and false:
That treacherous maiden taught me a lesson,
The crafty woman covered me with shame"
That was all I got from her.

Certainly this rings true about dating/courtship.  Odhinn here seems to have wanted to get laid, rather than the public 'we are an item' coupling, and certainly not marriage.  If marriage was the goal he'd not have agreed to keep things secret.

Courtship.  Let's look at the third definition from the Bing dictionary: friendly and often ingratiating attention for the purpose of winning a favor or establishing an alliance or other relationship.  Were any of the folks talked of so far doing anything working towards marriage, towards intimacy - the #1 definition of 'courtship' from Bing (the period of a romantic relationship before marriage)?  Nope.  It's all game playing. 

Now, I personally think that dating to have fun and even get laid is fine - not all dating SHOULD lead to marriage.  But I'm of the opinion that if you're out for a good time, be up front about.  Own it.  It's okay. 

But some folks ARE going to lie about their intent and lead you on to think that they are on the same songsheet you're on.  Which is why you test, you evaluate.  How do they treat others?  What are their values? Especially if YOU are into dating/courtship in search of marriage and real intimacy.

Gunnlod sat me in the golden seat,
Poured me precious mead:
Ill reward she had from me for that,
For her proud and passionate heart,
Her brooding foreboding spirit.

What I won from her I have well used:
I have waxed in wisdom since I came back,
bringing to Asgard Odrerir,
the sacred draught.

Hardly would I have come home alive
From the garth of the grim troll,
Had Gunnlod not helped me, the good woman,
Who wrapped her arms around me.

Here, of course, Odhinn is the jerk, having tricked Gunnlod into giving him 3 'sips' of the mead according to Prose Edda version of the story, one for every night spent schtupping.  Not unlike Freya sleeping with a dwarf for every stone in her necklace Brisingamen.  Of course, Freya didn't totally empty the supply of amber, while Odhinn DID drink all the Mead of Poetic Inspiration!

Shun a woman, wise in magic,
Her bed and her embraces:
If she cast a spell, you will care no longer
To meet and speak with men,
Desire no food, desire no pleasure,
In sorrow fall asleep.

Snort. Baby boy, a woman wise in magic doesn't need spells to keep a man.  Or just cue my dear Frank Sinatra singing "Witchcraft".

 Sigh....  Ahem.  Back to the Havamal..

Never seduce anothers wife,
Never make her your mistress.

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.

I saw a warrior wounded fatally
By the words of an evil woman
Her cunning tongue caused his death,
Though what she alleged was a lie.

Is all of this, really, about putting one's self and one's personal desires above those of your tribe?  About forgetting to judge a potential mate by the same standards you judge the worthiness of your friends and associates? Of putting pleasure above sense?

I'm going to have to puzzle that one out more over time.

Frondly, Fern

Havamal, Part 7

 Blessings Darlings!

Sorry about the late posting today - the post got eaten by the electronic Aether.

So let's move on to ..... Gold.....

The half wit does not know that gold
Makes apes of many men:
One is rich, one is poor
There is no blame in that.



How much did the average Norse person know about apes? Is this a translation issue? 

Cattle die, kindred die,
Every man is mortal:
But the good name never dies
Of one who has done well

Cattle die, kindred die,
Every man is mortal:
But I know one thing that never dies,
The glory of the great dead




So well known, those two stanzas! Still they bare repeating. Bodies die. Great deeds don't. VERY great and stories about you will live on. Great enough, people will name their children for you, and your name will live on.  Screw up bad enough, the stories will remain but you will remain a laughing stock forever.

Fields and flocks had Fitjung's sons,
Who now carry begging bowls:
Wealth may vanish in the wink of an eye,
Gold is the falsest of friends.


Notice - we don't know the names of the sons. 



But .... were begging bowls a feature of the Norse poor?  They were and are a feature of Buddhist monks, and could be a translation issue.  Still, back in the Great Depression as it played out here in the US, people had to bring their own bowls to soup kitchens......

In the fool who acquires cattle and lands,
Or wins a woman's love,
His wisdom wanes with his waxing pride,
He sinks from sense to conceit.

Odin sounds like the 99% here.  Remember, 1% - you didn't get there alone.  You had companions, luck, and likely privilege.  Remember.

Now is answered what you ask of the runes,
Graven by the gods,
Made by the All Father,
Sent by the powerful sage:
lt is best for man to remain silent.


Is this 'keep the conceit of the previous verse to yourself'?  Is this "to know, to dare, to try, to KEEP SILENT"? Is this "you have the right to keep silent, now work on the ability to keep silent'?

For these things give thanks at nightfall:
The day gone, a guttered torch,
A sword tested, the troth of a maid,
Ice crossed, ale drunk.

Perhaps this answers my questions about the previous stanza. Keep the conceit to yourself, give thanks for what you have.  Remember.

Hew wood in wind-time,
in fine weather sail,
Tell in the night-time tales to house-girls,
For too many eyes are open by day:
From a ship expect speed, from a shield, cover,
Keenness from a sword,
but a kiss from a girl 
Drink ale by the hearth, over ice glide,
Buy a stained sword, buy a starving mare
To fatten at home: and fatten the watch-dog.

Back to common sense.

Trust not an acre early sown,
Nor praise a son too soon:
Weather rules the acre, wit the son,
Both are exposed to peril,


While you're at it, don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

A snapping bow, a burning flame,
A grinning wolf, a grunting boar,
A raucous crow, a rootless tree,
A breaking wave, a boiling kettle,
A flying arrow, an ebbing tide,
A coiled adder, the ice of a night,
A bride's bed talk, a broad sword,
A bear's play, a prince' s children,
A witch' s welcome, the wit of a slave,
A sick calf, a corpse still fresh,
A brother's killer encountered upon
The highway a house half-burned,
A racing stallion who has wrenched a leg,
Are never safe: let no man trust them.


Trust yourself. Verify all else.

Frondly, Fern

Havamal, Part 6

Blessings Darlings!

Welcome to this week's installment of  my free-associating to the words of the Havamal.  For those new here - the Havamal is from the Prose Edda of the Norse, and is attributed to Odin.  I'm not using either the best translation or the best ordered version ... but I was sure this one was public domain.  I've found other translations online since then, better, but I'm going to use this one thru' since I started it.  The better versions are mentioned in a great comment in, I believe, the first part of the series.

On to the text!

Little a sand-grain, little a dew drop,
Little the minds of men:
A11 men are not equal in wisdom,
The half-wise are everywhere 

Well, YEAH.  I'm giving up on reading the 'calls to the editor' part of my local paper. 

It is best for man to be middle-wise,
Not over cunning and clever:
The fairest life is led by those
Who are deft at all they do.
It is best for man to be middle-wise,
Not over cunning and clever:
No man is able to know his future,
So let him sleep in peace. 

It is best for man to be middle-wise,
Not over cunning and clever:
The learned man whose lore is deep
Is seldom happy at heart. 

Is my confusion over the difference between 'half-wise' and 'middle wise' a translation problem?

I have to admit my personal prejudice is in favor of being of greater not lesser wisdom.  And that I see 'cunning and clever' as being different than wisdom.  Maybe more like being smart-asses, or con artists.  But the "The learned man whose lore is deep Is seldom happy at heart" line makes it clear that even my educational elitism is what's being addressed here.  

 

Then again, I see happiness as a choice, not something conferred or chased away by eduction, brains, wealth, etc.

Brand kindles brand till they burn out,
Flame is quickened by flame:
One man from another is known by his speech
The simpleton by his silence.
Early shall he rise who has designs
On anothers land or life:
His prey escapes the prone wolf,
The sleeper is seldom victorious. 

Early shall he rise who rules few servants,
And set to work at once:
Much is lost by the late sleeper,
Wealth is won by the swift, 

Ah, Procrastination, my old friend!  Friend?  No, more like a foe I've made strong over the years, fool that I tend to be.  

A man should know how many logs
And strips of bark from the birch
To stock in autumn, that he may have enough
Wood for his winter fires. 

Preparedness.  Yes, I'm there.  If anyone reading wants links to the web sites that help you figure out how much of what food you need to stock to have a year supply... let me know.  Logs, food, water source - know how to supply and DO supply your own basic needs.  Then...

Washed and fed,
one may fare to the Thing:
Though one's clothes be the worse for Wear,
None need be ashamed of his shoes or hose,
Nor of the horse he owns,
Although no thoroughbred. 

As the eagle who comes to the ocean shore,
Sniffs and hangs her head,
Dumfounded is he who finds at the Thing
No supporters to plead his case. 

Once you've met your own needs yourself, you can go to the AlThing proudly.  Still, if you are there asking for something .... you need to also check with others to see if they agree with your view.  Never assume the support of others.  

It is safe to tell a secret to one,
Risky to tell it to two,
To tell it to three is thoughtless folly,
Everyone else will know. 

Often words uttered to another
Have reaped an ill harvest:
Two beat one, the tongue is head's bane,
Pockets of fur hide fists. 

You have the right to remain silent.  Do you have the ability?  Freedom of speech lets you say what you want.  It does NOT mean that what you say has no repurcussions.


And, for your preppers --- OPSEC! (operational security, for the rest of you).

Moderate at council should a man be,
Not brutal and over bearing:
Among the bold the bully will find
Others as bold as he. 

Again ... don't be a douche.

These things are thought the best:
Fire, the sight of the sun,
Good health with the gift to keep it,
And a life that avoids vice. 

Not all sick men are utterly wretched:
Some are blessed with sons,
Some with friends,
some with riches,
Some with worthy works. 

The halt can manage a horse,
the handless a flock,
The deaf be a doughty fighter,
To be blind is better than to burn on a pyre:
There is nothing the dead can do. 

It is always better to be alive,
The living can keep a cow.
Fire, I saw, warming a wealthy man,
With a cold corpse at his door. 

A person can be old. A person can be ill.  A person can have physical/mental/emotional disabilities.  But being helpless and worthless is not one of them.  As I told my mother, a decade ago when she started losing her sight and felt she couldn't help a cousin care for the cousin's grandson .... "You put the bottle in one end and change the other .... and the baby lets you know if you got it wrong!"  [and thanks to Melilot for the line, BTW] 

A son is a blessing, though born late
To a father no longer alive:
Stones would seldom stand by the highway
If sons did not set them there. 

He welcomes the night who has enough provisions
Short are the sails of a ship,
Dangerous the dark in autumn,
The wind may veer within five days,
And many times in a month. 

Okay, I don't get why these lines have been put here in the version I'm using.  Do they flow better in more normative versions?  At any rate - you descendants are likely the only ones who will honor your .... but do all descendant have to be biological? Nah, says I.

And it finishes with prepping.  Okay. Fine. Short sails, maybe, allow you to tack, to move where you want to go despite where the wind alone would have you go?  Is that it?  I dunno.

And so ends Part 6.  Tune in next Wotansday for Part 7!

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