Does everyone know about Hàvamal?

Hávamál, (Old Norse: “Sayings of the High One [Odin]”) a heterogeneous collection of 164 stanzas of aphorisms, homely wisdom, counsels, and magic charms that are ascribed to the Norse god Odin. The work contains at least five separate fragments not originally discovered together and constitutes a portion of the Poetic Edda. Most of the poems are believed to have been composed in Norway in the 9th and 10th centuries.

I have a great translation by W.H. Auden and P.B. Taylor in their large collectiion of Norse Poems. It’s lovely, with the “sprung rhythm” or syncopated poetry as Auden called it and managed to reproduce it, and with lots of alliteration and metaphors. The content itself is, as described above, a collection of aphorisms and advice. I thought of it with the new year coming up at a time in our history when it’s difficult to predict anything but when we need all the counsel we can get.

I’ve re-read it a few times and made of list of some of the most useful, appropriate advice for our time (including some warnings about over-indulgence on New Year’s Eve).

Best is the banquet one looks back on after,/And remembers all that happened.

A glib tongue that goes on chattering/Sings to is own harm.

He starts to stink who outstays his welcome/In a hall that is not his own.

Benjamin Franklin( 1706-1790) and the poet Horace (65 B.C.- B. C. said much the same thing. (Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.)

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

You see? Nothing we didn’t already know. We just have to pay attention. Again.