''Hávamál'' ( ;

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

: ,Unnormalised spelling in the :
Title:
Final stanza: ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of he High One��) is presented as a single poem in the Icelandic , a collection of

poems from the Viking age. The poem, itself a combination of numerous shorter poems, is largely gnomic, presenting advice for living, proper conduct and wisdom. It is considered an important source of

Old Norse philosophy Old Norse philosophy was the philosophy of the early Scandinavians. Similar to the patterns of thought of other early Germanic peoples, Old Norse philosophy is best attested in the ''Poetic Edda'', particularly ''Hávamál'', which is a poem attr ...

. The verses are attributed to

Odin Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...

; the implicit attribution to Odin facilitated the accretion of various mythological material also dealing with the same deity. For the most part composed in the

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its pref ...

, a metre associated with wisdom verse, is both practical and philosophical in content. Following the gnomic " proper" comes the , an account of how Odin won the

rune Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

s, and the , a list of magic chants or

spells Spell(s) or The Spell(s) may refer to: Processes * Spell (paranormal), an incantation * Spell (ritual), a magical ritual * Spelling, the writing of words Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Spell'' (1977 film), an American ...

.Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) ''The Poetic Edda'', p. 14.

Oxford World's Classics Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. I ...

Name

The

name is a

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struct ...

of the

genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...

form of , which is the inflexionally weak form of Odin's name ('High One'), and the

plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...

noun (from older ), and means 'Song (or Words) of the High One'.

Textual history

The only surviving source for is the 13th century , with the exception of two short parts.The first stanza is also found in the manuscripts of the ''

Prose Edda The ''Prose Edda'', also known as the ''Younger Edda'', ''Snorri's Edda'' ( is, Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often assumed to have been t ...

'' (in slightly different versions), and three lines of a later stanza are also found in the manuscripts of (again in slightly different versions). The part dealing with ethical conduct (the ) was traditionally identified as the oldest portion of the poem by scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century. Bellows (1936) identifies as the core of the poem a "collection of proverbs and wise counsels" which dates to "a very early time", but which, by the nature of oral tradition, never had a fixed form or extent. Klaus von See (1981) identifies direct influence of the on the , suggesting that also this part is a product of the high medieval period and casting doubt on the "unadulterated Germanic character" of the poem claimed by earlier commentators. To the gnomic core of the poem, other fragments and poems dealing with wisdom and proverbs accreted over time. A discussion of authorship or date for the individual parts would be futile, since almost every line or stanza could have been added, altered or removed at will at any time before the poem was written down in the 13th century. Individual verses or stanzas nevertheless certainly date to as early as the 10th, or even the 9th century. Thus, the line ("cattle die, kinsmen die") found in verses 76 and 77 of the can be shown to date to the 10th century, as it also occurs in the by . The has been described as a 10th-century poem in some sources. ''Vendel Period Bracteates on Gotland'' p. 37

Editions and translations

editio princeps In classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand. For ...

: Peder Hansen Resen, ''Edda. Islandorum an. Chr. 1215 islandice conscripta'', 1665
Google Books
. *

Peter Andreas Munch Peter Andreas Munch (15 December 1810 – 25 May 1863), usually known as P. A. Munch, was a Norwegian historian, known for his work on the medieval history of Norway. Munch's scholarship included Norwegian archaeology, geography, ethnography, ...

, Carl Rikard Unger, ''Den Ældre Edda: Samling af norrøne oldkvad, indeholdende Nordens ældste gude- og helte-sagn'', Christiania: P. T. Malling, 1847
Internet Archive
*

Benjamin Thorpe Benjamin Thorpe (1782 – 19 July 1870) was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. Biography In the early 1820s he worked as a banker in the House of Rothschild, in Paris. There he met Thomas Hodgkin, who treated him for tuberculosis. A ...

, ''Edda Sæmundar Hinns Froða: The Edda Of Sæmund The Learned'', 1866
online transcription
. *

Sophus Bugge Elseus Sophus Bugge (5 January 1833 – 8 July 1907) was a Norwegian philologist and linguist. His scholarly work was directed to the study of runic inscriptions and Norse philology. Bugge is best known for his theories and his work on the runic ...

, ''Sæmundar Edda hins fróða''. Christiania: P. T. Malling, 1867. *Olive Bray, ''The Elder or Poetic Edda, commonly known as Sæmund's Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems'', London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908, pp. 61–11
online transcription
. *H. A. Bellows, ''The Poetic Edda'', 1936, "Hovamol: The Ballad of the High One"

. *

Carolyne Larrington Carolyne Larrington (born 1959) is a Professor of Medieval European Literature and Official Fellow of St John's College at the University of Oxford. Her research has primarily been on Old Norse and medieval Arthurian literature The Matter ...

, ''The Poetic Edda'', Oxford University Press, 2006. *

Jackson Crawford Jackson W. Crawford (born August 28, 1985) is an American scholar, translator and poet who specializes in Old Norse. He previously taught at University of Colorado, Boulder (2017-2020), University of California, Berkeley (2014-17) and University ...

, ''The Poetic Edda'', Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2015. *

, ''The Wanderer's Hávamál'', 2019
Google Books
. * Thorstein Mayfield, ''Poetic Edda: A Heathen Study Edition (Mythological Poems)'', Woden's Folk Press, 2019.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Hávamál
Translation by

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

and P. B. Taylor
Hávamál
Translation by Olive Bray
An Old Norse edition at Heimskringla.no

illustrations from Victorian and Edwardian retellings of Hávamál. Clicking on the thumbnail will give you the full image and information concerning it {{DEFAULTSORT:Havamal Eddic poetry Wisdom literature Old Norse philosophy