Hávamál
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''Hávamál'' ( ;
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
: ''Hávamál'',Unnormalised spelling in the
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
:
''Title'': hava mal
''Final stanza'': Nv ero Hava mál q''ve''ðin Háva hꜹ''l''lo i ../ref> classical pron. , Modern Icelandic pron. , ‘Words of Hávi he High One) is presented as a single poem in the
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
, a collection of
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
poems from the Viking age. A scholarly estimate of Hávamál's age dates the poem to between 900 and 1000 A.D. 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 attri ...
. The verses are attributed to
Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...
; 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 (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...
''ljóðaháttr'', a metre associated with wisdom verse, ''Hávamál'' is both practical and philosophical in content. Following the gnomic "''Hávamál'' proper" comes the ''Rúnatal'', an account of how Odin won the
rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see '' futhark'' vs ''runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were primarily used to represent a sound value (a ...
s, and the ''Ljóðatal'', a list of magic chants or spells.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. ...


Name

The
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...
name ''Hávamál'' is a compound 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 ...
form of ''Hávi'', which is the inflexionally weak form of Odin's name '' Hár'' ('High One'), and the
plural In many languages, a plural (sometimes list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated as pl., pl, , or ), is one of the values of the grammatical number, grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than ...
noun ''mál'' (from older ''mǫ́l''), and means 'Song (or Words) of the High One'.


Textual history

The only surviving source for ''Hávamál'' is the 13th century
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
, 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'' () or, historically, simply as ''Edda'', is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. The work is often considered to have been to some exten ...
'' (in slightly different versions), and three lines of a later stanza are also found in the manuscripts of ''
Fóstbrœðra saga ''Fóstbrœðra saga'' () or ''The Saga of the Sworn Brothers'' is one of the sagas of Icelanders. It relates the deeds of the sworn brothers Þorgeir and Þormóðr in early 11th century Iceland and abroad. Þorgeir is a capable and insanely bra ...
'' (again in slightly different versions).
The part dealing with ethical conduct (the ''Gestaþáttr'') 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. 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 ''deyr fé, deyja frændr'' ("cattle die, kinsmen die") found in verses 76 and 77 of the ''Gestaþáttr'' can be shown to date to the 10th century, as it also occurs in the ''
Hákonarmál ''Hákonarmál'' (Old Norse: 'The Song of Hákon') is a skaldic poem which the skald Eyvindr skáldaspillir composed about the fall of the Norwegian king Hákon the Good at the battle of Fitjar and his reception in Valhalla. This poem emulates ...
'' by Eyvindr skáldaspillir. The ''Hávamál'' has been described as a 10th-century poem in some sources.


Structure

The ''Hávamál'' is edited in 165 stanzas by Bellows (1936). Other editions give 164 stanzas, combining Bellow's stanzas 11 and 12, as the manuscript abbreviates the last two lines of stanzas 11. Some editors also combine Bellow's stanzas 163 and 164. In the following, Bellow's numeration is used. The poems in ''Hávamál'' is traditionally taken to consist of at least five independent parts, #the ''Gestaþáttr'', or ''Hávamál'' proper, (stanzas 1–80), a collection of proverbs and gnomic wisdom #a dissertation on the faithlessness of women (stanzas 81–95), prefacing an account of the love-story of Odin and the daughter of Billingr (stanzas 96–102) and the story of how Odin got the
mead of poetry In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" able to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri ...
from the maiden
Gunnlöð Gunnlǫð (Old Norse: ; also Gunnlöd) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. She is the daughter of Suttungr, for whom she guards the mead of poetry. Saturn's moon Gunnlod (moon), Gunnlod is named after her. Name The Old Norse name has been trans ...
(stanzas 103–110) #the ''Loddfáfnismál'' (stanzas 111–138), a collection of gnomic verses similar to the ''Gestaþáttr'', addressed to a certain Loddfáfnir #the ''Rúnatal'' (stanzas 139–146), an account of how Odin won the runes, introductory to the ''Ljóðatal'' #the '' Ljóðatal'' (stanzas 147–165), a collection of charms Stanzas 6 and 27 are expanded beyond the standard four lines by an additional two lines of "commentary". Bellow's edition inverses the manuscript order of stanzas 39 and 40. Bellow's stanza 138 (''Ljóðalok'') is taken from the very end of the poem in the manuscript, placed before the ''Rúnatal'' by most editors following Müllenhoff. Stanzas 65, 73–74, 79, 111, 133–134, 163 are defective. Stanzas 81–84 are in ''
málaháttr Málaháttr (Old Norse: ) is a poetic metre in Old Norse poetry, which is usually described as "conversational style." It is similar to fornyrðislag except that there are more syllables in a line; usually five. Poems with verses in this metre: * ...
'', 85–88 in ''
fornyrðislag Old Norse poetry encompasses a range of verse forms written in the Old Norse language, during the period from the 8th century to as late as the far end of the 13th century. Old Norse poetry is associated with the area now referred to as Scandinav ...
''. The entire section of 81–102 appears to be an ad hoc interpolation. Stanza 145 is also an interpolation in ''málaháttr''.


Contents


''Gestaþáttr''

The first section ''Gestaþáttr'', the "guest's section". Stanzas 1 through 79 comprise a set of maxims for how to handle oneself when a guest and traveling, focusing particularly on
manners Etiquette ( /ˈɛtikɛt, -kɪt/) can be defined as a set of norms of personal behavior in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviors that accord with the conventions and n ...
and other behavioral relationships between hosts and guests and the sacred
lore Lore may refer to: * Folklore, acquired knowledge or traditional beliefs * Oral lore or oral tradition, orally conveyed cultural knowledge and traditions Places * Loré, former French commune * Loré (East Timor), a city and subdistrict in La ...
of reciprocity and
hospitality Hospitality is the relationship of a host towards a guest, wherein the host receives the guest with some amount of goodwill and welcome. This includes the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers. Louis de Jaucourt, Louis, ...
to the Norse pagans. The first stanza exemplifies the practical behavioral advice it offers: "Gattir allar,
aþr gangi fram,
v''m'' scoðaz scyli,
v''m'' scygnaz scyli;
þviat ouist e''r'' at vita,
hvar ovin''ir'' sitia
a fleti f''yr''."Quoted after the
Codex Regius Codex Regius (, "Royal Book" or "King's Book"; ) or GKS 2365 4º is an Icelandic codex in which many Old Norse poems from the ''Poetic Edda'' are preserved. Thought to have been written during the 1270s, it is made up of 45 vellum Vellum ...
.
''All the entrances, before you walk forward,''
''you should look at,''
''you should spy out;''
''for you can't know for certain where enemies are sitting,''
''ahead in the hall'' Number 77 is possibly the most known section of ''Gestaþáttr'': "Deyr fę,
d''eyia'' f''rǫndr'',
deyr sialfr it sama;
ec veit ei''nn''
at aldri deýr:
do''m''r v''m'' dꜹþan hv''er''n." ''Cattle die,''
''kinsmen die,''
''all men are mortal;''
''but words of praise will never perish''
''nor a noble name.''


On women

Stanzas 83 to 110 deal with the general topic of
romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a Interpersonal attraction, strong attraction towards another person, and the Courtship, courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant ...
and the character of
women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...
. It is introduced by a discussion of the faithlessness of women and advice for the seducing of them in stanzas 84–95, followed by two mythological accounts of Odin's interaction with women also known as "Odin's Examples" or "Odin's Love Quests". The first is an account of Odin's thwarted attempt of possessing the daughter of Billing (stanzas 96–102), followed by the story of the
mead of poetry In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" able to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri ...
which Odin won by seducing its guardian, the maiden
Gunnlöð Gunnlǫð (Old Norse: ; also Gunnlöd) is a jötunn in Norse mythology. She is the daughter of Suttungr, for whom she guards the mead of poetry. Saturn's moon Gunnlod (moon), Gunnlod is named after her. Name The Old Norse name has been trans ...
(stanzas 103–110).


''Loddfáfnismál''

The ''Loddfáfnismál'' (stanzas 111–138) is again gnomic, dealing with morals, ethics, correct action and codes of conduct. The section is directed to Loddfáfnir.


''Rúnatal''

''Rúnatal'' or ''Óðins Rune Song'', ''Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins'' (stanzas 139–146) is a section of the ''Hávamál'' where Odin reveals the origins of the
runes Runes are the Letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets, known as runic rows, runic alphabets or futharks (also, see ''#Futharks, futhark'' vs ''#Runic alphabets, runic alphabet''), native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were ...
. In stanzas 139 and 140, Odin describes his sacrifice of himself to himself: "Vęit ec at ec hecc
vindga meiði a
nętr a''l''lar nío,
geiri vndaþ''r''
''oc'' gefi''nn'' Oðni,
sialfr sialfo''m'' m''er'',
a þei''m'' meiþi,
er mangi veit,
hvers h''ann'' af róto''m'' re''nn''. Við hleifi mic seldo
ne viþ hórnigi,
nysta ec niþ''r'',
na''m'' ec vp rv́nar,
ǫpandi na''m'',
fę''l''l ec aptr þatan." ''I know that I hung on a windy tree''
''
nine 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Hindu–Arabic digit Circa 300 BC, as part of the Brahmi numerals, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bot ...
long nights,''
''wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,''
''myself to myself,''
''on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.'' ''No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,''
''downwards I peered;''
''I took up the runes,''
''screaming I took them,''
''then I fell back from there.''Larrington, Carolyne. (Trans.) (1999) ''The Poetic Edda'', p. 34.
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. ...
The "windy tree" from which the victim hangs is often identified with the world tree
Yggdrasil Yggdrasil () is an immense and central sacred tree in Norse cosmology. Around it exists all else, including the Nine Worlds. Yggdrasil is attested in the ''Poetic Edda'' compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, and in t ...
by commentators. The entire scene, the sacrifice of a god to himself, the execution method by hanging the victim on a tree, and the wound inflicted on the victim by a spear, is often compared to the
crucifixion of Christ The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being nailed to a cross.The instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus forming a "cruciform" or T-shaped structure. ...
as narrated in the
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
s. The parallelism of Odin and Christ during the period of open co-existence of Christianity and Norse paganism in Scandinavia (the 9th to 12th centuries, corresponding with the assumed horizon of the poem's composition) also appears in other sources. To what extent this parallelism is an incidental similarity of the mode of
human sacrifice Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, public or jurisdictional demands for justice by capital punishment, an authoritative/prie ...
offered to Odin and the crucifixion, and to what extent a Pagan influence on Christianity, has been discussed by scholars such as
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 runi ...
. The persistence of Odin's self-sacrifice in Scandinavian folk tradition was documented by Bugge (1889) in a poem from
Unst Unst (; ) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Shetland Mainland, Mainland and Yell (island), Yell. It has an area o ...
on the
Shetland Islands Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the Uni ...
: ''Nine days he hang' pa de rütless tree;''
''For ill wis da folk, in' güd wis he.''
''A blüdy mael wis in his side —''
''Made wi' a lance — 'at wid na hide.''
''Nine lang nichts, i' de nippin rime,''
''Hang he dare wi' his naeked limb.''
''Some dey leuch;''
''Bid idders gret''.Bugge, Sophus. (1889) ''Studier over de nordiske gude- og heltesagns oprindelse'', p. 308f.
/ref>


''Ljóðatal''

The last section, the ''Ljóðatal'' enumerates eighteen songs (''ljóð''), sometimes called "charms", prefaced with (stanza 147): "Lioþ ec þꜹ ka''nn'',
er ka''nn''at þioðans kóna
''oc'' ma''nn''zcis mꜹgr" ''The songs I know''
''that king's wives know not''
''Nor men that are sons of men.'' The songs themselves are not given, just their application or effect described. They are explicitly counted from "the first" in stanza 147, and "a second" to "an eighteenth" in stanzas 148 to 165, given in Roman numerals in the manuscript. There is no explicit mention of runes or
runic magic There is some evidence that, in addition to being a writing system, runes historically served purposes of magic. This is the case from the earliest epigraphic evidence of the Roman to the Germanic Iron Age, with non-linguistic inscriptions and ...
in the ''Ljóðatal'' excepting in the twelfth song (stanza 158), which takes up the motif of Odin hanging on the tree and its association with runes: "sva ec rist
''oc'' i rv́no''m'' fác" ''So do I write''
''and color the runes'' Nevertheless, because of the ''Rúnatal'' preceding the list, modern commentators sometimes reinterpret the ''Ljóðatal'' as referring to runes, specifically with the sixteen letters of the Younger Futhark. Müllenhoff takes the original ''Ljóðatal'' to have ended with stanza 161, with the final three songs (16th to 18th) taken as late and obscure additions.


Influence

Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson (4 July 1924 – 23 December 1993) was an Icelandic religious leader and singer of rímur who was instrumental in gaining the Icelandic government's recognition of pre-Christian Heathenry (new religious movement), Hea ...
, leader of the Icelandic ''
Ásatrúarfélagið (, ''Ásatrú Fellowship''), also known simply as , is an Icelandic religious organisation of Heathenry (new religious movement), heathenry (in Iceland also called , " faith"). It was founded on the first day of summer (Iceland), first day of s ...
'', published his performance of a number of Eddaic poems, including the Hávamál, chanted in
rímur In Icelandic literature, a ''ríma'' (, literally "a rhyme", pl. ''rímur'', ) is an epic poetry, epic poem written in any of the so-called ''rímnahættir'' (, "rímur meters"). They are rhymed, they alliterative verse, alliterate and consist of ...
style. The opera '' Gunlöd'' by Peter Cornelius takes its plot from the ''Hávamál''; detailing Odin's theft of the mead of poetry. The German
viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9 ...
-
pagan metal Pagan metal is a genre of heavy metal music which fuses extreme metal with " the pre-Christian traditions of a specific culture or region" through thematic concept, rustic melodies, unusual instruments or archaic languages, Wiederhorn 2009, p. 6 ...
band Falkenbach formed in 1989 and recorded their first demo, titled ''Hávamál'', and incorporate lines from the poem into lyrics.Florian Heesch, Reinhard Kopanski. 2017. "Klang - Text - Bild: Intermediale Aspekte der Black Metal-Forschung". ed. Sarah Chaker, Jakob Schermann, Nikolaus Urbanek. ''Analyzing Black Metal - Transdisziplinäre Annäherungen an ein düsteres Phänomen der Musikkultur''. Transcript Verlag. pp. 31-32.


Editions and translations

*editio princeps: Peder Hansen Resen, ''Edda. Islandorum an. Chr. 1215 islandice conscripta'', 1665
Google Books
. *Peter Andreas Munch, 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 Old English language, 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 hi ...
, ''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 runi ...
, ''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, ''The Poetic Edda'', Oxford University Press, 2006. * Jackson Crawford, ''The Poetic Edda'', Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2015. * Jackson Crawford, ''The Wanderer's Hávamál'', 2019


See also

*''
Nine Herbs Charm The Nine Herbs Charm, ''Nigon Wyrta Galdor'', Lay of the Nine Healing Herbs, or Nine Wort Spell (among other names) is an Old English charm recorded in the tenth century CE.Gordon (1962:92–93). It is part of the Anglo-Saxon medical compilation ...
'' * Noleby Runestone


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 is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...
and P. B. Taylor
Hávamál
Translation by Olive Bray
Hávamál
Original text
Parallel versions of Odin's "Rune Song"
with the Bellows, Hollander, Larrington and Orchard translations {{DEFAULTSORT:Havamal Eddic poetry Wisdom literature Old Norse philosophy Latin script texts with ideographic runes