[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