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| Depiction of Wotan by Breitkpod and Hartel (19th century) |
In the second half of the 13th century CE an
unknown Icelander copied a number of Pagan era poems into the Codex Regis
(literally meaning “Royal Manuscript”), which makes up a large part of what is known as the Elder Edda or the Poetic Edda. Among them
is the Havamal, which means something like “Sayings of the High One”, the High
One being Odin. Theoretically Odin is the speaker throughout most of the Havamal,
if not the author. From a scholarly point of view the Havamal is thought to be
a composite of poems, written by up to six different authors hundreds of years
earlier, before Iceland adopted Christianity as the State religion in circa
1000 CE. Whoever the author, or authors, the Havamal is an invaluable record of
traditional Norse values; it is full of good advice and insight, much of which
is perfectly relevant to our own times. For this reason I attempt to summarise and extract those parts of the Havamal that I find particularly inspiring. In so doing I draw from two
translations: Larrington
(translator), The Poetic Edda, Oxford
World’s Classics, 2008, and Orchard
(translator), The Elder Edda: Myths, Gods
and Heroes from the Viking World, Penguin Books, 2013.
Death is coming
for you no matter what you do, so live fearlessly:
“16. A senseless
man thinks to live for ever if he bewares a war; but old age won’t grant him a
truce, whatever spears may grant [Orchard].”
“16. The foolish
man thinks he will live forever, if he keeps away from fighting; but old age
won’t grant him a truce even if the spears do [Larrington].”
