The Havamal - The Sayings of Odin the Wise One: An Extract from the Poetic Edda

Anon E Mouse

Apr 2014 · Abela Publishing Ltd

About this ebook

THERE existed from very early times a collection of Norse proverbs and wise counsels, which were attributed to Odin (Othin) just as the Biblical proverbs were to Solomon. This collection was known as "The High One's Words," and forms the basis of the present poem.

Few gnomic collections in the world's literary history present sounder wisdom more tersely expressed than the Havamal. Like the Book of Proverbs it occasionally rises to lofty heights of poetry. If it presents the worldly wisdom of a violent race, it also shows noble ideals of loyalty, truth, and unfaltering courage.

Over time other poems were added to the original content dealing with wisdom which seemed, by their nature, to imply that the speaker was Odin. Thus a catalogue of runes, or charms, was tacked on, and also a set of proverbs. Here and there bits of verse crept in; and of course the loose structure of the poem made it easy for any reciter to insert new stanzas almost at will. This curious miscellany is what we now have as the Havamal

Five separate elements are pretty clearly recognizable: (1) the Havamal proper (stanzas 1-80), a collection of proverbs and counsels for the conduct of life; (2) the Loddfafnismol (stanzas 111-138), a collection somewhat similar to the first, but specifically addressed to a certain Loddfafnir; (3) the Ljothatal (stanzas 147-165), a collection of charms; (4) the lovestory of Odin and Billing's daughter (stanzas 96-102); (5) the story of how Odin got the mead of poetry from the maiden Gunnloth (stanzas 103-110). There is also a brief passage (stanzas 139-146) telling how Odin won the runes, this passage being a natural introduction to the Ljothatal, and doubtless brought into the poem for that reason.

33% of the net profit from the sale of this book will be donated to charities.

 

Ratings and reviews

Looking at the responses and reviews that some of people have written up here I’m ashamed that you call yourselves anything close to what our faith really is. Pagan to those of Christian faith means one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods : an irreligious or hedonistic person. we’re not talking about taking a word and using it for our good for our betterment definition of a word is the definition of a word even slang is the same they’re calling us pig and saying that we are without God because we don’t conform to their God we have many gods. Don’t feed in to the Christian Muslim Jewish down talk by giving them the power of three continues to call us heathens or pagans. We are children of the All Father… We do not Kneel we do not beg.

The Havamal (Sayings of the high one) a practical and necessary for all Heathen/Pagans

Words of Õdîñ an awesome book...crazy how things are shown to me..

About the author

In most likelihood the Eddic poems were Norse & Icelandic minstrel poems, passing orally from singer to singer and from poet to poet for centuries. None of the poems are attributed to a particular author, though many of them show strong individual characteristics and are likely to have been the work of individual poets. Scholars sometimes speculate on hypothetical authors, but firm and accepted conclusions have never been reached.