Hávamál 47 – 52

About humankind

************** 47. **************

ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English translation

Ungr var ek forðum, Young was I once,

fór ek einn saman: fared I one together: [‘alone with myself’]

þá varð ek villr vega; thus became I (on) a bad way;

auðigr þóttumk, rich thought I myself, [I dared to think myself rich]

er ek annan fann; that I another found;

Maðr er manns gaman. Man is man’s pleasure.

Bellows’ translation

47. Young was I once, | and wandered alone,

And nought of the road I knew;

Rich did I feel | when a comrade I found,

For man is man's delight.

Commentary

This verse is famous and does not hide another meaning.

Evans’ commentaries

47

6 may well be a proverb; it also occurs in the Icelandic Runic Poem …, though as this is of late medieval date it might have drawn the line direct from our poem.

************** 48. **************

ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English translation

48.

Mildir, fræknir Mild [generous], tough

menn bazt lifa, men best live,

sjaldan sút ala; seldom grief [mental affliction] they bear

en ósnjallr maðr but non-daring (or not outstanding) human

uggir hotvetna[=hvatvetna], he fears anything

sýtir æ glöggr við gjöfum. he wails ever [he ‘ever-wails’] clever []here = stingy] with gifts.

Bellows’ translation

48. The lives of the brave | and noble are best,

Sorrows they seldom feed;

But the coward fear | of all things feels,

And not gladly the niggard gives.

Commentary

The adjectives mildr and frækn happen to have two quite different meanings. When can safely assume that the poet used them on purpose, in order to sharpen his definition of who has the best life. The soundness of their mind is also insured, as opposed to the one of the ‘non-excellent’ who are fearful, whimpering and stingy.

The proper meaning of glöggr is ‘clear-sighted’ and it metaphorically extends clever, sharp (of mind) and stingy. Evan’s comments thus seems to me perfect: this person is ‘clear-sighted’, that is s/he has a clear sight of the real cost of receiving a gift.

Evans’ commentaries

48

4 ósnjallr also occurs in 16. It is here opposed to mildir, froeknir menn. ‘Cowardly’ seems to be what is mainly implied, though some editors render ‘foolish’; the positive snjallr can mean both ‘bold’ and ‘wise'.

6 is rendered by Bellows ‘And not gladly the niggard gives’ … This is probably wrong; it most likely means ‘the niggard is ever apprehensive about gifts’ i.e. he does not want to receive them, because that obliges him to make gifts in return …

************** 51. **************

ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English translation

51.

Eldi heitari (In) a fire hotter

brennr með illum vinum burns with bad friends

friðr fimm daga, peace [and together security and love] five days

en þá slokknar but then douses

er inn sétti kemr it in the sixth comes

ok versnar allr vinskapr. and worsens all friendship.

[Put back in the usual word ordering, this gives: The hot fire of peace burns five days with bad friends. It then douses when the sixth day comes and this (false) friendship disappears.]

Bellows’ translation

51. Hotter than fire | between false friends

Does friendship five days burn;

When the sixth day comes | the fire cools,

And ended is all the love.

Commentaries about the vocabulary

On friðr. This word means ‘peace’ and no serious etymology links it to ‘love’. Peace, however, implies of mutual confidence and love and this word indeed carries this meaning of love, due to its linguistic evolution, not due to its etymology. Once more, since the stanza ends with friendship (vinskapr), I suppose that experts absolutely wanted to give a sentimental meaning to this word.

On eldi heitari. The translators use it a nominative while these words are in the dative case. The poet thus decided that a preposition ‘in’, or ‘by’, or ‘with’ was here useless.

On fimm then setti. Evans does not strongly support this 5 days week. I cannot know if the week has been or not 5 five days long, it is however obvious a five days time duration has been of primary importance in ancient Germanic civilization. This can help us understanding the famous and obscure Breton song, reported by la Villemarqué (Barzaz-Breiz, 1841): « Here we are Duz in the night, ai auta (four times), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday until Friday. » (hear it by clicking here ) .These Duz are better known as korrigans. It seems that this song is a remnant of a five days week. As soon as another day is added, the Duz get frantic – since they are sung a day which does not exist for them.

Evans’ Commentaries

51

3 For friðr see on st. 90. The reference to five days (also in 74) may be connected with the frequent occurrence of this period in the Old Norwegian laws, which has led some to infer that the pre-Christian week was one of five days; cp. Cl-Vig s.v. fimt. [Cl.Vig does not say much more. The month had been made of 6 weeks. The law summoning had to be executed within 5 days, hence the verb fimta = to summon.]

[90 says: friðu clearly means ‘love’ here, as also probably in Skírnismál 19 and possibly in 51 above. This is the original sense of the word, cp. frjá ‘to woo’, friðill ‘wooer’ and friðla (> frilla) ‘mistress’ [mine addition: and later … ‘prostitute’, Humanity slow improvement is inescapable ! ].]

************** 52. **************

ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English translation

52.

Mikit eitt Much to (another) one

skal-a manni gefa; should-not a human give;

oft kaupir sér í litlu lof, oft he buys for him in little, praise [or allowance]

[Praise or allowance is often bought with little,]

með halfum hleif with half a loaf

ok með höllu keri and with a tilted vessel

fékk ek mér félaga. made I for me a comrade.

[We should not give much to the man, often we buy praise or allowance with little, I made myself a comrade with (= by sharing) half a loaf and tilting my bottle (in his glass).]

Bellows’ translation

52. No great thing needs | a man to give,

Oft little will purchase praise;

With half a loaf | and a half-filled cup

A friend full fast I made.

Commentaries 

On lof. In verse 8, lof corresponds to líknstafi, and Evans bases his argument on this correspondance. Remeber that I translate líknstafi by “rune knowledge”  which is not a feeling and its goes perfectly well with ‘praise’. Here, ‘love’ is even less admissible since it corresponds to ‘comrade’, as in ‘comrade in common fights’ and respect, praise are typical for this situation. When love comes in, the scene changes …

On höllu keri. I do not understand why the experts had so many problems with these words. Boyer gives even a footnote where he claims these words cannot be translated. We could also say “by slanting the bottle’. We are not used to equating “tilting (or slanting) the bottle” and “serving a drink,” but this would not be totally opposed to the English language. The noise done by the liquid flowing in a glass sounds like sealing a pact between the server and the served one. This is exactly what the scald is hinting at.

On félagi. Sjörup stone citation, below, shows that félagi evokes the member of a group of ‘comrades fighting together’.

Evans’ Commentaries

52

1-2 For eitt meaning ‘only’ cp. 124 below and við vín eitt . . . lifir Grímnismál 19 (Cl-Vig s.v. einn A III β) …

3 For the suggestion that lof means ‘love’ here see on st. 8 above.

[Reminder : The two halves do not fit well together, for, as Guðmundur Finnbogason 2, 105 points out, ‘praise’ and ‘favour, warm judgments’ - as lof and líknstafi are customarily rendered respectively - are precisely things which one inevitably has annars brjóstum í. Lindquist 2, 8ff. holds that lof is etymologically related to OE lufu etc. (but this is uncertain) and that a sense ‘love, affection, esteem’ fits better than ‘praise’ both here and in some other Eddaic instances (the best case is st. 52 below). He takes líknstafir as ‘words (magically) calculated to win help from other persons’, a sense that also fits its only other occurrence, Sigrdr. 5: fullr er hann ljóða ok líknstafa, góðra galdra ok gamanrúna. []Other editors take líknstafir as = líkn, with -stafir as a mere derivative ending (so SG, comparing bölstafir= böl, flærðarstafir = flærð Sigrdr. 30 and 32).]

5 með höllu keri ‘with slanting bowl’ … [I skip a long discussion that looks much like hair-splitting].

6 On félagi as a word characteristic of the Viking Age see p. 19 above.

[p. 19. Instead of the ætt, the frændr, we have the friend, the comrade ‘with half a loaf and a tilted bowl I go myself a comrade, fekk ek mér félaga’ says st. 52, using the word which occurs repeatedly in runic memorials for a comrade in the Viking age, as for example on the Sjörup stone: ‘Saxi erected this stone in memory of Ásbjörn his comrade, asbiurn sin filaga, son of Tóki. He did not flee at Uppsala, but smote so long as he had a weapon’.]