Hávamál
verses 79-96, Introduction
to Óđins
love stories [present state: verses 81 and 84]
81.
ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English
translation
At kveldi skal dag leyfa, In the evening will the day be praised, [Latin: vespere laudari debet amoena
dies]
konu, er brennd er, a woman, who burnt
ist,
mćki, er reyndr er, a sword, which
tried is,
mey, er gefin er, a maid, who(se hand) is given,
ís, er yfir kemr, ice, which
upon he walks,
öl, er drukkit er. bier, that drunk is.
[A day
must be praised in the evening, a woman who is burnt, a sword that is tried, a
maid who is ‘promised’ (to marriage), the ice on which he walks,
bier that is drunk.]
Bellows’ translation:
81. Give praise to the day at evening, | to a
woman on her pyre,
To a weapon which is tried, | to a maid at wed lock,
To ice when it is crossed, | to ale that is drunk.
[81. With this stanza the
verse-form, as indicated in the translation, abruptly changes to Malahattr.
What has happened seems to have been something like this. Stanza 80 introduces
the idea of man's love for woman. Consequently some reciter or compiler (or
possibly even a copyist) took occasion to insert at this point certain stanzas
concerning the ways of women. Thus stanza 80 would account for the introduction
of stanzas 81 and 82, which, in turn, apparently drew stanza
Commentaries
As we have already seen, the experts have put a
lot of attention in finding all kind of possible influences on Hávamál. In this very case, the Latin influence is undisputable
(see below my comment to Evan’s). Evans citing a 12th c. influence falls into
the trap of detecting Middle Ages ones while a much more ancient one is
obvious. It proves to me that, considering the huge effort done for
finding Middle Age (‘thus’ Christian) influence on Hávamál,
considering the general failure of this hypothesis, it is now safe to claim
that Hávamál is a genuine image of the early Northern world. That it received
Latin and Greek influences is simply obvious. This verse, among others, shows
how they have been adapted to the Northern way of life.
The point of a “burnt woman” deserves some
comments.
At first, note that all experts carefully
underline the obvious, that the poem has thus not been composed in
A deeper question comes from that we know about
important men being burned, possibly with their female slaves. Does the poem
allude to these slaves? This is contradicted by the use of the word kona which points at a mature woman or a
wife (a wife in the Northern civilization, not in a Latin influenced one!),
hence to a free and responsible woman. The only possible conclusion is that our
poem speaks of an important woman since her corpse is treated in the same way
as important men’s corpses. A chief, be him/her male or female, is always a
person nobody with some pride should praise overtly. In everyday life, Hávamál recommends to each man to be careful in praising too
loudly his húsfreyja, his
house-goddess, unless she may be spoiled, as any other chief is by an excess of
praise.
In the line about ice, note that ‘kemr’ is in another verbal tense than
the verb in the other lines. We walk on the ice in order to check if it is
safe. Anyone knows this is a treacherous ground.
I do not see what precisely means the last
line. Does it mean you should not boast of your good beer to avoid sharing it?
Does it mean that home-made beer could make you sick? My best guess is that the
verb ‘to drink’ means here ‘to drink one sip’.
Evans’ Commentaries
81
See p. 23
above [YK: here see below] for suggestions
that the málaháttr strophes [YK : this is one of the scaldic poetical forms] beginning here might have some connection with the MHG poetic form known
as the
‘Priamel’,
and that the suspicion of women which they sporadically express may derive less
from Nordic antiquity than from the Christian Middle Ages.
1 For the sentiment cp. Möttuls saga (ed. G. Cederschiöld and F.-A.
Wulff, LUA 1877, 22): at kveldi er dagr lofandi and
the twelfth-century Ysengrimus III 594: vespere laudari debet amoena
dies. Singer 150-51, who cites numerous Continental parallels, thinks
the notion is of German origin, borrowed by the Norsemen at an early date.
[The Latin sentence : vespere
laudari debet amoena dies means
“In the evening must be judged a pleasant day.” This traditional
Latin way of speech had a frequent later use,
and Ysengrimus is nothing but one example of it. You can
find it translated in several metaphorical ways, such as : “Out of beautiful grapes, often comes poor wine.”
or “Beautiful maiden make old mothers.” or “Morning laugh means evening tears.”
Page 23 :
Before leaving the
Gnomic Poem, a few words should be said about the eighteen or so
strophes that precede the tale of Óđinn and
13 This view consorts
uneasily with von See's belief (I, 28-9) that 89/7-8 influenced Egill's Sonatorrek (so also, independently, Einar Ol. Sveinsson 2, 299
note 2). If this is right, these lines must be older than c. 960.
84.
ON Text and its word-for-word pseudo English translation
Meyjar orđum Of
a maid the words
skyli manngi trúa should
no man have confidence
né ţví, er kveđr kona, nor
what, is to say [or sing, recite] a wife,
[No man should believe a maid’s words not to what says
(or sings or recites) a wife,]
ţví at á hverfanda
hvéli because on a turning wheel
váru ţeim hjörtu
sköpuđ, were to them hearts created [or shaped]
brigđ í brjóst of lagiđ. breach
[or even, protest] in the [their] breast is lying
[since their hearts
have been shaped on a turning wheel, breach (or protest) lies in their breast.]
Bellows’ translation
Nor the word a woman speaks;
For their hearts on a whirling | wheel were fashioned,
And fickle their breasts were formed.
Commentary about the vocabulary
It should
be obvious that reading Hávamál is not specially a manly
thing, and women-insulting interpretations should be carefully examined. Bellows’
translation shows perfectly well how a single word, fickle
instead of ‘breach’, certainly started the legend that: “Hávamál
claims that women are fickle.”
Line 3 : kveđr.
The verb kveđa carries no hint at
magic. It can also mean ‘to recite a poem’. In the saga when a character wishes
to recite his/her own poem, the saga says “Character kvađ … (Character
declaimed …)”.
Line 6 : brigđ.
This word does by itself mean fickleness. It needs a companion word to do so.
For instance, vináttu-brigđ =
friendship-breach = fickleness.
Commentary about the meaning
- On the first three lines
They clearly state that, whatever her age might
be, you (men and women) cannot rely on a woman’s word, and the last ones
explain why it is so. Take care that it does not specify anything about a
‘sworn word’ or an agreed upon contract. This only concerns ‘normal speech’.
- On the last three lines
Evans indicates that modern Icelandic uses á hverfanda hveli is the normal way
to speak of an unstable state. Item, Gretti’s saga citation points at an extremely unstable situation since
his life is the one an ever fleeing one. Does it means that the poem
suggest that a
woman’s heart has been shaped in an unstable situation? Would that be information providing? I thus
believe that the potter's wheel image is quite reasonable, as long as it is looked upon
as a simple image that does not try to contradict the idea that Ask and Embla
have been creaetd together, and in the same way. Why this image would speak of
a typically womanish fickleness? This last statement is typical of Christian
Middle Age thinking. We already have seen that Evans already scorned a supposed
biblical influence on Hávamál. Why would this become acceptable when
it speaks of women? I have thus several other hypotheses to propose
-
Possible but somewhat trivial/stupid of is the
one of a continuation of the ‘potery image’: potery breaks easily, so do women.
-
The word brigđ may also mean ‘protest’ and it
makes sense here. This would mean that the typical woman tends to be fast
protesting, that is she is easy to get angry and, once she made her mind on
breaking a relationship, she is very steady on this decision? I am not sure
this is a real difference between men and women. This is, however, a possible
way for entering the deadly terrain of the differences between men and women.
At least, it is not insulting to women, which would be opposed to the whole of
ancient Germanic tradition.
-
Another
hypothesis is that Hávamál alludes to the many kennings
for ‘woman’ that describes her as richness carrier or source. We shall see in
verse 78 that richness is explicitly called fickle. Therefore, as a richness
representative, woman can be said to be ‘fickle’ without falling in the Middle
Age prejudices.
Evans’ Commentaries
84
4 á
hverfanda hvéli ‘on a turning wheel'; very possibly the reference is to a potter's wheel (see Meringer 455). However, in Alvíssmál 14 hverfanda hvél is given
as a name for the moon, and CPB 483 suggests that this is the sense here too
('women's hearts are shifty as phases of the moon'), a notion recently revived
by Kristján Albertsson. But this seems less probable, especially in view of the
occurrence of the expression elsewhere, e.g. Grettis saga ch. 42 ( IF VII 138): En til Grettis kann ek ekki at leggja, ţví at mér pykkir á mjök hverfanda hjóli (v.1.
hvéli) um hans hagi. [
4-6
(omitting ţví at) are cited in Fóstbroeđra saga ch. 21 (IF VI 225); see p. 2 above [Here, see below]. The mss of the
saga show a few verbal discrepancies: Flateyjarbók has
eru
for váru,
R reads 5 as er
peim hjarta skapat, both add ok before brigđ, and Hauksbók omits
um.
In this strophe, as in
81 above and 90 below, we meet the concept of the fickle, deceptive woman so
much exemplified in medieval Continental proverb lore (cp. Singer 15ff., who derives
the sentiments from medieval clerical misogyny).
Relevant
part of p.
Further, the second half of st. 84 is cited in Fóstbrćđra saga ch. 21 (IF VI 225) where it is said of a
thrall in
Commentaries
about the “turning wheel”
Look at the pictures below. My
own conclusion is as follows : before the Middle
Ages the wheel is associated to destiny, not to fickleness. In the Northern
tradition, somewhat opposed to the Greek and Latin ones, destiny is associated
to the Norns (for humankind) and to each one’s Hamingja (for individuals). All
of them are not looked upon as unstable. Dangerous, powerful, even cataclysmic
are possible epithets for Destiny, fickle is not.
In Celtic or Germanic
mythologies the burning wheels honor a change, a regular an expected one, not a
fickle one;
As for Greeks and Romans, the
Goddess Tyche / Fortuna is almost shown as carrying a
horn of plenty. Nemesis is said to be a Goddess of revenge and she only seems
to be associated to destiny and she is associated to a wheel.
Hence my
conclusion. Here are the documents:
Below: Destiny,
Pompei version
Thanks to:
This not at all a
Fortuna. A structure seems to rest on the attributes of poverty (right), of
royalty (left) and (center) a skull – death - , a butterfly – a dead one’s soul
- ands a wheel. - ? -.
Below: Némésis. Antique version.
Thanks to wikipedia
Below: Némésis. Renaissance version
Thanks to:
http://www.albrecht-durer.org/Nemesis-large.html
I could
also gather these two images, no explanation, no dating, in an old book
treating about the religious images of antique
