Hávamál
Ale and the wits
Natural good sense is the best thing to carry, and too much ale the worst. The speaker says he once lost his wits at a feast, in Gunnlod’s garths.
Reference: stanzas 11–14 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 11–14
11.
A better burden can no man bear
on the way than his mother wit:
and no worse provision can he carry with him
than too deep a draught of ale.
12.
Less good than they say for the sons of men
is the drinking oft of ale:
for the more they drink, the less can they think
and keep a watch o'er their wits.
13.
A bird of Unmindfulness flutters o'er ale feasts,
wiling away men's wits:
with the feathers of that fowl I was fettered once
in the garths of Gunnlod below.
14.
Drunk was I then, I was over drunk
in that crafty Jötun's court.
But best is an ale feast when man is able
to call back his wits at once.
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 11–14 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
In plain English
The first two lines repeat stanza 10: no better burden than good sense. Then comes the other side: no worse provision on the road than too deep a drink of ale.
Drinking ale is not as good as people say; the more men drink, the less they can think and keep watch over their wits. A “bird of Unmindfulness” hovers over ale feasts and steals men’s wits, and the speaker says he was once held by its feathers in Gunnlod’s garths (courtyards).
He was very drunk then, in that cunning giant’s court. The poem does not forbid ale: best is an ale feast when a man is able to call back his wits at once.
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 11–14 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
The speaker and Gunnlod
The Hávamál is presented as the words of Odin the High One (Bray’s title is “The Words of Odin the High One”), so the “I” in stanzas 13 and 14 is Odin. Gunnlod appears again in stanzas 104 to 108, “Odin’s Quest after the Song Mead”, where the speaker says she gave him a draught of the mead and that he paid her back poorly.
Stanza 14 speaks of “that crafty Jötun’s court” and does not name the giant. Stanza 13 is the only place in this part of the poem where Gunnlod is named.
- Olive Bray (editor and translator), The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems (opens in a new tab) (1908), stanzas 11–14 (Bray’s numbering) Rights: Public domain. Published in 1908, so in the public domain in the United States. Text as edited online by D. L. Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts, University of Pittsburgh.
In the manuscripts and scholarship
Bellows noted that stanzas 13 and 14 seem to have been inserted as illustrations. The “heron of forgetfulness” in stanza 13 is the bird of forgetting, and the same stanza names Gunnlöd, daughter of the giant Suttung, whose story of the mead of poetry is told later in the poem (stanzas 104 to 110 in his numbering). Fjalar in stanza 14 seems to be another name for Suttung. Some editors join stanza 12 to the last two lines of stanza 11, and in the manuscript the first two lines of stanza 11 are abbreviated and presumably repeat the opening of stanza 10.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
Today this is usually read as a warning about drink, or about anything that takes your judgment away. The poem itself is more specific: it is about being able to get your wits back.
Questions to sit with
- When did you last let drink, anger, tiredness or a crowd carry off your wits? What would have helped you call them back sooner?