Hávamál
Cheerful at home, and not a Simpleton
Be cheerful and generous to guests, careful in your bearing, and ready to talk if you want wisdom. The man with nothing to say is called a Simpleton.
Reference: stanza 101 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanza 101
101.
In thy home be joyous and generous to guests
discreet shalt thou be in thy bearing,
mindful and talkative, wouldst thou gain wisdom,
oft making mention of good.
He is "Simpleton" named who has nought to say,
for such is the fashion of fools.
- 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), stanza 101 (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
In your home be cheerful and generous to guests, and discreet in your bearing. If you want to gain wisdom, be mindful and talkative, often mentioning what is good. The man who has nothing to say is called “Simpleton”, because that is the way of fools.
- 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), stanza 101 (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.
Where it sits
Stanza 101 is the first stanza of the part Bray calls “Odin’s Quest after the Song Mead”, but its advice about guests and talk continues the earlier counsel. The story of the mead begins in stanza 102.
- 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), stanza 101 (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 notes that the subject changes abruptly here: the praise of fair speech leads straight into the story of how Odin won the mead of poetry, and he says the source of that story is unknown. The Hávamál is its fullest verse telling; Snorri’s Skáldskaparmál tells it in prose, with some differences in detail.
The poem survives in the Codex Regius, c. 1270. Scholars generally regard it as a composite of shorter poems, so such sudden turns are taken as signs of joining rather than of a single plan.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
- Wikipedia, Mead of poetry (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
Read today, this is advice to be both a good host and a good conversationalist: someone who speaks up, and speaks well of things. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When do you stay silent although you could say something good? What would saying it cost you?