Hávamál
Come nearer evening, Odin
A voice tells the speaker, who is named Odin, to come nearer evening. He goes away confident of winning her, comes back and finds the whole war troop awake with torches.
Reference: stanzas 96–98 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 96–98
96.
"Yet nearer evening come thou, Odin,
if thou wilt woo a maiden:
all were undone save two knew alone
such a secret deed of shame."
97.
So away I turned from my wise intent,
and deemed my joy assured,
for all her liking and all her love
I weened that I yet should win.
98.
When I came ere long the war troop bold
were watching and waking all:
with burning brands and torches borne
they showed me my sorrowful way.
- 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 96–98 (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
Words in quotation marks, presumably the maiden’s, tell the speaker: come nearer evening, Odin, if you wish to woo a maiden; everything would be undone unless only the two of them knew of such a secret deed of shame.
He turned away from his wise intent, sure of his joy, and thought he would win all her liking and love.
When he came back soon after, the bold war troop was watching and waking, with burning brands and torches, and they showed him his sorrowful way.
- 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 96–98 (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.
Who is speaking
Stanza 96 is the only stanza in this part where another voice is quoted, and it names the speaker as Odin. That fits the title of the whole poem in Bray’s translation, “The Words of Odin the High One”. The translation does not say whose words are in quotation marks; this page reads them as the maiden’s.
- 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 96–98 (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
These stanzas belong to the Billing’s daughter story, which Bellows places at stanzas 96 to 102 of his edition. He notes that no other source tells of her, so the episode is known only from this poem, in the Codex Regius (c. 1270).
Bellows reads the tale as an illustration attached to the passage on women’s faithlessness just before it. Wikipedia’s summary treats 81 to 102 as an ad hoc insertion. The speaker is Odin himself, and the story is told against him: the mighty god is outwitted and left with nothing.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
Read today, this is a story of overconfidence after hearing “yes”: the speaker stops being careful and walks into the watch. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When did a “yes” make you stop being careful?