Hávamál
Guests at the table
Do not make a laughing-stock of another guest; at a meal you cannot tell who will take a joke. Friends fall out at table, and a hungry man makes poor company.
Reference: stanzas 30–33 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 30–33
30.
Let no man be held as a laughing-stock,
though he come as guest for a meal:
wise enough seem many while they sit dry-skinned
and are not put to proof.
31.
A guest thinks him witty who mocks at a guest
and runs from his wrath away;
but none can be sure who jests at a meal
that he makes not fun among foes.
32.
Oft, though their hearts lean towards one another,
friends are divided at table;
ever the source of strife 'twill be,
that guest will anger guest.
33.
A man should take always his meals betimes
unless he visit a friend,
or he sits and mopes, and half famished seems,
and can ask or answer nought.
- 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 30–33 (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
No one should be made a laughing-stock, even if he has come as a guest for a meal. Many seem wise enough while they sit dry-skinned, before they are put to the test.
A guest who mocks another guest thinks himself witty and runs from the anger he causes. But no one at a meal can be sure that he is not making fun among enemies.
Often friends whose hearts lean toward one another are divided at table; guest angering guest will always be a source of strife.
A man should take his meals in good time, unless he is visiting a friend; otherwise he sits and mopes, half starved, and can neither ask nor answer anything.
- 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 30–33 (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.
Modern interpretation
Read today, the passage is about how easily a shared meal turns unkind, and how a joke at someone’s expense can land on the wrong person. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- At your table, who is easiest to laugh at? What would it take to make the room safe for them?