Hávamál
Hail, the sayings are uttered
The last stanza says the sayings of the High One have been spoken for the good of men and the woe of Jötuns, and greets the speaker, the one who knows and the listeners.
Reference: stanza 164 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanza 164
164.
Now the sayings of the High One are uttered in the hall
for the weal of men, for the woe of Jötuns,
Hail, thou who hast spoken! Hail, thou that knowest!
Hail, ye that have hearkened! Use, thou who hast learned!
- 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 164 (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
Now the sayings of the High One have been uttered in the hall, for the good of men and the woe of Jötuns. Hail to the one who has spoken, hail to the one who knows, hail to those who have listened; and use it, the one who has learned.
- 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 164 (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.
Opening and closing
The poem opens, in stanza 2, with a greeting (“Hail, ye Givers! a guest is come”) and closes with “Hail” three times in stanza 164.
- 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 164 (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
The Hávamál is preserved in one medieval manuscript, the Codex Regius (c. 1270), where it follows the Völuspá. Bellows calls the closing stanza almost certainly an interpolation, probably added after the Loddfáfnismál and the charm list were combined, because its mention of Loddfáfnir has no other apparent purpose here. Editions differ on whether the poem has 164 or 165 stanzas, partly because of how the misplaced stanza 138 and this ending are counted.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
Read today, the last line is a call to use what you have learned. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- What are you going to use from what you have read here?