Hávamál
Into Suttung’s halls
The speaker tells how he went to the old Jötun, found silence of little use, won his desire with whispered soft speeches, and bored a road through the rock.
Reference: stanzas 102–103 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 102–103
102.
I sought that old Jötun, now safe am I back,
little served my silence there;
but whispering many soft speeches I won
my desire in Suttung's halls.
103.
I bored me a road there with Rati's tusk
and made room to pass through the rock;
while the ways of the Jötuns stretched over and under,
I dared my life for a draught.
- 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 102–103 (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 speaker says he sought out that old Jötun (giant) and is now safe back. His silence there served little, but by whispering many soft speeches he won his desire in Suttung’s halls.
He bored himself a road with Rati’s tusk and made room to pass through the rock. While the ways of the Jötuns stretched above and below him, he risked his life for a draught.
- 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 102–103 (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.
Silence and speech
Earlier stanzas recommend silence (for example 7, 27 and 79). Stanza 102 says that the speaker’s silence “little served” him here, and that it was whispering many soft speeches that won him what he wanted. The text names Suttung and Rati and says no more about either.
- 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 102–103 (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 mead story is told in the Hávamál and, separately, by Snorri in Skáldskaparmál, where Suttungr is the son of Gilling, keeps the mead at Hnitbjörg, and Odin gets in through a tunnel bored with the drill Rati, then escapes as an eagle. Bellows says the Hávamál’s source for the tale is unknown.
Bellows explains that Odin goes in under the name Bolverk, that Rati is the gimlet, and that the mead is called Óðrerir. He suspects one or two lines of one stanza in this stretch were added later. The poem itself survives in the Codex Regius, c. 1270.
- 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 a story of getting something by persuasion and persistence. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When has gentle, persistent speech got you further than silence or force would have?