Hávamál
Riding to court
Go to the assembly fed and washed, and do not be ashamed of old clothes or a poor horse. A man with no one to speak for him is like prey for the eagle.
Reference: stanzas 61–62 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems); Notes to the Hovamol (The Poetic Edda)
The text, stanzas 61–62
61.
Fed and washed should one ride to court
though in garments none too new;
thou shalt not shame thee for shoes or breeks,
nor yet for a sorry steed.
62.
Like an eagle swooping over old ocean,
snatching after his prey,
so comes a man into court who finds
there are few to defend his cause.
- 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 61–62 (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
A man should ride to court fed and washed, even if his clothes are not new. He should not be ashamed of his shoes or breeches, or of a poor horse.
Like an eagle swooping over the old ocean and snatching at its prey, so a man comes into court who finds there are few to defend his cause.
- 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 61–62 (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.
How the stanzas are built
The last line of stanza 62 (“there are few to defend his cause”) is also the last line of stanza 25, about the unwise man.
- 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 61–62 (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
Two details of the manuscript matter here. In the Codex Regius the stanza about the eagle at the old sea comes after the stanza on question and answer, and marks in the manuscript show the scribe meant the two to be swapped; editors print them in the swapped order. Bellows also thinks the fifth line of the stanza on going washed and fed to the council was added later, because the stanza otherwise runs to four lines.
Both stanzas belong to the first section of the poem, the counsels for everyday conduct, which Bellows treats as a gathering of originally separate sayings rather than one composed work.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936), Notes to the Hovamol
Modern interpretation
Today this is often read as a point about showing up prepared and not letting shame about what you have keep you away. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When did shame about what you had, such as clothes, a car or your background, stop you from showing up? What would “fed and washed” be enough for?