Hávamál
Sprinkling a newborn
The thirteenth song: sprinkling a warrior’s newborn son with water means he will not fail in war and will never fall to a sword.
Reference: stanza 157 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanza 157
157.
A thirteenth I know: if the new-born son
of a warrior I sprinkle with water,
that youth will not fail when he fares to war,
never slain shall he bow before sword.
- 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 157 (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 thirteenth song: if he sprinkles a warrior’s newborn son with water, that youth will not fail when he goes to war, and will never be slain, never bow before a sword.
- 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 157 (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
Today this is usually read as an old naming or blessing rite. The poem says no more about it than this. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- What blessing would you give a child at the start? What would you want it to protect them from?