Hávamál
The eighteenth song, kept secret
The Stray-Singer is told he will long lack these songs. The eighteenth the speaker will tell to no one but his sister or the woman who holds him: secrets are safest with one.
Reference: stanzas 162–163 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 162–163
162.
These songs, Stray-Singer, which man's son knows not,
long shalt thou lack in life,
though thy weal if thou win'st them, thy boon if thou obey'st them
thy good if haply thou gain'st them.
163.
An eighteenth I know: which I ne'er shall tell
to maiden or wife of man
save alone to my sister, or haply to her
who folds me fast in her arms;
most safe are secrets known to but one-
the songs are sung to an end.
- 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 162–163 (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 tells the Stray-Singer that these songs, which no man’s son knows, he will long lack in life. It will be his weal and boon and good if he gets them and obeys them.
The eighteenth song, the speaker says, he will never tell to maiden or wife of man, except to his sister or perhaps the woman who holds him close. Secrets are safest when known to just one, and with that the songs are sung to an end.
- 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 162–163 (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.
Echoes in the poem
“Most safe are secrets known to but one” matches the advice of stanza 63, which says to let one person know your secret but never a second. Stanza 162 is the last place the Stray-Singer is addressed, with the words of the earlier refrain: “thy weal”, “thy boon”.
- 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 162–163 (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 end of the list turns on one secret kept back: the one song the speaker will not tell. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- What is your “eighteenth song”, the thing you keep, and who is your one?