Hávamál
The free and bold, and the garments given away
The happiest man is free, bold and without a grudge. Fear and stinginess are the opposites. The speaker once gave his clothes to two landmarks made to look like men.
Reference: stanzas 48–49 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 48–49
48.
Most blest is he who lives free and bold
and nurses never a grief,
for the fearful man is dismayed by aught,
and the mean one mourns over giving.
49.
My garments once I gave in the field
to two land-marks made as men;
heroes they seemed when once they were clothed;
'tis the naked who suffer shame!
- 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 48–49 (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
Happiest is the man who lives free and bold and nurses no grief. The fearful man is dismayed by anything, and the mean man mourns over giving.
The speaker says he once gave his clothes, in a field, to two landmarks made to look like men. Once they were clothed they seemed heroes; it is the naked who suffer shame.
- 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 48–49 (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
The second stanza is a small joke about how much clothes make a man look like a hero. On this site it is often read as a point about outward show; that is a modern reading, and the poem does not explain its own joke.
Questions to sit with
- What do you dress yourself in, such as clothes, titles or a tone of voice, so that you will be taken seriously? What if you took it off?