Hávamál
The man who thinks he knows everything
Sitting in a sheltered corner, the unwise man thinks he knows it all, until someone puts him to the test. Silence hides what he lacks; talking more does not teach him.
Reference: stanzas 26–27 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 26–27
26.
The unwise man thinks all to know,
while he sits in a sheltered nook;
but he knows not one thing, what he shall answer,
if men shall put him to proof.
27.
For the unwise man 'tis best to be mute
when he come amid the crowd,
for none is aware of his lack of wit
if he wastes not too many words;
for he who lacks wit shall never learn
though his words flow ne'er so fast.
- 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 26–27 (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 unwise man thinks he knows everything while he sits in a sheltered nook. But he does not know what to answer if people put him to the test.
For the unwise man it is best to stay silent when he is among a crowd, because nobody notices that he lacks wit as long as he does not waste many words. But the man who lacks wit will never learn, however fast his words flow.
- 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 26–27 (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
Bellows thought the last two lines of stanza 27 were probably added as a comment on lines 3 and 4. If that is right, the stanza has two layers: a saying about the man who thinks he knows everything, and a later gloss explaining it. Other editors have likewise treated some stanzas of this part as expanded by explanatory lines. The poem as a whole survives only in the Codex Regius, from the 1270s, so there is no other manuscript to test the suggestion against.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936)
- Wikipedia, Hávamál (opens in a new tab)
Modern interpretation
Today this is often read as a point about the difference between sounding knowledgeable and being able to answer when it counts. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When did you last say “I don’t know”? What would it cost you to say it more often?