Hávamál
Things never to trust
A long list of things not to rely on, from a breaking bow and a croaking raven to a half-burned house and a new-slain foe.
Reference: stanzas 84–86 (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 84–86
84.
Breaking bow, or flaring flame,
ravening wolf, or croaking raven,
routing swine, or rootless tree,
waxing wave, or seething cauldron,
85.
flying arrows, or falling billow,
ice of a nighttime, coiling adder,
woman's bed-talk, or broken blade,
play of bears or a prince's child,
86.
sickly calf or self-willed thrall,
witch's flattery, new-slain foe,
brother's slayer, though seen on the highway,
half burned house, or horse too swift --
useless were it with one leg broken --
be never so trustful as these to trust.
- 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 84–86 (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
One long sentence, divided across three stanzas, lists things a person should never trust: a breaking bow, a flaring flame, a ravening wolf, a croaking raven, routing swine, a rootless tree, a waxing wave, a seething cauldron; flying arrows, a falling billow, ice of a night time, a coiling adder, a woman’s bed-talk, a broken blade, the play of bears, a prince’s child; a sickly calf, a self-willed thrall, a witch’s flattery, a new-slain foe, a brother’s slayer, even one seen on the highway, a half-burned house, a horse too swift (useless if it has one leg broken).
The sentence ends only in the last line of stanza 86: be never so trustful as these to trust.
- 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 84–86 (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
In Bray’s numbering one sentence runs over three stanzas, 84 to 86. The main clause, “be never so trustful as these to trust”, comes only in the last line, which is why the three stanzas are given together here.
- 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 84–86 (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
This list of untrustworthy things, from the breaking bow to the half-burned house, is in a different verse form from the stanzas around it. Bellows says stanzas 85 to 88 and 90 are in fornyrðislag, an older narrative metre, and “clearly come from a different source from the rest of the Hávamál”. He thinks the list is probably incomplete and notes that editors add two lines from a late paper manuscript after the stanza on the sick calf. The Codex Regius also puts his stanza 88 after his stanza 89, which many editors reverse.
- Henry Adams Bellows (translator), The Poetic Edda (1936), Notes to the Hovamol
Modern interpretation
Read today, the list is a catalogue of things that are dangerous, unstable or likely to break. A few of the items, such as the thrall and the woman’s bed-talk, reflect the poem’s world rather than ours. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- What are you resting weight on that is on this list in spirit: something that looks sound but could give way?