Hávamál
Too late, too soon, and too hungry
The speaker has often arrived at feasts too late or too early, and says he would be asked home more often if he did not need to eat.
Reference: stanzas 66–67 (Bray’s numbering) (The Elder or Poetic Edda, Commonly Known as Sæmund’s Edda, part I: The Mythological Poems)
The text, stanzas 66–67
66.
At many a feast I was far too late,
and much too soon at some;
drunk was the ale or yet unserved:
never hits he the joint who is hated.
67.
Here and there to a home I had haply been asked
had I needed no meat at my meals,
or were two hams left hanging in the house of that friend
where I had partaken of one.
- 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 66–67 (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 says he was far too late at many a feast, and too early at some. The ale was drunk or not yet served. The line “never hits he the joint who is hated” is Bray’s wording, and its exact sense is not clear from the translation.
He would have been asked home here and there if he had not needed food at his meals, or if two hams were still hanging in the house of the friend where he had eaten one.
- 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 66–67 (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 often read as a dry joke about being the guest at the wrong time, or too hungry to be welcome. That is a modern reading.
Questions to sit with
- When have you been the guest who arrived at the wrong time? What would a better guest have done?