Step 11 of 12 · Appetite, Ale and Measure
Earth, fire, oak and rye
Why this step
Stanza 136 closes the counsel to the Stray-Singer with a list. When you drink ale, call on the might of earth, because it is earth that drinks in the floods; earth prevails over drink, fire over sickness, oak over binding, and so on to runes over harm. The entry reads it today as a list of folk remedies and charms, and notes that the text explains none of them.
The text, stanza 136
136.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
when ale thou quaffest, call upon earth's might --
'tis earth drinks in the floods.
Earth prevails o'er drink, but fire o'er sickness,
the oak o'er binding, the earcorn o'er witchcraft,
the rye spur o'er rupture, the moon o'er rages,
herb o'er cattle plagues, runes o'er harm.
- 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), stanza 136 (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.
From the Lorebook
When you drink ale, call on the might of earth. Then follows a list of what prevails over what, ending with runes over harm.