Step 3 of 12 · Appetite, Ale and Measure
Provision for the road
Why this step
Too little is a failure too. Stanza 115, one of the counsels to the Stray-Singer, says that if you long to travel over fell and firth you should provide yourself well with food. The entry points back to stanza 11, which names the worst provision a traveller can carry, and calls stanza 115 the other side. Enough, here, means not going short.
The text, stanza 115
115.
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:
should thou long to fare over fell and firth
provide thee well with food.
- 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 115 (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
If you mean to travel over fell and firth, take plenty of food.