Step 4 of 12 · Appetite, Ale and Measure
Ale and the wits
Why this step
Stanza 11 is that worst provision: too deep a draught of ale. The next stanzas say that the more men drink, the less they can think, and that a “bird of Unmindfulness” hovers over ale feasts. The speaker, who is Odin, admits he was once very drunk in Gunnlod’s garths. The entry stresses that the poem does not forbid ale: best is the feast where a man can call back his wits at once.
The text, stanzas 11–14
11.
A better burden can no man bear
on the way than his mother wit:
and no worse provision can he carry with him
than too deep a draught of ale.
12.
Less good than they say for the sons of men
is the drinking oft of ale:
for the more they drink, the less can they think
and keep a watch o'er their wits.
13.
A bird of Unmindfulness flutters o'er ale feasts,
wiling away men's wits:
with the feathers of that fowl I was fettered once
in the garths of Gunnlod below.
14.
Drunk was I then, I was over drunk
in that crafty Jötun's court.
But best is an ale feast when man is able
to call back his wits at once.
- 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 11–14 (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
Natural good sense is the best thing to carry, and too much ale the worst. The speaker says he once lost his wits at a feast, in Gunnlod’s garths.