Step 6 of 9 · Courage, Fear and Risk
Do not look up in battle
Why this step
Stanza 128 advises not to look up in battle, when men are as beasts, or the wights may bewitch you with spells. The entry says the line is often taken as a picture of keeping your eyes on the work in front of you. It is the poem’s version of courage as attention.
The text, stanza 128
128.
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:
look not up in battle, when men are as beasts,
lest the wights bewitch thee with spells.
- 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 128 (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
In battle, when men are like beasts, do not look up, or the wights may bewitch you with spells.