Step 5 of 9 · Endings, Mourning and What Lasts
What does not die
Why this step
Stanzas 75 and 76 say that cattle die, kinsmen die and you yourself will die, and then name one thing that does not: in stanza 75 fair fame, and in 76 the doom on each one dead. The entry notes that a very similar saying appears in Hákonarmál, and that some scholars date it to the 10th century.
The text, stanzas 75–76
75.
Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
fair fame of one who has earned.
76.
Cattle die and kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
but one thing never, I ween, will die, --
the doom on each one dead.
- 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 75–76 (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
Cattle die, kinsmen die and so does everyone; the poem says that a good name does not.
Questions to sit with
- Whom or what do you hope to be remembered by, and by whom?