Step 4 of 9 · Friendship and Trust
The path where no foot passes
Why this step
Stanza 118 says to go and find a trusted friend often, because the path where no foot passes grows over with brushwood and tall grass. The entry calls it a well-known picture of friendships that fade when they are not visited. It adds effort to the last step: distance is not the only thing that makes a road long.
The text, stanza 118
118.
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:
hast thou a friend whom thou trustest well,
fare thou to find him oft;
for with brushwood grows and with grasses high
the path where no foot doth pass.
- 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 118 (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 have a friend you trust, go and see him often, because the path no foot walks grows over with brushwood and tall grass.
Questions to sit with
- Is there a friendship in your life that has grown over a little? What is one small way to walk that path this month?