Step 9 of 9 · Friendship and Trust
Mingling in friendship
Why this step
The trail ends with the poem’s own definition. Stanza 123 says there is a mingling in friendship when a man can say his whole mind to another, that nothing is so vile as a fickle tongue, and that no one is a friend who only flatters. It sits between the guardedness of stanzas 45 and 46 and the card’s open toast, and the trail leaves the choice between them to you.
The text, stanza 123
123.
There is mingling in friendship when man can utter
all his whole mind to another;
there is nought so vile as a fickle tongue;
no friend is he who but flatters.
- 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 123 (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
Friends mingle when each can speak his whole mind to the other. Nothing is so vile as a fickle tongue, and a flatterer is no friend.
Questions to sit with
- With whom can you say your whole mind? Is there anything you hold back from that person, and why?