Hospitality and the Stranger

A stranger arrives at the door. What do you owe them, what can they expect, and how do you tell who they are? This trail follows that scene through nine entries: one rune, two tarot cards and six passages from the Hávamál, a poem that spends many stanzas on guests and hosts.

The Hávamál’s guest section is practical, wary and sometimes funny. The other entries look at the same scene from outside the door or from the side of the person giving. Hávamál stanzas are from Olive Bray’s 1908 translation. The connections are editorial choices made for this site, not a claim that the old sources formed one system.