Step 1 of 9 · Hospitality and the Stranger
The guest at the door
Why this step
The poem opens from the visitor’s side. Stanza 1 tells the traveller to look all around before entering a doorway, because you cannot know in advance where an enemy may be sitting. Hospitality in this poem starts with caution on both sides of the threshold.
The text, stanza 1
1.
At every door-way,
ere one enters,
one should spy round,
one should pry round
for uncertain is the witting
that there be no foeman sitting,
within, before one on the floor
- 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 1 (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
A traveller is advised to look carefully at every doorway and hall before entering, because you cannot know in advance where an enemy may be sitting.