Step 9 of 9 · Knowledge, Judgment and Uncertainty
Wary, but not too wary
Why this step
The trail closes with a Hávamál line that tries to hold both sides. In stanza 130 the speaker asks the Stray-Singer to be wary but not too wary, naming ale and another man’s wife as the places to be wariest, with a third the stanza leaves unnamed. It gives no formula for deciding under uncertainty. It suggests that how much caution to use is itself a judgment, and the trail leaves it there.
The text, stanza 130
130.
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:
I pray thee be wary, yet not too wary,
be wariest of all with ale,
with another's wife, and a third thing eke,
that knaves outwit thee never.
- 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 130 (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
Be wary, but not too wary; most of all with ale, with another’s wife and with a third thing, so that knaves never outwit you.