Step 7 of 11 · Light in the Dark
A burning hall, and rising hate
Why this step
Fire in the Hávamál is not always welcome. In stanzas 151 and 152 the speaker says his seventh song can save a hall blazing above the bench-mates, however fiercely it burns, and his eighth can calm hate among warrior sons. The entry reads them today as songs about stopping a fire and stopping a feud, and notes that the eighth is the only one the speaker says anyone can learn.
The text, stanzas 151–152
151.
A seventh I know: if I see a hall
high o'er the bench-mates blazing,
flame it ne'er so fiercely I still can save it, --
I know how to sing that song.
152.
An eighth I know: which all can sing
for their weal if they learn it well;
where hate shall wax 'mid the warrior sons,
I can calm it soon with that song.
- 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), stanzas 151–152 (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
The seventh song saves a blazing hall, however fiercely it burns. The eighth, which anyone can learn, calms hate among warriors.