Step 3 of 9 · Love, Longing and Folly
The tied dog, and the prudent girl
Why this step
Stanzas 99 and 100 end the story. Near morning he finds a barking dog tied to her couch, and she meets him with insults. The passage closes with a general saying about maids that the entry marks as the speaker’s own, drawn from this one story. The entry adds that it can be heard as a joke at Odin’s expense, the god who wins wisdom outwitted by a prudent girl.
The text, stanzas 99–100
99.
Yet nearer morning I went, once more, --
the housefolk slept in the hall,
but soon I found a barking dog
tied fast to that fair maid's couch.
100.
Many a sweet maid when one knows her mind
is fickle found towards men:
I proved it well when that prudent lass
I sought to lead astray:
shrewd maid, she sought me with every insult
and I won therewith no wife.
- 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 99–100 (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
Near morning the speaker returns, finds the household asleep and a barking dog tied to the maid’s bed, and is met with insults. He concludes that many a sweet maid is fickle towards men.