Step 6 of 9 · Love, Longing and Folly
Do not blame the lover
Why this step
Stanzas 91 and 92 are what the entry calls an unusually kind moment in the poem. Never blame another whom love has brought into bonds, they say, because a witching form will fetch the wise, and the might of love makes fools of the once wise. Love-folly is common, so judge it gently.
The text, stanzas 91–92
91.
-- Never a whit should one blame another
whom love hath brought into bonds:
oft a witching form will fetch the wise
which holds not the heart of fools.
92.
Never a whit should one blame another
for a folly which many befalls;
the might of love makes sons of men
into fools who once were wise.
- 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 91–92 (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
No one should blame another for what love has led them into. A fair form can catch the wise, and the might of love makes fools of once-wise people.
Questions to sit with
- Is there a folly of the heart, yours or someone else’s, that you have judged more harshly than you would a friend’s?