Step 7 of 9 · Love, Longing and Folly
A promise to a maiden
Why this step
Stanza 129 offers a plainer rule: if you wish to win joy of a gentle maiden, make a fair promise and let it be fast. The entry reads it as advice to a wooer to be as good as his word. In the company of the stories before it, this is the line that most separates a promise from a ploy.
The text, stanza 129
129.
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:
wouldst thou win joy of a gentle maiden,
and lure to whispering of love,
thou shalt make fair promise, and let it be fast, --
none will scorn their weal who can win it.
- 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 129 (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
If you want to win joy of a gentle maiden, make a fair promise and keep it fast: no one scorns happiness who can win it.