Step 4 of 9 · Protection and Boundaries
Weapons on the road
Why this step
Stanza 38 says a man should never take a step on the road without his weapons of war, because no one knows when he will need a spear. The entry notes that today this is usually read as “be prepared”, not as an instruction to carry arms. It is the plainest statement of protection in the trail, and the shortest.
The text, stanza 38
38.
Let a man never stir on his road a step
without his weapons of war;
for unsure is the knowing when need shall arise
of a spear on the way without.
- 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 38 (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
A traveller should never take a step without his weapons, because no one knows when he will need a spear.