Step 8 of 12 · Quarrels, Feuds and Making Peace
A burning hall, and rising hate
Why this step
Stanzas 151 and 152 name two of the speaker’s songs. The seventh can save a hall blazing above the bench-mates; the eighth calms hate when it grows among warrior sons. The entry points out that the eighth is the only song the speaker says all can learn, and reads the pair today as stopping a fire and stopping a feud.
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.