Step 6 of 8 · Sacrifice and What It Buys
Do you know how to write?
Why this step
Stanzas 143 and 144 put a price on giving. After eight questions about what you know how to do, the poem says it is better to ask for too little than to offer too much, that the gift should match what is asked, and that it is better not to send than to spend too much. It treats a sacrifice as something to measure, not to maximise.
The text, stanzas 143–144
143.
Dost know how to write, dost know how to read,
dost know how to paint, dost know how to prove,
dost know how to ask, dost know how to offer,
dost know how to send, dost know how to spend?
144.
Better ask for too little than offer too much,
like the gift should be the boon;
better not to send than to overspend.
........
Thus Odin graved ere the world began;
Then he rose from the deep, and came again.
- 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 143–144 (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 string of eight questions on what you know how to do, followed by advice not to give more than the gift deserves, and a closing line about Odin.