Step 3 of 9 · Slow Growth and Craft
Shoemaker and shaft-maker
Why this step
Stanza 125 says not to be a shoemaker or shaft-maker except for yourself, because if the shoe is misshapen or the shaft crooked, a curse will be called on your head. The entry reads it as a warning about taking on work for others that you cannot do well. It sets a boundary around the learning stage.
The text, stanza 125
125.
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:
be not a shoemaker nor yet a shaft maker
save for thyself alone:
let the shoe be misshapen, or crooked the shaft,
and a curse on thy head will be called.
- 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 125 (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
Do not make shoes or spear-shafts for anyone but yourself: if the work is bad, a curse will land on your head.