Step 1 of 12 · Sorrow and Healing
No sickness like discontent
Why this step
Stanza 93 says that only the mind knows what is nearest the heart, and sees where the soul is turned. To the wise, it says, no sickness seems so sore as finding content in nothing. The entry notes that today this is often read as restlessness and dissatisfaction being a suffering of their own. The trail starts here, with a sorrow that is private and hard to name.
The text, stanza 93
93.
The mind knows alone what is nearest the heart
and sees where the soul is turned:
no sickness seems to the wise so sore
as in nought to know content.
- 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 93 (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
Only a person’s own mind knows what is nearest their heart. To the wise no illness is as sore as being unable to find contentment in anything.