Step 4 of 9 · Speech, Silence and Secrets
The eighteenth song, kept secret
Why this step
The Hávamál ends its list of songs with a secret. In stanza 163 the speaker says he will never tell the eighteenth song to maiden or wife of man, except perhaps to his sister or the woman who holds him close, and adds that secrets are safest when known to but one. The entry notes that this matches stanza 63.
The text, stanzas 162–163
162.
These songs, Stray-Singer, which man's son knows not,
long shalt thou lack in life,
though thy weal if thou win'st them, thy boon if thou obey'st them
thy good if haply thou gain'st them.
163.
An eighteenth I know: which I ne'er shall tell
to maiden or wife of man
save alone to my sister, or haply to her
who folds me fast in her arms;
most safe are secrets known to but one-
the songs are sung to an end.
- 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 162–163 (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 Stray-Singer is told he will long lack these songs. The eighteenth the speaker will tell to no one but his sister or the woman who holds him: secrets are safest with one.