Step 12 of 12 · Spells, Songs and Runes
Hail, the sayings are uttered
Why this step
The poem ends with stanza 164. The sayings of the High One have been uttered in the hall, for the good of men and the woe of Jötuns, with a hail to the one who spoke, the one who knows and those who listened, and a last word: use, you who have learned. The entry reads that line today as a call to use what you have learned. What a reader now might use from a list of spells, the trail leaves open.
The text, stanza 164
164.
Now the sayings of the High One are uttered in the hall
for the weal of men, for the woe of Jötuns,
Hail, thou who hast spoken! Hail, thou that knowest!
Hail, ye that have hearkened! Use, thou who hast learned!
- 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 164 (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 last stanza says the sayings of the High One have been spoken for the good of men and the woe of Jötuns, and greets the speaker, the one who knows and the listeners.
Questions to sit with
- Of everything you have heard or read lately, what do you actually mean to use?