Step 5 of 12 · Spells, Songs and Runes
Help, and the healing song
Why this step
The Song of Spells begins in stanza 145. The speaker says he knows songs that neither the sons of men nor a queen in a king’s court know. The first is Help, which brings help in all woes, sorrow and strife; the second is the one a son of men must sing if he would heal the sick. The stanzas name the songs but do not give their words. The entry reads the passage today as the start of a list of skills for protecting and helping people.
The text, stanzas 145–146
145.
Those songs I know, which nor sons of men
nor queen in a king's court knows;
the first is Help which will bring thee help
in all woes and in sorrow and strife.
146.
A second I know, which the son of men
must sing, who would heal the sick.
- 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 145–146 (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 speaker says he knows songs that no one else does. The first is Help, which helps in all woes; the second is the one a healer must sing.