Youth, Age and Learning

What does each stage of a life know, and what does the old pass to the young? This trail follows that question through twelve entries from four collections: one rune, four tarot cards, six passages from the Hávamál and one place from the world of Yggdrasil.

The entries do not agree about youth or age. The Hávamál blesses a newborn in one stanza and warns against trusting a son too soon in another; it praises the counsel of the old, while one tarot card warns that old rules can stop fitting. The rune and card entries are this site’s own readings. Hávamál stanzas are from Olive Bray’s 1908 translation. The Eddic place comes from the Poetic Edda and Snorri as given on its page. The connections are editorial choices made for this site, not a claim that the old sources formed one system.