Step 10 of 12 · Youth, Age and Learning
The hoary singer
Why this step
Stanza 133 is spoken to the listener the poem calls the Stray-Singer: never hold the hoary singer in scorn, because the counsel of the old is often good. Words of wisdom can come from withered lips, even from one left to hang among hides. The entry says the text does not explain that last picture, and that the stanza is usually read today as a reminder to listen to elders.
The text, stanza 133
133.
I counsel thee, Stray-Singer, accept my counsels,
they will be thy boon if thou obey'st them,
they will work thy weal if thou win'st them:
hold never in scorn the hoary singer;
oft the counsel of the old is good;
come words of wisdom from the withered lips
of him left to hang among hides,
to rock with the rennets
and swing with the skins.
- 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 133 (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
Do not scorn the old singer: the counsel of the old is often good, and wisdom can come from withered lips, even from one left hanging among hides.
Questions to sit with
- Whose counsel did you wave away when you were younger that you hear differently now?