Step 12 of 12 · Youth, Age and Learning
The Sage’s Seat
Why this step
The trail ends where the speaker begins his counsel. In stanzas 109 and 110 he says it is time to speak from the Sage’s Seat: by the Well of Weird he saw and was silent, saw and pondered, and listened to the speech of men. The entry reads this today as learning first by watching and listening, and only then speaking. Which of the two you are now, the one who listens or the one who speaks, the trail leaves open.
The text, stanzas 109–110
109.
'Tis time to speak from the Sage's Seat;
hard by the Well of Weird
I saw and was silent, I saw and pondered,
I listened to the speech of men.
110.
Of runes they spoke, and the reading of runes
was little withheld from their lips:
at the High One's hall, in the High One's hall,
I thus heard the High One say: --
- 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 109–110 (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 opens the counsel by saying it is time to speak from the Sage’s Seat by the Well of Weird, where he watched, kept silent and listened to men talk of runes.
Questions to sit with
- What have you learned by watching and listening that you have not yet said aloud? Who might need to hear it?