witchyways:

9. Loki kvað:

“Mantu þat, Óðinn,
er vit í árdaga
blendum blóði saman?
Ölvi bergja
lézktu eigi mundu,
nema okkr væri báðum borit.”


Auden and Taylor translate L9 thus:

“Remember, Odin, in the olden days
What blood-brothers we were:
You would never have dreamed of…

in re-reading the Eddas, I’ve marveled at the different styles and translations! In the Havamal in particular, does Odin take up the runes crying? shouting? screaming? moaning? all of these different translations mean something specific, and describe a particular experience. My own experience with the runes has been overwhelming confusion and humility. But to take them up screaming? woah.

Young was I once     and went alone,

     and wandering lost my way;

when a friend I found     I felt me rich;

     man is cheered by man.

The unwise man     waketh all night,

     thinking of this and that -

tosses, sleepless,     and is tired at morn:

     nor lighter for that his load.

I know that I hung

on a windy tree,

nights all nine,

wounded by the spear

given to Odin,

myself to myself,

on that tree

of which no man knoweth,

from whence its roots rises.

They dealt me no bread

nor drinking horn,

I gazed down,

I took up the runes

roaring I took them,

and fell back again.

~Havamal

nonsequently:

odin’s sacrifice, by pete white. 2000. woodcut.

“I know that I hung on a windy tree

nine long nights,

wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,

myself to myself,

on that tree of which no man knows

from where its roots run.

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn

downwards I peered;

I took up the runes, screaming I took them,

then I fell back from there”.

-rúnatal, from hávamál, trans. carolyne larrington.

I’m the idiot who forgot that the Havamal was collected in the Poetic Edda. Two of everything, please?

emwolfilie:

“Runes” by ~Ronammy

“Runes wilt thou find and rightly read,

of wondrous weight,

of mighty magic.”

~Havamal, sayings of the high one