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Chapter 7. At the Well of Urð 172
This method for accessing knowledge does not require that anyone hold any
particular set of religious beliefs or hold any beliefs at all, for that matter. It is
simply a way of changing behavior so that one is acting “in accordance” with the flow
of power/ luck which moves up out of the Ginnungagap, through the Underworld,
and out onto Midgard. Secondly, it has historical precedence: ritualized behaviors
as outlined in the Hávamál were practiced for almost half a millennium before some
of them began to slowly be replaced by ideas brought in from outside the Germanic
realm.
The Hávamál literally translates as “The Sayings of Har,” and Har is one of the
epithets for Óðínn, Chief of the Æsir. This name does not, and apparently never
did, imply that this collection of strophes was composed by Óðínn, but implies that
this set of guidelines led one to “act” in accordance with knowledge. R. I. Page in
The Viking Chronicles outlines the use of the Hávamál:
“The collection of the verses known as the Hávamál . . . . form one of the
most important, and baffling, of the Eddic [sic] poems. What survives is
a group of separate and very different poems brought together under this
one title . . . . Subject matter is diverse, and different metres are used in
different sections. There are stanzas of popular wisdom, proverbial in mood
and dealing with everyday matters like poverty and riches, hunger, shelter
and comfort, how to live and die well, who to trust and who to suspect,
how to gain friends and how to keep them, how to outwit your enemies, the
temptations of strong drink, and how to avoid troubles with the opposite sex
. . . .It is fairly clear, at any rate to the unbiased, that . . . a good deal of the
poem derives from earlier times” 1
The poem is a collection of pragmatic pieces of wisdom that when put into proper
action, the measure of one’s life can improve immensely.
Page further divides the Hávamál into groups (not necessarily the order of the
verses within the collection) and his divisions list out thus:
1. the poor foot-traveler: “. . . the traveler, his needs, his reception in a strange but
apparently hospitable farm and the qualities he must show . . . . stress on the
lurking danger a wanderer must be ready for when he arrives at a strange village,
his need to keep his wits about him and to pay for hospitality shown him with
conversation and gossip.” 2
a) the alternative view of death: of the importance of living well instead of dying
needlessly.
1 Page, R. I., The Chronicles of the Vikings, 1995, (BarnesandNoble Books, New York), p.
139. 2 Page, R. I. Chronicles of the Vikings (Barnes & Noble, New York, NY) 1995, p. 140.