Hávamál

That original, the mother manuscript, he thinks would naturally have been called the Book of or at Odie, which would be expressed in Icelandic either as Odabok or as Edda, following in the latter case accepted linguistic laws.

Snorri's familiarity with the Elder or Poetic Edda is demonstrated by his frequent quotations from Voluspa, Havamal, Grimnismal, Vafthrudnismal, Alvinsmal or Alvismal, and Grottansungr.

He knew Lokasenna as well, but confused three stanzas, apparently failing to remember the order in his original.

One poem that he mentions is lacking in the Poetic Edda as we know it, Heimdallargaldr, the Song or Incantation of Heimdallr.

So just to jump to mythology, just to give one example, would be the famous, um, acquisition of the runes myth in Old Norse mythology, which we know from only one single source.

So we have the Eddic poem called Havamal, um, which is the sayings of the High One, the High One being Odin, is just one of, like, 200 names that we know of, probably had a bit more.

And it's composed of different poems actually put together, and one of them is called the Runatal, the Tale of the Runes, where he describes some primordial time when he hung on some unnamed tree.

People usually say it's Yggdrasil, but it doesn't say actually.

What's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of I Am Heathen and so can you.

I am your host, Havamal fetishist, Odin fantasizer, and occasional Mjolnir owner, Einar.

And I will be the first to admit that it has been a long time since I have spoken at length on education within the lore and within our faith.

And it's been a long time since I've actually been okay enough to turn around and say, I feel competent teaching again.

But these are useful modern frameworks for describing something much older, not the names of formal doctrines handed down to us from pre-Christian Scandinavia.

In his 1925 essay, Essai sur les dons, The Gift, Marcel Mauss produced one of the foundational modern anthropological treatments of gift exchange, exploring the obligations surrounding giving, receiving, and reciprocating gifts.

Interestingly enough, Mauss himself opens his work with passages from the Havamal, using them to introduce the world to reciprocal exchange he intends to examine.

Now, while this isn't some bright-ass neon sign off I-95 screaming, Pagans, gift here, we need to accept a little nuance and understand that modern terms and frameworks can develop from older material.

That original, the mother manuscript, he thinks would naturally have been called the Book of or at Oddi, which would be expressed in Icelandic either as Oddabok or as Edda, following in the latter case accepted linguistic laws.

Snorri's familiarity with the Elder or Poetic Edda is demonstrated by his frequent quotations from Voluspa, Havamal, Grimnismal, Vafthrudnismal, Alvinsmal or Alvissmal, and Grottasongur.

He knew Lokasenna as well, but confused three stanzas, apparently failing to remember the order in his original.

One poem that he mentions is lacking in the Poetic Edda as we know it, Heimdallargaldr, the Song or Incantation of Heimdallr.

That original, the mother manuscript, he thinks would naturally have been called the Book of or at Odie, which would be expressed in Icelandic either as Odabok or as Edda, following in the latter case accepted linguistic laws.

Snorri's familiarity with the Elder or Poetic Edda is demonstrated by his frequent quotations from Voluspa, Havamal, Grimnismal, Vafthrudnismal, Alvinsmal or Alvismal, and Grottansungr.

He knew Lokasena as well, but confused three stanzas, apparently failing to remember the order in his original.

One poem that he mentions is lacking in the Poetic Edda as we know it, Heimdallargaldr, the song or incantation of Heimdallr.

Maybe you're right.

Maybe the Havamal, right? Maybe from ancient Norse, right? It's basically a proverb for Vikings, right? Maybe they were pretty smart.

There's a lot of good stuff in the Havamal too, right? But maybe it's because they understood women's nature.

They saw this and they go, we better write this shit down.

Because here's what I'm seeing right here.

You want to know the difference between right and wrong in heathenry? Well, there's a saga for that.

Welcome to a deep dive into the Havamal.

One of the things that sets heathenry apart from many other pagan traditions and particularly ones influenced by Wicca is that we have a very different approach to what is right and wrong and why some actions may or may not be morally and ethically justified.

At the most surface level, the obvious difference is around questions of force and violence.

The deeper truth, which many find upon a little bit of work and exploration, is heathen ethics are very distinctly different, though not necessarily in a therefore that justifies being an extremely annoying broseph all the time who is constantly looking for opportunities to show off their supposed strength.

As we're going to see shortly, there's a lot of depth and some really intricate through lines within pre-Christian Nordic philosophy, at least based on what we have that survives.

And when it comes to ethics and morality, the one thing we've got is the Havamal.

The Havamal is the longest of the sagas in the Poetic Edda.