Reading this edition

Hávamál is presented here as a sequence of stanzas. Reading several stanzas together helps preserve the shifts between practical counsel, encounters, and the poem’s accounts of wisdom.

What to read for

Hospitality, friendship, speech, conduct, and wisdom in the poem’s own words.

Keep the source in view

A short stanza is not a complete rule for every modern situation. Compare the surrounding passage and, where possible, another translation.

Find a first text to read · How to check a source or report a transcription problem