Slow Havamal 70

The 70th verse claims it’s better to be alive than dead, regardless of circumstances. Odin saw a fire burn for a rich man who lay dead outside the home.

Even when life feels a miserable burden, it’s better to stick it out than the alternative—so says Odin in Havamal. The reason he gives is that the living are the only ones who can enjoy anything. Whether death is terrible or something we don’t sense at all isn’t specified, but we can be sure there are no pleasures. If the rare opportunity to enjoy something is worth any pain, we get a good sense of the priorities of life. No one says pain is good, or that we should suffer it with a glad heart. It’s treated like its toll is well-understood. There’s sympathy in the fact that this verse doesn’t make light of pain. It may even be worse than feeling nothing at all.( Read more... )