kylec | Slow Havamal: 53

In the 53rd verse, a small beach receives small seas, and it’s the same with minds. While wisdom is distributed unequally among people, the average is moderately wise.

In the notes, Crawford admits that the original Norse text for this verse is very garbled. There’s almost certainly at least one copyist error, and the two halves hardly seem to align. He does his best to translate what’s there, and whether or not it has much to do with the original intention, it’s a fine English verse and I’ll treat it as appropriate to the text.

I’m immediately reminded of a concept from ecology called “edge.” Wherever one type of landscape meets a different type, we can describe an edge. A liminal zone where a pair of ecosystems mingle. For example, where a wood meets a meadow, or the coast meets the ocean. Biologists have noted that the vast majority of life and much of its diversity occurs at the narrow band where the two zones shade together. How much you find in a given forest depends more on how many miles of border I shares with other zones than on how many square miles it contains. Gardeners know that an undulating bed generates far more edge and opportunity for plants and insects than a straight-lined one.

The small beach, like the small mind, receives little of the sea. In this case, the edge is that place where we encounter things outside of ourselves. When we expose more of our thoughts, feelings, and predilection to contact with the rest of the roiling world, there is more opportunity to receive its wisdom. Deep inside, the thick canopy conceals the fact that very little can flourish. But where we meet the world, there thrives new wisdom that couldn’t have been born of either party alone.

Again, the theme of hospitality comes up in Havamal. Sharing an edge requires us to be open to what surprises we may receive rather than making demands. It also asks us to give generously of what the other may be missing. Most of our new growth will occur in this chaotic and beautiful zone where we at last stand back and let that which is external have a chance to speak.

The second half of the verse admits that wisdom is unequal throughout the population. But that the average is at least moderately wise is a reminder to those of us who tend to hold back for fear of being subjected to idiots and their vanity. Almost everyone has something to teach us—intentionally, or not. Retiring within the self to wait for the rare wanderer who passes through with great things to share will only result in remaining shut off from a ready source of learning. Not only that, but we deprive others from the unexpected discoveries they would find if we could meet on a long edge. Wisdom isn’t found by going within, but by opening outward, and bringing back a new experience for consideration.