Slow Havamal: 78

[kylec]

Note: This post is a day late, and there won't be a post next week, as I will be out of town enjoying the holidays.

In the 78th verse, Odin says he once saw large herds of cattle owned by the sons of a rich man, who are now reduced to beggars. Wealth is as fleeting as a twinkle in the eye, and there is no less faithful friend.

Fortunes turn. We might be inclined to believe our prosperity is a feature of life, rather than a passing circumstance. The wealthy heirs in this verse probably thought their lifestyle would last as long as their lives. Instead, wealth is like a stream that we may encounter and follow for a while. The terrain soon forces us back into the thickets.

The tragedy of this situation is one of expectations. If we saw wealth, loneliness, joy, grief the way we look at weather, no one would be surprised when a sunny day ends, or a storm breaks. We Indo-Europeans favor the noun, and thinking in enduring states. An abstraction like “wealth” might be easier to put in perspective with a verb. A cow is a solid thing, so we can be forgiven for thinking it lasts, but it begins life as a calf, matures, and then gives us meat, whereafter it’s gone. No fool, upon interrogation, would expect a cow, or even a herd, to last forever, but many of us fools do think that our processes by which we move wealth through life will remain viable.

The word “wealth” comes from the same root as the word “will.” I often think of wealth as that which we can will into being. My actions procure food, housing, and herds. If I so much as walk out of sight, I have to use my will in some small way to return to my farm. The constellation of actions that we call wealth requires constant maintenance and adjustment. I can’t will it once and enjoy it forever.

Maybe it’s telling that it’s the rich man’s sons who carry the beggar’s staff. We don’t know what befell them, and maybe they couldn’t stop it, but it takes one kind of will to acquire wealth and another to preserve it. Heirs often take what they’ve never missed for granted, just as modern citizens expect the fruits of industrial civilization to persist by repeating the same actions of the past like some cargo cult. Could it be that the heirs in this verse lacked the will to keep the stream of wealth flowing by their feet?

It takes yet another kind of will to lose what you’re accustomed to, and to will yourself back into graces, or at least a different situation that you can enjoy. That may mean letting go of certain things that once felt like necessities. If wealth is akin to will, it isn’t the accumulation that marks your fortune, but the ability to bring about the circumstances you require. These may be humble in material terms, but if you have all you need and your will could not be denied, isn’t that wealth? Meanwhile the billionaire who remains unsatisfied and striving after something impossible seems to suffer a failure of will, or at least a failure to recognize what it is he wills, and to will more wisely.

Wealth may be a faithless friend because it requires a surplus, and the conditions which can bring those states about are always shifting. We’ve seen in recent verses how reputation might be a better thing to strive for, or how being generous and making gifts to friends is the true path of friendship. Maybe the message could be to give when you have enough; to know what it is you need, and to will it, constantly; and to remain nimble, ready to adapt to circumstances. If you do end up carrying the beggar’s staff, one who’s known for those traits is at least likely to wind up with a crust of bread in his hand more often than someone who takes fortune for granted.