Slow Havamal: 113

[kylec]

In verse 113, Odin counsels Loddfafnir not to sleep in the arms of a sorceress, else she lock his limbs.

Odin warns that a sorceress makes a dangerous lover. I don’t know what it means to “lock one’s limbs,” but it doesn’t sound appealing. Maybe she has the power to make his arms or legs go lame, or to stiffen, or otherwise inhibit his ability to perform vital activities—for example, if he is a woodwright, cursing him with clumsiness.

Practically, she might achieve this through magic. Metaphorically, he may be saying that a love affair with a sorceress brings about certain actions or character on the part of her lover that prevent him from healthy function. It could take the form of an unhealthy obsession that causes Loddfafnir to gradually withdraw from his normal life into a pattern that revolves around his lover.

The way certain women captivate men may be seen as no less than an act of magic, or a curse, from a certain perspective. Her lover slowly loses his old personality as he conforms to her influence. This is a warning many friends—male and female—have given about a class of lover. Someone who is called a sorcerer or sorceress may have engaged in formal acts of bad magic, but it’s also possible the term refers to anyone with an eerie charm.

Let’s take it to mean someone who engages in deliberate malicious acts for their own benefit. We should be careful about getting involved with such people, because even if they genuinely love us, the repercussions of their way of living swirl around them like a maelstrom, liable to rip apart perpetrator and innocent bystander alike. We should instead choose lovers who act on behalf of others. Someone who is kind and considerate will at worst be a poor match who we can graciously part with. But a vindictive person’s love easily turns to hatred, and that hatred is like to take as its object the one who captured their heart then scorned it. Never mind that leaving may have been a justified act of self-preservation—the sorceress won’t see it that way.

Love has a way of running afoul. It’s true, we can’t exactly choose where our affections land. But to the extent that clear heads prevail, we should avoid becoming entangled with men and women who act out their resentments on others, especially is they’re willing to use vile magic to do so.