Slow Havamal: 114

[kylec]

In verse 114, Odin counsels Loddfafnir that this sorceress will enchant him so he cares nothing for the advice of powerful men, nothing for food, or the company of friends. Instead, he will sleep sorrowfully.

We hear more of the pitfalls of bedding a sorceress. She has a power over her lover that renders him death-seeking—that is, he will do nothing to his own benefit, so deep is his obsession with her. It’s an enchantment that would prefer to cease to exist than to care for himself or others above his sorceress. But it’s set against the bitter sorrow of the intuition that this love can’t last, or has already ended.

That description could work pretty well for what a man feels during sex in general, when there is no thought of anything else until the “little death” is achieved. In fact, by that standard, there is sorcery involved any time we fall in love. We elevate our lover to divine status at the expense of all else, and have to, if we’re going to form a bond that will last beyond the initial enchantment.

Carl Jung might contend that what Odin is describing is not the sorcery of a particular woman, but of the anima, that divine feminine aspect that’s projected onto our lover, clouding our judgment and causing us to treat her as something beyond what any woman could be. The animus, the male version, does the same for women. Odin counsels Loddfafnir, even as he warns him that he will ignore the words of powerful men, not to fall under this spell. Maybe he knows it’s futile, but having suffered in love, Loddfafnir will recall the advice in the aftermath and at last it may sink in, or at least provide comforting context and the assurance that he isn’t the only fool in the world.

Beyond literal lovers, we might also become obsessed with some work or hobby, some goal, a video game, a social scene, or something else that causes us to lose sleep and skip meals while we pursue it to our own erosion. Odin tells us that we will hardly recognize this sorceress as such when we see her; that his advice will probably fall on deaf ears. But if we can take it, we will profit handsomely. And if not, we will nod to ourselves when the rubble clears, realizing what it was that hit us. If nothing else, that makes it easier to move on.