kylec | Slow Havamal: 118

In verse 118, Odin warns that he once saw the words of a bad woman bite a man in the neck. Her lying tongue caused his death without good reason.

While the bad man from last week’s verse takes advantage of your misfortune, his counterpart brings about misfortune with her words. The bad woman probably doesn’t have the means to waylay someone with a sword, so if she wants to harm her enemy, she has to use what women of most cultures and time periods could reliably wield: her words.

The consequences of being scorned behind your back can be much worse than the loss of a good reputation. What bit the man in the neck was probably not the sword of the lying woman, but her words seem to have brought it about. Maybe her relatives did the work, or someone who genuinely thought he was an agent of justice.

This verse shares a tale of warning rather than giving explicit advice. We can read between the lines: Odin warns us not to run afoul of the kind of woman who would lie and gossip a man to death. In common parlance, this was often called a witch. We tend to think of witches as innocent victims of superstition, and many probably were. But the word was more often used for some woman who was so terribly mean and vindictive that just having her around seemed to sour everyone’s mood and luck. It’s possible that when he refers to the words of a bad woman, he may mean that she pronounced a curse, though slander would have been sufficient.

These actions can come about even when we think we did nothing to justify them. It doesn’t matter what makes sense, or what the victim believes is fair. If the bad woman feels scorned, though no one would agree with her, she may still take revenge. The best practice is probably what people used to do before witch trials came into vogue: they just steered a wide berth. If you know someone has a history of lies, avoid them in all capacities. The less you enter into her thoughts, the better.

Conversely, an unassailable reputation may offer some protection when the rumors start to fly. If instead you associate with kind people who speak kind words, and do right by them, people will hardly be able to believe the bad woman’s lies. The man who Odin saw fall victim to them probably had other character traits that made the tale believable. Living well is the best defense against gossip.