kylec | Slow Havamal: 137

In verse 137, Odin counsels Loddfafnir thusly:

When you drink beer,
choose the might of the earth,
for the earth is good against beer,
and fire against sickness,
oak against an irritable bowel,
wheat against magic,
an elder-tree against family quarrels,
maggots against venomous bites,
runes against evil,
ground against water.
Swear your hate beneath the moon.

I have reproduced this verse in quotation instead of summary, since it would be difficult to summarize without merely quoting. Copyright law allows for the quotation of short passages, and I feel it will benefit the reader to hear the exact remedies.

For the most part, this verse is a list of just that: remedies against afflictions. At least in the metaphorical sense, most of these things seem to have contrary properties to the things they cure. For example, earth is solid an immovable, as opposed to the roiling liquid passions of beer, while fire warms a cold and helps you to sweat out a fever.

The translation of “elder-tree” has good reasons, but the Norse word “haull” is otherwise unattested, and could be a form of elder, as an herbal remedy against a social situation (it was common to treat not just physical ailments but every sort with things like herbs); or it could be a form of the word for hall or house, which makes less sense in the verse, but might suggest that keeping your home and household affairs in order is the secret to a peaceful family.

The line about the moon stands out, and it seems to defy the formula of the rest of the lines. I first thought it meant that the moon was helpful in aiding your curses. It may well be, but the Norse term suggests testifying, as in calling the moon as a witness to some harm that has been done to you in hopes of retribution.

There’s little for me to analyze here. I haven’t yet tried using maggots on my snake bites. The striking part in our age is the belief that certain substances and actions are connected and can cancel one another out. Of course that happens in chemistry all the time, among other places, but it didn’t seem like such a stretch at the time this poem was written to extend the concept to the emotional and magical realms. The skillful use of the right material—called natural magic—could change the way circumstances played out in order to deliver a favorable sequence of events.

It might be tempting for our contemporaries to scoff at the notion. It’s easier to chalk it up to harmless superstition. But if any people can get away with taking an action that delivers no results, or even a harmful one, and have the energy to overcome it, it would be 21st century men. We have a wider margin for error with our many energy-intensive resources, and our willingness to ignore the natural world. A 9th century Norseman couldn’t get away with nearly as much. Rationality is usefully defined as that which confers a survival advantage. We can be sure that if these beliefs were common, they at least didn’t reduce the survival chances by much.

Further, we have a tendency to chop out minute causes and effects, and ignore any other details as irrelevant. In the past, people thought more holistically. It was not possible to separate an herb given for a malady from the words the healer said, a rune inscribed at the same time on a talisman, a strict observance advised, and the rest of the totality of the situation. Only by an act of mighty abstraction can we remove things we experienced from events that follow in order to assign them to the smallest consistent aspect. But none of us live in atomic pieces. We experience the world as a moment, and divide it out of convenience. That doesn’t make our way the right way, any more than it makes it the wrong way. Each method stands as a witness statement. We can choose whether or not to try it in good faith.

Slow Havamal: 137

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