Slow Havamal: 162

[kylec]

In verse 162, Odin says he knows a seventeenth spell: he can prevent a beautiful woman from shunning him. He then addresses Loddfafnir once more, saying that Loddfafnir will go without these spells for a long time but it would be good if he learned them.

With the previous spell, Odin can win a cunning woman; with this one, prevent a beautiful one from shunning him. Maybe it’s nice to have a backup, or maybe the cunning woman differs so much from the beautiful one that the same spell won’t work in both cases. Either way, Odin has the situation covered, and we learn that both cunning and beauty are highly valued in a woman, if that was in doubt.

More interestingly to me at least, we return to our old friend Loddfafnir, who received a lot of good advice from Odin earlier in the poem. The translator notes this way have been a literary device inserted late by a scribe to bring some unity to verses taken from different sources, and that sounds plausible. Or we can read Odin’s spells as a continuation of that advice, omitting the name of the recipient (having repeated it once or twice already).

Loddfafnir will go a long time without learning these spells. Probably because they’re suited to a god, not a mortal, and he has quite a few lessons to suffer through before he can hope to compare to Odin. That doesn’t diminish their value, and if they’re not possible in this lifetime, it seems that Odin encourages him to at least get to work, repeating thrice at the end what value they will have. What he’s asking is for Loddfafnir to become a student of a wisdom tradition—maybe an informal one, maybe life, itself. Through his studies, Loddfafnir will learn to bring about changes in the world that win him beautiful companions and great battles, save his friends from danger, and more. He’s invited to follow a path established by Odin, at the end of which are the many goods that Odin experiences. We know it won’t be easy, but what Loddfafnir does gain assurance of is that the effort is worthwhile, straight from the mouth of one who has been there.