Slow Havamal: 163

[kylec]

In verse 163 Odin says he knows an eighteenth spell, but he will never teach it to a woman, except maybe his lover or his sister, because it’s better if only one person knows this, the final spell.

We don’t hear what the final spell is in this penultimate verse, and I’m not reading ahead, so it’s been a crazy week of anticipation for me waiting to hear the last verse of the poem. What Odin does share today is that whatever this spell is, he won’t teach it to a woman with very few exceptions. As the last two were love spells, it could be another that is too dangerous to share with the opposite sex. Or perhaps he mistrusts how women (but not men) will use the spell against him unless they are solidly in his camp.

It’s better if one person knows a spell in general because when both are adept, it might turn into an astral tennis match to determine who gets to land the final blow. We would generally prefer that a potential antagonist not have access to the same firepower as us, to make our lives easier.

Odin says this is the last spell. There are eighteen in all, which is twice the sacred Norse number of nine. We can assume that whatever he needs to do can be accomplished with that limited palette, or it can’t be done by a spell at all. Some of them can be learned by mortals, other can’t. All of them are advisable to know, presumably once one is no longer restricted by mortality, though it would be better to know them now.

I do like reading them literally as a list of magic practiced by historical Norse people, or at least things they wish they could do. Compare these spells to the superpowers that our materialist culture projects onto our superheroes. Many modern people don’t believe in magic, but they still want to overcome physical limitations in their imaginations, at least. Just as our superheroes reveal our values and desires—the ability to fly, invisibility, strength, and the manipulation of physics among other things—Odin’s spells tell us what his people would have dreamed of doing.

Whether there’s a more abstract meaning to the list, related to number nine for example, is up to the reader to decide. I don’t know of one. As tempted as I am to draw metaphors for each of them, I have to point out that 1) I don’t think that would be canonical to the text, but rather another projection of modern desire; and 2) that I’ve been doing that all along with other verses, and finding the exercise supremely useful. We can only deal with our experiences through the many maps we have on hand, and I will never read Havamal as the author’s peers read it. Odin of all gods seems like he would approve of looking at things from new angles, applying them in new contexts, and seeking wisdom that fits our own world instead of dogmatic adherence to lines more than a thousand years old. However you choose to read it, our journey nears its end. There will be one more chance to wildly misinterpret things next week, or to gain a new perspective, as it may be.