Eighteen Spells

146 I know those spells which a ruler’s wife doesn’t know,
nor any man’s son;
‘help’ one is called,
and that will help you against
law-suits and sorrows
and every sort of anxiety.

147 I know a second one which the sons of men need,
those who want to live as physicians.

148 I know a third one if there’s great need for me
that my furious enemies are fettered;
the edges of my foes I can blunt,
neither weapons nor cudgels will bite for them.

149 I know a fourth one if men put
bonds upon my limbs;
I can chant so that I can walk away,
fetters spring from my feet,
and chains from my hands.

150 I know a fifth if I see, shot in malice,
an arrow fly amid the army:
it cannot fly so hard that I cannot hinder it
if I see it with my eyes.

151 I know a sixth one if a man wounds me
using roots of the sap-filled wood:
and that man who conjured to harm me,
the evil consumes him, not me.

152 I know a seventh one if I see towering flames
in the hall about my companions:
it can’t burn so widely that I can’t counteract it;
I know the spells to chant.

153 I know an eighth one, which is most useful
for everyone to acquire;
where hatred flares up between the sons of warriors,
then I can quickly bring settlement.

154 I know a ninth one if I am in need,
if I must save my ship when afloat;
the wind I can quieten upon the wave
and lull all the sea to sleep.

155 I know a tenth one if I see witches
playing up in the air;
I can bring it about that they wander astray
from their shapes left at home,
from their minds left at home.

156 I know an eleventh if I have to lead
long-loyal friends into battle;
under the shields I chant, and they journey confidently,
safely to the battle,
safely from the battle,
safely they come back from everywhere.

157 I know a twelfth one if I see, up in a tree,
a dangling corpse in a noose:
I can so carve and colour the runes
that the man walks
and talks with me.

158 I know a thirteenth if I must pour water
over a young warrior:
he will not fall though he goes into battle,
before swords that man will not sink.

159 I know a fourteenth if I have to reckon up
the gods before a group of men:
of Æsir and elves, I know every detail,
few who are not wise know that.

160 I know a fifteenth, which the dwarf Thiodrerir
chanted before Delling’s doors:
power he sang for the Æsir and advancement for the elves,
thoughtfulness to Hroptatyr.

161 I know a sixteenth if I want to have all
a clever woman’s heart and love-play:
I can turn the thought of the white-armed woman
and change her mind entirely.

162 I know a seventeenth, so that any young woman
will scarcely want to shun me.
Of these spells, Loddfafnir,
you will long be in want;
though they’d be good for you, if you get them,
useful if you learn them,
handy, if you have them.

163 I know an eighteenth, which I shall never teach
to any girl or any man’s wife—
it’s always better when just one person knows,
that follows at the end of the spells—
except that one woman who embraces me in her arms,
or who may be my sister.

164 Now the High One’s song is recited, in the High One’s hall
very useful to the sons of men,
quite useless to the sons of men,
luck to him who recited, luck to him who knows!
May he benefit, he who learnt it,
luck to those who listened!


- Poetic Edda, Havamal