Tricked

91 I can speak frankly since I have known both:
men’s hearts are fickle towards women;
when we speak most fairly, then we think most falsely,
that entraps the wise mind.

92 He has to speak fairly and offer precious things,
the man who wants a lady’s love;
praise the body of the radiant woman:
he who flatters, gets.

93 No man should ever reproach
another for being in love;
often the wise man is seized, when the foolish man is not,
by a desire-arousing appearance.

94 Not at all should one man reproach another
for what is common among men;
among men’s sons the wise are made into fools
by that mighty force: desire.

95 The mind alone knows what lies near the heart,
he is alone with his spirit;
no sickness is worse for the sensible man
than to find no contentment in anything.

96 That I found when I sat among the reeds
and waited for my beloved;
body and soul the shrewd girl was to me,
nonetheless I didn’t win her.

97 Billing’s girl I found on the bed,*
sleeping, sun-radiant;
no nobleman’s pleasure could I imagine
except to live beside that body.

98 ‘Towards evening, Odin, you should come again,
if you want to talk a girl round;
all will be lost unless only we know
of such shamelessness together.’

99 Back I turned, and thought that I loved,
turned back from my certain pleasure;
this I thought: that I would have
all her heart and her love-play.

100 When next I came, all the keen
warrior-band were awake,
with burning torches and barricading wood:
such a wretched path was determined for me.

101 And near morning, when I came again,
then the hall-company were asleep;
a bitch I found then tied on the bed
of that good woman.

102 Many a good girl when you know her well
is fickle of heart towards men;
I found that out, when I tried to seduce
that sagacious woman into shame;
every degradation the clever woman devised for me,
and I got nothing from the girl at all.

103 At home a man should be cheerful and merry with his guest,
he should be shrewd about himself,
with a good memory and eloquent, if he wants to be very wise,
often should he speak of good things;
a nincompoop that man is called, who can’t say much for himself,
that is the hallmark of a moron.


- Poetic Edda, Havamal


("Billing’s girl: this story is unknown from other sources, though the sequence of events is not difficult to follow. Odin importunes the wife or daughter of Billing (probably a giant). She puts him off until the evening; when he first comes to her hall everyone is still awake, the second time she has gone, leaving a bitch in her place. It seems likely that Billing’s girl fears to reject Odin openly lest he bewitch her as he does Rind, who was fated to be the mother of Vali, avenger of Baldr. Her story is told in Saxo’s History of the Danish People, Book III, pp. 69–79." - from the Explanatory Notes section included with the translation)