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The Poetic Edda: Hovamol · 6 of 16 · tr. Henry Adams Bellows

Section 1f

Fire for men | is the fairest gift, And power to see the sun; Health as well, | if a man may have it, And a life not stained with sin. 69. All wretched is no man, | though never so sick; Some from their sons have joy, Some win it from kinsmen, | and some from their wealth, And some from worthy works. 70. It is better to live | than to lie a corpse, The live man catches the cow; I saw flames rise | for the rich man's pyre, And before his door he lay dead. 71. The lame rides a horse, | the handless is herdsman, The deaf in battle is bold; The blind man is better | than one that is burned, No good can come of a corpse. [70. The manuscript has "and a worthy life" in place of "than to lie a corpse" in line I, but Rask suggested the emendation as early as 1818, and most editors have followed him.] p. 43 72. A son is better, | though late he be born, And his father to death have fared; Memory-stones | seldom stand by the road Save when kinsman honors his kin. 73. Two make a battle, | the tongue slays the head; In each furry coat | a fist I look for. 74. He welcomes the night | whose fare is enough, (Short are the yards of a ship,) Uneasy are autumn nights; Full oft does the weather | change in a week, And more in a month's time. 75. A man knows not, | if nothing he knows, That gold oft apes begets; One man is wealthy | and one is poor, Yet scorn for him none should know. 76. Among Fitjung's sons | saw I well-stocked folds,-- Now bear they the beggar's staff; [73-74. These seven lines are obviously a jumble. The two lines of stanza 73 not only appear out of place, but the verse form is unlike that of the surrounding stanzas. In 74, the second line is clearly interpolated, and line I has little enough connection with lines 3, 4 and 5. It looks as though some compiler (or copyist) had inserted here various odds and ends for which he could find no better place. 75. The word "gold" in line 2 is more or less conjectural, the manuscript being obscure. The reading in line 4 is also doubtful.] p. 44 Wealth is as swift | as a winking eye, Of friends the falsest it is. 77. Cattle die, | and kinsmen die, And so one dies one's self; But a noble name | will never die, If good renown one gets. 78. Cattle die, | and kinsmen die, And so one dies one's self; One thing now | that never dies, The fame of a dead man's deeds. 79. Certain is that | which is sought from runes, That the gods so great have made, And the Master-Poet painted; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . of the race of gods: Silence is safest and best. 80. An unwise man, | if a maiden's love Or wealth he chances to win, [76. in the manuscript this stanza follows 79, the order being: 77, 78, 76, 80, 79, 81. Fitjung ("the Nourisher"): Earth. 79. This stanza is certainly in bad shape, and probably out of place here. Its reference to runes as magic signs suggests that it properly belongs in some list of charms like the Ljothatal (stanzas 147-165).
Themes
◆Ancestor Venerationpraxis

Ritual maintenance of relationship with the dead as ongoing presences whose favour is cultivated and whose offence is propitiated. Shinto uji-gami and obon, Norse disir and the alfablot, Celtic samhain and the feast for the deceased, Roman lares and parentalia, Chinese ancestor rites, Vedic śrāddha. Practice-coded rather than belief-coded: distinct from soul_migration (cosmological doctrine of soul-transmigration) and theosis_deification (deification trajectory); ancestor_veneration centres the living's ongoing ritual obligation to the dead.

Stanza 72 explicitly describes the practice of honoring kin through memory-stones after death, aligning with the ritual maintenance of relationships with the dead.

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◆Animismcosmology

The doctrine and worldview that natural phenomena, places, and objects possess inherent spirit, soul, or personality — and that the cosmos is populated by countless local, plural, embodied divine agents: kami in mountain and tree, sidhe in cairn and well, landwights in field and stone, nymphs in spring and grove, haltija in forest and lake, lares and penates in household and threshold, Iamblichean daemons in element and place. Distinct from monotheism (single transcendent God), pantheism (one underlying substance), and emanation_hierarchy (cascading single source); animism's signature is the plurality, locality, and embodied-in-landscape character of the divine.

Stanza 76 refers to 'Fitjung's sons' (Earth/Nourisher), personifying the natural world as having kin and agency consistent with an animistic worldview.

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◆Hidden Sayingssoteriology

Esoteric teachings reserved for those ready to receive them; outer meaning conceals an inner liberating truth.

The advice to keep silence regarding runes in Stanza 79 suggests that this knowledge is esoteric and reserved for those who understand its danger.

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◆Inner Silencepraxis

The practice of stilling the mind and speech to open receptivity to divine knowledge or presence.

Stanza 79 concludes with the advice that 'Silence is safest and best,' suggesting a practice of withholding speech for safety or spiritual prudence.

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◆Living Godtheology

The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.

Stanza 79 attributes the creation of runes to 'gods so great,' depicting the divine as active agents in the world rather than abstract principles.

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◆Renunciation Of Wealthethics

The spiritual danger of attachment to material possessions; wealth as a spiritual obstacle.

Stanzas 75 through 78 repeatedly emphasize the transience of wealth and cattle compared to the enduring value of a noble name, warning against attachment to material possessions.

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◆Ritual Firepraxis

Fire as medium of divine presence.

Stanza 69 identifies fire as the fairest gift to men, and Stanza 70 references funeral pyres, indicating fire's sacred and ritual significance in this context.

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◆Word Power Incantationpraxis

The doctrine and practice that spoken or sung word carries causal-magical force — that uttering names, formulas, songs, or incantations alters reality directly rather than merely communicating about it. Vainamoinen's runo-songs that move mountains and command iron, Norse galdr, Vedic mantra, Shinto kotodama, the magician's barbarous names in the Greek Magical Papyri, Iamblichean arcane signatures and inexplicable symbols, biblical creation-by-word. Distinct from sacred_names (the ontological power of names themselves) and prayer (address to the divine); word_power_incantation is the magical-causal efficacy of the spoken word as such.

Stanza 79 references runes made by the gods that are sought for certainty, implying the magical or causal power inherent in these written/spoken symbols.

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Related passages · 1 parallel
◆taoism|The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters)|Book 128 (part 6)
“There is the great Mass (of nature);--I find the support of my body in it; my life is spent in toil on it; my old age seeks ease on it; at death I find rest on it:--what has made my life a good will make my death also a good. 'Here now is…”
Both passages explore themes of life, death, and the value of a good reputation or spiritual understanding. The Poetic Edda emphasizes the importance of a noble name and the transient nature of material wealth, while the Taoist passage discusses the acceptance of life and death as natural processes and the idea of finding ease and rest in the natural order.