Proverbs of the Northmen, from Eddic (Norse) Poetry

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HE that knows nought else knows this, many are befooled by riches. One is wealthy, another needy, never blame a man for that.*

He is no friend who only speaks to please.

A fool is awake all night worrying about everything; when the morning comes he is worn out, and all his troubles just as before.

A fool, when he comes among men, ’tis best he hold his peace. No one can tell that he knows nothing unless he talks too much.

Middling wise should every man be, never over-wise. Those who know many things fairly lead the happiest life.

No man should blame another in matters of love; never blame a man for what is all men’s weakness.

The man who will win a lady’s grace should speak fair and offer gifts and praise the fair maid’s form. He that woos will win.

‘Give’ and ‘give back’ make the longest friends. Give not overmuch; I got a comrade with half a loaf and the last drops of my cup.*

Tell one man but not two; what three know all the world knows.

Be not a guest ever in the same house.* Welcome becomes wearisome if he sit too long at another’s table.

from Eddic (Norse) Poetry 8th century

abridged

Abridged from ‘The Poetry of the Old Northern Tongue’ (1883), by Guðbrandur Vigfússon (1827-1889) and Frederick York Powell (1850-1904). With reference also to ‘Scandinavian Britain’ (1908), by William Gershom Collingwood (1854-1932) and Frederick York Powell (1850-1904).

* See also Rudyard Kipling’s paean to stoic indifference, ‘If...’.

* See King Alfred and the Beggar.

* “My father used to say / Superior people never make long visits” wrote American poetess Marianne Moore (1887-1972) in Silence (1924). It was a phrase she had picked up from Amy Morris Homans (1848-1933), a distinguished professor of Hygiene and Physical Education at Wellesley College.

Précis

We should not pass judgment on the prosperity or foibles of others — though a mere flatterer is no friend. Trying to be too clever is exhausting, and our conversation will betray us anyway. Friends, like lovers, are won slowly by kind words and little gifts, but carelessly whispering secrets and trespassing on their hospitality are sure ways to lose them.

Questions for Critics

1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?

2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?

3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?

Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.

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