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Introduction
What follows is a selection of proverbs from The Guest’s Wisdom, which Frederick York Powell traced to western Norway in the eighth century. He saw in their spirit something ‘essentially British’: a people steady and sturdy, fast in friendship and fair-minded, but a little grim, neither putting on airs, nor shirking the responsibilities of civilisation.
BLESSED is he who wins a good report and the favour of men: for it is hard to win over other men’s hearts.
Blessed is he who in his life enjoys good report and good advice: for many a man has suffered from another’s evil counsel.
No man can bear better baggage on his way than wisdom; in strange places it is better than wealth. It is the wretched man’s comfort.
A glib tongue, unless it be bridled, will often talk a man into trouble.
One’s own home is the best, though it be but a cottage. Though thou hast but two goats and a hut of hurdles,* yet that is better than begging.
Hotter than fire for five days flares friendship between ill friends; but when the sixth day comes it is slaked, and all friendliness turns sour.
A man is not utterly wretched though he have ill health; some men are blessed with sons, some with kindred, some with wealth, some with good deeds.
The halt may ride a horse; the handless may drive a herd; the deaf may fight and do well; better be blind than buried.
No man is so good but there is a flaw in him, nor so bad as to be good for nothing.*
* A hurdle is a panel made out of wattled withes (i.e. woven out of strips of bark or twig) and stakes, used for herding and penning livestock. The word comes from Old English hyrdel, meaning ‘temporary fence’. See a photo of a wattle hurdle at Wikimedia Commons.
* “We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy” wrote Edmund Burke (1729-1797) in 1770 “to think all men virtuous. We must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical to believe all the world to be equally wicked and corrupt.” Jane Austen, likewise, complained of novels where the protagonists were impossibly idealised — be they saints or sinners. “Do not oblige him to read any more” she wrote to Fanny Knight in 1817, speaking of a friend to whom Fanny had passed some of Jane’s novels. “Have mercy on him, tell him the truth & make him an apology. He & I should not in the least agree of course, in our ideas of Novels and Heroines; — pictures of perfection as you know make me sick & wicked — but there is some very good sense in what he says, & I particularly respect him for wishing to think well of all young Ladies; it shews an amiable & a delicate Mind.”
Précis
In this selection of proverbs from eighth-century Norse poetry, the author encourages the reader to be content with a simple lifestyle, preferring wisdom and a good reputation to wealth. Neither sickness nor disability should rob us of hope or ambition, but we should nonetheless be guarded in our speech, and cautious in choosing friends or advisers. (56 / 60 words)
In this selection of proverbs from eighth-century Norse poetry, the author encourages the reader to be content with a simple lifestyle, preferring wisdom and a good reputation to wealth. Neither sickness nor disability should rob us of hope or ambition, but we should nonetheless be guarded in our speech, and cautious in choosing friends or advisers.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, despite, if, just, may, ought, since, until.
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