The Poetic Edda

Do you know how to cut them, know how to stain them,

Know how to read them how to understand?

Do you know how to evoke them, how to send them,

Know how to offer, know how to ask?

It is better not to offer than to offer too much

For a gift demands a gift,

Better not to slay than to slay too many.

Thus did Odin speak before the earth began

When he rose up in after time.

These runes I know, unknown to kings’ wives

Or any earthly man.

‘Help’ one is called,

For help is its gift,

and helped you will be

In sickness and care and sorrow.

Another I know;  which all will need

Who would study leechcraft.

On the bark scratch them, on the bole of trees

Whose boughs bend to the east.

I know a third

If my need be great in battle

It dulls the swords of deadly foes,

Neither wiles nor weapons wound me

And I go all unscathed …

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Joanne Walmsley       Sacred Scribes