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,
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 …
