Anonymous, Hávamál

Jackson Crawford (University of Colorado at Boulder)

Ed. by Ármann Jakobsson, University of Iceland
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.3.4: Icelandic Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Ármann Jakobsson (University of Iceland), Kjerstin Moody (Gustavus Adolphus College), Sven Hakon Rossel (Universitat Wien), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College London)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1300

Places

Iceland (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem

Resources

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Hávamál is the title given in the Konungsbók manuscript (p. 3r) to an Old Icelandic poem appearing on pages 3r-7v. The title contains mál [speech, words] common in the titles of poems composed in ljóðaháttr meter (as Hávamál largely is), and Háva, conventionally read as the weak masculine genitive singular of Hár [high], a name of the god Óðinn known from Gylfaginning. Thus, the title is “Speech of the High One”, i.e. “Óðinn’s Speech”. It is not clear at what point in the poem’s transmission, or in what form, this title was originally applied to it; it might be as late an invention as to be the Konungsbók editor’s, or whoever created the last stanza in this collection, which in one line echoes it: “Nú eru Háva mál kveðin” [Now the words of the High…

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3378 words

Citation: Crawford, Jackson. "Hávamál". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 October 2023 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40967, accessed 27 July 2024.]

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