136. At a hoary speaker laugh thou never; often is good that which the aged utter, oft from a shriveled hide discreet words issue; from those whose skin is pendent and decked with scars, and who go tottering among the vile.
137. I counsel thee, etc. Rail not at a guest, nor from thy gate thrust him; treat well the indigent; they will speak well of thee.
138. Strong is the bar that must be raised to admit all. Do thou give a penny, or they will call down on thee every ill in thy limbs.
139. I counsel thee, etc. Wherever thou beer drinkest, invoke to thee the power of earth; for earth is good against drink, fire for distempers, the oak for constipation, a corn-ear for sorcery, a hall for domestic strife. In bitter hates invoke the moon; the biter for bite-injuries is good; but runes against calamity; fluid let earth absorb.
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Odin is the "High One." The poem is a collection of rules and maxims, and stories of himself, some of them not very consistent with our ideas of a supreme deity.
[15] In the Copenhagen paper Ms. F. this strophe begins with the following three lines:—
Wit is needful
to him who travels far:
harm seldom befalls the wary:
They are printed in the Stockholm edition of the original Afzelius and Bask, and in the Swedish translation by Afzelius.
[16] The sense of this line seems doubtful; I have adopted the version of Finn Magnusen.