00:01:09.300and forms the basis of the present poem.
00:01:12.880To it, however, were added other poems and fragments dealing with wisdom,
00:01:17.380which seemed by their nature to imply that the speaker was Odin.
00:01:21.160Thus, a catalog of runes or charms was tacked on,
00:01:24.480and also a set of proverbs, differing essentially in form from those comprising the main collection.
00:01:32.160Here and there, bits of verse more neatly narrative crept in, and of course, the loose
00:01:36.960structure of the poem made it easy for an eerciter to insert new stanzas almost at will.
00:01:42.640This curious miscellany is what we now have as the Havamor.
00:01:47.980Five separate elements are pretty clearly recognizable.
00:01:50.940The Havamal Proper, stanzas 1-80, a collection of proverbs and counsels for the conduct of life.
00:01:57.880The Lodfavsnismal, stanzas 111-138, a collection of somewhat similar to the first,
00:02:06.140but specific ally addressed to a certain Lodfavnir.
00:02:12.080The Lodfavnir, stanzas 147-165, a collection of charms.
00:02:18.980The love story of Odin and Billing's daughter, stanzas 96-102, with an introductory dissertation on the faithfulness of women in general, stanzas 81-95,
00:02:34.920which probably crept into the first poem and then pulled the story as an apt illustration after it.
00:02:41.180and the story of how Odin got the meat of poetry, the draught, which gave him the gift of tongues from the maiden Gunloth, in stanzas 103-110.
00:02:54.180There is also a brief passage, stanzas 139-146, telling how Odin won the runes, this passage being a natural introduction to the Lothothar, and that was brought into the poem for that reason.
00:03:09.180It is idle to discuss the authorship or date of such a series of accretions at this.
00:03:16.400Parts of it are doubtless among the oldest relics of ancient Germanic poetry.
00:03:20.620Parts of it may have originated at a relatively late period.
00:03:24.160Probably however, most of its component elements go pretty far back, although we have no way
00:03:29.360of telling how or when they first became associated.
00:03:33.080It seems all but meaningless to talk about interpolations in a poem which has developed
00:03:38.920almost solely through the process of piecing together originally unrelated objects and ends.
00:03:45.160The notes, therefore, make only such suggestions as are needed to keep the main divisions of the poem distinct.
00:03:51.920Few gnomic collections in the world's literary history present sounder wisdom more tersely expressed than the Hovemog.
00:03:59.560Like the Book of Proverbs, it occasionally rises to lofty heights of poetry.0.84
00:04:04.460If it presents the worldly wisdom of a violent race, it also shows noble ideals of loyalty, truth, and unfaltering courage.0.99