Havamal

Sometimes I talk with pagan parents on message boards and such, about raising kids, imparting our values, and sharing our traditions with them. I don't get the feeling they find much use in my advice, but I give it anyway, feeling it's not harmful to expose them to our folkway a little. I always mention the Havamal, as it's a great introduction to the heathen worldview, and generally full of excellent advice. They almost invariably say "great, but my kid is only blah blah blah old, what can parents of younger kids do?" often mentioning a kid older than mine who they think would not benefit from hearing the lore. It's a shame, the lore if good for babies, for parents, for everyone. 

For my Germanic Heathen readers, our "lore" is obviously going to be the Eddas, sagas, and other folklore. For folks from other traditions, you will need to figure out for yourself what texts are foundational ones for you, but the point is don't sell your kids short by assuming some recent re-hash is better than reading an older version. There is great value in the "archaic" seeming elements included in older versions. We allow more of the ancestors to speak when we make the effort to seek the most archaic versions of our lores. Give your children the opportunity to become familiar with the voices of their ancestors, you owe them that.

We started right in at birth, reading the Eddas along with Grimm's "fairy tales" and more mainstream children's books. As soon as my girl was old enough to do patty-cake, we started doing Havamal verses patty cake. I'd read one stanza, repeat it, then we'd repeat it together doing patty cake until we got tired of that. This made patty cake more fun for me, and exposed her to both lore and some great vocabulary words. If you do old fashioned or Waldorf influenced home school activities this can be an easy activity for morning circle time. 

We kind of evolved one of the verses for our own use. Depending on your translation, it's between 15 and 20

Silence becomes the Son of a prince, 

To be silent but brave in battle: 

It befits a man to be merry and glad 

Until the day of his death,

or

Silent and thoughtful and bold in strife 
the prince's bairn should be. 
Joyous and generous let each man show him 
until he shall suffer death.

There are loads of other versions, you probably have a favorite. I don't really have a particular favorite of this one verse in particular, but our modified version is very useful to us. If the fact that it's a modern adaptation might upset you, please stop reading. 

The Chief's daughter should be:

Silent, Noble, 

Brave in Battle, 

and Cheerful

Until the day she dies. 

For each of these we also have a pose that we do, and we use this for focusing and regaining our composure whenever necessary. I believe in working with kids on self-control. 

The more you can control yourself, 

the less others will be able to control you. 

With that in mind, here's our little lesson:

SILENT

For Silent we place he palms together, one up one down, just below the chest. By silent we mean more than "don't talk" it means a heathen needs self-control, to silence both the body and the mind, to be still. Developing the ability to be truly still, or even an awareness of the utility of stillness is good for the developing character. 

NOBLE

For Noble we stand with the elbows bent, and palms up. Noble to us encompasses generosity, thoughtfulness, and good manners. Nobility of spirit motivates the heathen in that we are compelled to right action not through guilt or fear of external censure, but simply because our own inner nobility of spirit demands we do well. 

BRAVE IN BATTLE

For Brave in Battle we stand in what some heathens call Elhaz pose, arms fully up-stretched, up and out from the shoulders like a mighty tree, palms outwards. We liken this to the pose of the Valkyrie. The upright Elhaz is the Valkyrie facing outwards, the raven foot-print faces forward, when the Valkyrie stands between you and your foeman, no harm can come to you. (When the Valkyrie turns to face you, the raven foot-print in Elhaz inverted, death, she folds you into her cloak and carries you away from this world. ) This stance brings out our bravery, and we remind ourselves that if we need to cultivate bravery all the time, in everyday life, and if we can't be brave when facing all the little trials and difficulties of the day we have no hope of being brave in battle. We also note that bravery does NOT mean we don't feel afraid, it means that when we do feel afraid we stubbornly refuse to let fear control us. 

CHEERFUL

The Cheerful pose we take from Tai Chi, it's a beginning pose that encourages relaxed belly breathing. The right thumb rests on the navel, the left hand cups the right under the curve of the belly. Cheer is important for the Chief's daughter, it sets a good example. We can choose to be cheerful despite difficulties, even to defy difficulty and foemen, and I like the "until the day she dies" part for this - we remember that someday we will die, so let's do our best today, and every day until then. All we can do it our best. I find that cheerful. 

For those unfamiliar with the heathen lore, here are some Havamal links for you

Havamal in the Wikipedia

Havamal at Folklore & Mythology pages, divided into thematic sections (Olive Bray translation) 

Havamal at Ragweed Forge - a great place to buy Thor's Hammer pendants and throwing axes (Auden Taylor translation) 

Havamal at the Asatru Aliance page (Hollander translation) 

Havamal at Sacred Texts (Bellows transaltion) 

Havamol at Northvegr site (Thorpe translation)