The Wisdom Warrior

Wisdom of the North:
The Havamal

The majority of people today have never heard of the Havamal. I have spent many, many hours researching wisdom from different parts of the world only to find that, for the most part, wisdom is wisdom, whether it comes from Lao Tzu and his writings or whether it comes from Native American teachings. True wisdom is universal for the human race. This point brings me to a little book (poem) call the Havamal.

The Havamal is a Viking poem, but we could call it a little book of wisdom. The Havamal, written in AD 700-900, is one of the most popular of the Eddaic poems. The Eddas held the same value to the Vikings as the Vedas did/do to the Indian culture. You could say that the Havamal is a mixture of Latin proverbs and heathen wisdom. Too many people today are under the impression that they can only get true wisdom from their own culture or their own religion, and they miss out on the fact that there is universal wisdom that applies to all humans across the board.

Also called, the Wisdom of the North, the Havamal gives us insight into the pagan world of the Vikings. Some of the sayings are a bit hard to grasp for people today and some of the sayings go straight to the heart of the matter. I have tried to include only ones which are straightforward in this post.

Why have I decided to write about the Havamal in my blog which is mainly concerned with warrior values? The answer is simple, the Vikings were warriors and the ethics of the Havamal are above all rooted in the belief of the value of the individual. They believed that each individual was responsible for his own life, shaped his own fortune, and created the life that he wanted to live.

So, for all of my pagan readers, which I know that I have many, and all of my other readers who are open to true wisdom, no matter what the source, lean back in your comfy desk chair, couch, or bed, and enjoy the ancient wisdom of the Vikings…

1) A sage visitor is a silent guest. The cautious evades evil. Never a friend more faithful, nor great wealth, than wisdom.

2) The cautious guest who comes to the table speaks sparingly. Listen with ears, learns with eyes. Such is the seeker of knowledge.

3) It is dire luck to be dependent on the feelings of a fellow man.

4) Advice given by others is often ill counsel.

5) A clear head is good company. Drink is a dangerous friend.

6) At a feast the fool chatters or he stares and stammers. Just as soon as his jug is full, ale unveils his mind.

7) A man should drink in moderation…be sensible or silent.

8 ) A man of lean wisdom will never learn what his stomach can store.

9) He is unhappy and ill-tempered who meets all with mockery.

10) The unwise man is awake all night…worries over and again. When morning rises he is restless still, his burden as before.

11) The unwise man imagines a smiling face, a friend. Surprised to find how little support he musters at a meeting.

12) Often it’s best for the unwise man to sit in silence. His ignorance goes unnoticed unless he tells too much.

13) Much nonsense a man utters who talks without tiring.

14) They pass for wise who pass unnoticed.

15) Go you must. No guest shall stay in one place for ever. Love will be lost if you sit too long at a friends’s fire.

16) Never walk away from home ahead of your axe and sword. You can’t feel a battle in your bones or foresee a fight.

17) Be your friend’s true friend. Return gift for gift.

18) Beware of befriending an enemy’s friend.

19) A true friend whom you trust well and wish for his good will: Go to him often, exchange gifts and keep him company.

20) The brave and the generous have the best lives. They’re seldom sorry. The unwise man is always worried.

21) The best of lives is led by those who know the measure of many things.

22) A man listens thus he learns.

23) Wake early if you want another man’s life or land. No lamb for the lazy wolf. No battle’s won in bed.

24) One may know your secret, never a second. If three, a thousand will know.

25) A prudent man wields his power in modest measure.

26) Money often makes an ape of many a good man.

27) To give and take is a guarentee of lasting love.

28) Better a humble house than none. A man is master at home.

29) He is truly wise who’s traveled far and knows the ways of the world. He who has travelled can tell what spirit governs the men he meets.

30) Cattle die, kinsmen die, all men are mortal. Words of praise will never perish nor a noble name.

Cattle die, kinsmen die, all men die at some point and time,
but a noble name built on character and honor is eternal.
Live with honor my warrior friends…

Bohdi
Warrior Wisdom

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Warrior Wisdom Update!

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The Inferior Man
(aka the Fool)

I write a lot about the characteristics of the warrior and how the true warrior should think and act. There are specific traits that are common to the warrior. These traits are found in most warrior societies throughout the ages and are based on character, honor, integrity, filial duty, courage, self-discipline, and service to others. Although I realize that not everyone agrees with me concerning what makes one a warrior, I think that we can all pretty much agree that these traits are beneficial for people as a whole.

Just as there are specific traits that are found in the true warrior or the “true” human being, there are specific traits which are found in the antithesis of the warrior. In this case, I will simply call the antithesis of the warrior “the fool.” I think that even if we disagree as to what makes someone a true warrior, we can agree that the fool is pretty much the opposite of what we would look for in the warrior.

Sages in every era have discussed the characteristics of the fool. Different teachers have had different terms to refer to this less than noble creature, but throughout the ages, their descriptions of the fool have had a lot of commonalities. So instead of discussing more of the principles and characteristics of the true warrior, I thought it might be interesting to look at the subject from the other side of the coin, that of the fool. So, what are the characteristics of the fool? I’m so glad you asked…

The wise pursue understanding;
fools follow the reports of others.
Tibetan Proverb

Fools rejoice at promises.
Russian Proverb

A fool believes everything.
English Proverb

One wise man can feed a thousand fools;
one fool can scarcely feed himself.
Chinese Proverb

A fool will soon use up his money.
Japanese Proverb

Prejudice is the reason of fools.
Voltaire

Fools die fore the lack of judgment.
Proverbs

A fool spurns his father’s discipline.
Proverbs

A fool is busy in everyone’s business but his own.
English Proverb

A wise man changes his mind; a fool, never.
Spanish Proverb

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others
and to forget his own.
Cicero

A fool is pleased by beauty alone.
Russian Proverb

A fool becomes full of evil even if one gathers it little by little.
The Dhammapada

Pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Alexander Pope

Haste is the passion of fools.
Baltasar Gracian

The burnt fool’s bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the fire.
Rudyard Kipling

A fool, indeed, has great need of a title; it teaches men to call him count or duke,
and thus forget his proper name of fool.
John Crowne

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
William Blake

The inferior man is proud but not dignified.
Confucius

The first chapter of fools is to esteem themselves wise.
English Proverb

Learned fools are the greatest fools.
German Proverb

Every fool stands convinced; and everyone convinced is a fool;
and the faultier a man’s judgment, the firmer his convictions.
Baltasar Gracian

Wise men don’t need advice. Fools don’t take advice.
Benjamin Franklin

Counsel given to fools excites but does not pacify.
He who pours milk for a snake is only increasing its venom.
Nagarjuna

What is respected by the great is condemned by the lowly.
Sakya Pandit

The man who quarrels with facts is a fool.
Frank Garbutt

Most fools think they are only ignorant.
Benjamin Franklin

The foolish person seeks happiness in the distance.
James Oppenheim

To be like the parakeet, that says what he knows
but doesn’t know what he says.
Spanish Proverb

At a feast the fool chatters or he stares and stammers.
Just as soon as his jug is full, ale unveils his mind.
The Havamal

A fool is hotheaded and reckless.
Proverbs

To generalize is to be an idiot.
William Blake

Shallow men believe in luck.
Emerson

A fool has not enough in him to make a good man.
La Rochefoucauld

Hypocrisy, arrogance, vanity, anger, harshness, ignorance;
these characterize a man with foolish traits.
The Bhagavad Gita

Outside noisy, inside empty.
Chinese Proverb

Wise men talk because they have something to say;
Fools because they have to say something.
Plato

The smaller the mind the greater the conceit.
Aesop

Every fool wants to give advice.
Italian Proverb

A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
but delights in airing his own opinions.
Proverbs

A fool exposes his folly.
Proverbs

Change of weather is the discourse of fools.
Thomas Fuller

A wise man doesn’t know everything – only a fool does.
African Proverb

Fools regard themselves as already awake.
Chuang Tzu

The superior man stands in awe of the words of the sages.
The inferior man does not stand in awe of them;
He is disrespectful to important people;
He mocks the words of the sages.
Confucius

A fool’s talk brings a rod to his back.
Proverbs

Sweet words please fools.
Japanese Proverb

What is the purpose of all these quotes? Since the fool is the antithesis of the warrior, do the opposite of what the fool does. You don’t want to be like the fool, so when you see that something is a characteristic of the fool, work to remove that trait from your life. There are always consequences for every action. Dr. Frank Crane said it perfectly in the paragraph below:

“Every generation a new crop of fools comes on. They think they can beat the orderly universe. They conceive themselves to be more clever than the eternal laws. They snatch goods from Nature’s store, and run…And one by one they all come back to Nature’s counter, and pay – pay in tears, in agony, in despair; pay as fools before them have paid…Nature keeps books pitilessly. Your credit with her is good, but she collects; there is no land you can flee to and escape her bailiffs…She never forgets; she sees to it that you pay her every cent you owe, with interest.”

Fools have been and always will be the majority of mankind.
Denis Diderot

There is always a majority of fools.
Heraclitus

This is why the true warrior is such a rare man -
always has been…always will be

Bohdi
Warrior Wisdom

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Character Check

But here we may wonder what he would do
if nobody knew anything about it.
The Code of the Samurai

What would you do if you knew that there was absolutely no possibility that anyone else would ever find out about your actions? According to the Code of the Samurai this is a question that every warrior should ask himself. Would this fact change the way that you think about things or would you continue to live by the standards that you have set for yourself? This question is the true test of your character.

Circumstances reveal us to others and still more to ourselves.
La Rochefoucauld

A change in scenery does not change one’s character.
Aesop

Be as you wish to seem.
Socrates

The real warrior would live the same way and adhere to the same high standards whether anybody else knew about his actions or not. Even if all laws were abolished and we had a world of complete anarchy, his standards would not change. To men of character, their standards are not flexible. Their honor is not negotiable. Whether they are alone or in the middle of thousands of people, their character is set in stone.

Wise people, even though all laws were abolished, would still lead the same life.
Aristophanes

To the samurai, this question was an insinuation of hypocrisy. If a man is sincere about his beliefs and his code of ethics, he doesn’t just live by them on some occasions, but at other times he completely ignores them. He lives the life of the warrior seven day a week, regardless of who is watching or who is not watching. He doesn’t do the right thing in order to impress others, but to live up to his code of ethics.

What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.
Emerson

Many people appear to have upstanding moral character, when in reality, they are only looking out for their own good. Most people don’t go around robbing banks, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they are upstanding people. Are they not robbing banks because it is wrong, or are they not robbing banks because they fear the consequences of being caught and put in prison? The result is the same; they don’t rob banks, but the principle behind the action is as different as night and day.

It is not enough to make something look good.
The underlying principle must be good.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Virtue is more clearly shown in the performance of fine actions
than in the nonperformance of base ones.
Aristotle

Would these same people choose to rob the bank if there were no law? Would they steal from others if they knew no one would ever know about it? This is the same principle as we find in the story about the millionaire who propositioned a lady at a party. The millionaire asked the lady, “Would you sleep with me for 1 million dollars?” The lady smiled and said, “That’s a lot of money…of course I would!” Then the millionaire said, “Would you sleep with me for $20?” The lady became offended and said, “What do you think I am, a whore or something?” The millionaire said, “We have already established that my dear. Now we are only haggling over price.”

Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
George Washington

Keep a check on your character. Ask yourself, “What would I do if nobody else knew about it?” Be honest… What would you do if you knew that you absolutely could not get in any trouble for your actions or that there would be no consequences for your actions whatsoever? When you have truly figured out the answer to this question, you will have discovered the extent of your character.

Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice.
Aristotle

Bohdi
Warrior Wisdom

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