ᚩ ᛭ ᛉ ᛭ ᛟ

10 Sayings from Odin: Medieval Norse Wisdom from the Hávamál

Then Treebeard said farewell to each of them in turn, and he bowed three times slowly and with great reverence to Celeborn and Galadriel. "It is long, long since we met by stock or by stone, A vanimar, vanimálion nostari!" he said. "It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again."

“Beautiful things comfort; they bring a real clarity and ease. We have to continue to make our environments beautiful - it’s sort of like a prayer. If you surround yourself with beautiful things, you have a better life - one with more oxygen.”

“There is a certain monotony about mankind. Most people toil during the greater part of their lives in order to live, and the slender span of free time that remains worries them so much that they try by every means to get rid of it. O Destiny of Man!”

The best thing about time passing is the privilege of running out of it, of watching the wave of mortality break over me and everyone I know. No more time, no more potential. The privilege of ruling things out. Finishing. Knowing I'm finished. And knowing time will go on without me. Look at me, dancing my little dance for a few moments against the background of eternity.

…the evening light quickly faded, for the sky was obscured by forest canopy and his surroundings unfamiliar. His new-found confidence waned. Was this the path back to the village? It seemed now transformed, as if he walked a shadowed basilica, some edifice of darkening jade, resonant with the voice of the autumn wind.