The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/old-icelandic/page/2)
Maybe it’s not such a great idea to turn to writers from 1,000, or 2,000, or 3,000 years before the United Nations publicly published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for teachings on the universality of human rights.
Lyonel Perabo reviews Jackson Crawford’s “The Wanderer’s Havamal,” a translation of the Old Norse wisdom poem alongside several additional texts.
We, the people, are down here under the massive roots of the World Tree. In this vision, we are not at the center of creation. We are not even at the center of attention.
Karl E.H. Seigfried delves into the ways we interpret and misinterpret the texts that shape our lives – whether those texts are Old Icelandic poems or the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“The earth rotates around an axis drawn from the south pole, through the planet, out the north pole, and up to the pole star. With a bit of imagination, diagrams of this world axis show a trunk with roots in the earth and the pole star at the top of the leader. Old Icelandic poetry tells us of the mighty measuring tree. The growth and life of this tree parallel the growth and life of this world, and none know where to find the beginning point of its roots.”
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