Sampling The Havamal; collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking age

I know this the tenth:
If I see the hedge-riders magically flying high,
I can make it so they go astray
Of their own skins, and of their own souls.
Nigel Pennick (Havamal, Complete Illustrated Guide to Runes, 2002)

A tenth I know, what time I see
House-riders flying on high;
So I can work, that wildly they go,
Showing their true shapes,
Hence to their own homes.
Henry Adams Bellows (Hovamol, verse 156, The Poetic Edda, 1936)

The verses are attributed to Odin; the implicit attribution to Odin facilitated the accretion of various mythological materials also dealing with the same deity.

For the most part composed in the metre ljóðaháttr, a metre associated with wisdom verse, Hávamál is both practical and philosophical in content. Following the gnomic "Hávamál proper" comes the Rúnatal, an account of how Odin won the runes, and the Ljóðatal, a list of magic chants or spells.

It has been interesting to read what is left of this history and see the connections to the legends we know today. I am feeling better informed about the history of magic with each new discovery. 

Day 39 of 366

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