Ætt 3 · Pos. 7
Name
A gift, and the giving of it.
Meaning
A gift is never only given. In the English poem a gift raises the giver’s standing and sustains the one who has nothing. Hávamál adds that every gift expects one in return, and that friendships last longest where gifts go both ways. Giving makes a bond, and the bond is the point. It holds everything together: friends and kin, leaders and followers, and people and the powers they offer to. In Rúnatál a sacrifice to the Æsir follows the same rule. Life itself began as a gift. In Völuspá, the Norns give the shape of a person’s life, and the Æsir give the ability to act within it.
The poems
English Rune Poem
Gift is, for people,
an honour and praise,
a support and worth;
and for every outcast
help and a living,
when he has nothing else.
