CHAPTER VII.
THE "HAVAMAL" OLD NORTHERN ETHICS OF LIFE Then from his lips in music rolled The Havamal of Odin old, With sounds mysterious as the roar Of billows on a distant shore.
Perhaps many of you who read this little verse in Longfellow's "Saga of King Olaf" have wished to know what was this wonderful song that the ghost of the god sang to the king.

I am afraid that you would be very disappointed in some respects by the "Havamal." There is indeed a magical song in it; and it is this magical song especially that Longfellow refers to, a song of charms.

But most of the "Havamal" is a collection of ethical teaching.

All that has been preserved by it has been published and translated by Professors Vigfusson and Powell.

It is very old--perhaps the oldest Northern literature that we have.