Hávamál
Hávamál ( ; Old Norse: "Hávamál", , , ‘Words of Hávi [the High One]’) is presented as a single poem in the Codex Regius, a collection of Old Norse poems from the Viking age. The poem, itself a combination of numerous shorter poems, is largely gnomic, presenting advice for living, proper conduct and wisdom. It is considered an important source of Old Norse philosophy. The verses are attributed to Odin; the implicit attribution to Odin facilitated the accretion of various mythological material 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. Name. The Old Norse name "Hávamál" is a compound of the genitive form of "Hávi", which is the inflexionally weak form of Odin's name "Hár" ('High One'), and the plural noun "mál" (from older "mǫ́l"), and means 'Song (or Words) of the High One'. Textual history. The only surviving source for "Hávamál" is the 13th century Codex Regius, with the exception of two short parts . The part dealing with ethical conduct (the "Gestaþáttr") was traditionally identified as the oldest portion of the poem by scholarship in the 19th and early 20th century. Bellows (1936) identifies as the core of the poem a "collection of proverbs and wise counsels" which dates to "a very early time", but which, by the nature of oral tradition, never had a fixed form or extent. Klaus von See (1981) identifies direct influence of the "Disticha Catonis" on the "Gestaþáttr", suggesting that also this part is a product of the high medieval period and casting doubt on the "unadulterated Germanic character  of the poem claimed by earlier commentators. To the gnomic core of the poem, other fragments and poems dealing with wisdom and proverbs accreted over time. A discussion of authorship or date for the individual parts would be futile, since almost every line or stanza could have been added, altered or removed at will at any time before the poem was written down in the 13th century. Individual verses or stanzas nevertheless certainly date to as early as the 10th, or even the 9th century. Thus, the line deyr fé, deyja frændr" ("cattle die, kinsmen die") found in verses 76  and 77 of the "Gestaþáttr" can be shown to date to the 10th century, as it also occurs in the "Hákonarmál" by Eyvindr skáldaspillir. The "Hávamál" has been described as a 10th-century poem in some sources.