List of Old Norse proverbs

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Contents

[edit] A

  • A cleaved head no longer plots.
  • A farm of your own is better, even if small. Everyone's someone at home. Though he has two goats and a coarsely roofed house, that is better than begging.
  • A gift should be repaid with a like one.
  • A head stuck on a pike no longer conspires.
  • A lying tongue had bereft him of life, and all without reason of right.
  • A man who has his feet hacked off cannot scurry far.
  • A wise man's heart is seldom cheerful.
  • About his intelligence no man should be boastful, rather cautious of mind.
  • At every doorway, ere one enters, one should spy round.

[edit] B

  • Be neither a shoemaker nor a shaftmaker for anyone but yourself.
  • Brawl with a pig and you go away with his stink.

[edit] C

  • Cattle die, kinsmen die; the self must also die. I know one thing which never dies: the reputation of each dead man.

[edit] D

  • Deceit sleeps with greed.

[edit] E

  • Even three words of quarrelling you shouldn't have with an inferior.

[edit] F

  • Fear the reckoning of those you have wronged.
  • From his weapons on the open road, no man should step one pace away.

[edit] G

  • Generous and brave men live the best.

[edit] H

  • Happy is he who hath in himself praise and wisdom in life.
  • He hath need of his wits who wanders wide.

[edit] I

  • If haply a fool should find for himself wealth or a woman's love, pride waxes in him but wisdom never, and onward he fares in his folly.
  • In sweet converse call the righteous to thy side; learn a healing song while thou livest.
  • It is best to search while the trail is new.
  • It is the still and silent sea that drowns a man.

[edit] L

  • Less good than they say for the sons of men is the drinking oft of ale: for the more they drink, the less they know about the nature of men.
  • Let none put faith in the first sown field.
  • Let the wary stranger who seeks refreshment keep silent with sharpened hearing.

[edit] M

  • Many a good girl when you know her better is fickle of heart towards men.
  • Men have often received bad advice from another's heart.

[edit] N

  • No better burden can a man carry on the road than a store of common sense.
  • No friend is he who but flatters.
  • No more trustworthy a friend can any man get than a store of common sense.

[edit] O

  • One man becomes wise by talking with another, but foolish by taciturnity.
  • One who sees his friends roasted on a spit tells all he knows.

[edit] P

  • Praise day at even, a wife when dead, a weapon when tried, a maid when married, ice when 'tis crossed, and ale when 'tis drunk.
  • Put to the sword those that disagree.

[edit] R

  • Repay treachery with lies.
  • Rise never at nighttime, except if thou art spying.

[edit] S

  • Seek not ever to draw to thyself in love-whispering another's wife.
  • So shall she charm that thou shalt not heed the council, or words of the king.

[edit] T

  • Tell not ever an evil man if misfortunes thee befall.
  • The foolish man lies awake all night thinking of his many problems. When the morning comes he is worn out, and his trouble is just as it was.
  • The foolish man thinks he knows everything if he takes refuge in a corner. He doesn't know what he can say in return if people ask him questions.
  • The foolish man thinks he will live forever if he keeps away from fighting; but old age won't grant him a truce, even if the spears do.
  • The lame runs if he has to.
  • The lowest fence is the easiest to get across.
  • The madman often tells the truth.
  • The man that walks his own road, walks alone.
  • The shame you cannot lift away, you had better let lie.
  • The slumbering wolf does not get the ham.
  • The speech of a maiden should no man trust, nor the words which a woman says; for their hearts were shaped on a whirling wheel, and falsehood fixed in their breasts.
  • The summer moments always pass quickly.
  • The wolf and the dog do not play together.
  • There is mingling in friendship when man can utter all his whole mind to another.
  • There is naught so vile as a fickle tongue.
  • Thou should never sleep in the arms of a sorceress, lest she lock thy limbs.
  • To be without silver is better than to be without honour.
  • Two heads cut off and thrown high into the tree have only the winds with which to scheme.

[edit] W

  • When we speak most fairly, then we think most falsely.
  • Where you recognise evil, speak out against it, and give no truces to your enemies.
  • With his ears let him listen, and look with his eyes; thus each wise man spies out the way.
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