Raising stones by the wayside
Published: Mon, 12/09/19
Stones seldom stand by the roads unless raised by kin for kin.
Havamal stanza 72, translation by James Allen Chisholm
In June 2001 I delivered the eulogy at my father’s funeral. The event was held at Finchley Methodist church where my parents had worshiped for over 30 years and the place was full. I quoted this stanza without meaning it to be taken too literally. The writer of the Havamal is referring to the impressive rune stones which still exist in Sweden to this day, and very fine memorials they are. I don’t imagine we would have got planning permission to erect such a monument in Finchley High Street. Instead I invited the congregation to raise the stone for my father in their hearts and keep his memory alive that way.
I am thinking about this verse again today as our baby is due to be delivered tomorrow. Some complications which mean that an elective cesarean section delivery is considered to be the safest way of bringing our baby into the world. If all goes to plan by tomorrow afternoon we will be parents of a very new baby.
The line about a son born late strikes home as I am certainly going to be a late father. I should add that we don’t know if it is a girl or boy and I will be as delighted with a daughter as with a son. I also intend to be around for quite a long time yet although I may well not see grandchildren just as my father never met the grandchild Venetia and I will give him. That is okay, a central theme in the Havamal is that life can be tough, difficult, and dangerous but being alive is a lot better than being dead, so brace up and make the most of it while you are here. Another verse reminds us that even if we avoid the risk of battle we are still going to die one day of old age. Yet another suggests that we will sleep better when we do not know too much about our eventual fate.
I have been paying particular attention to the Eddas recently because I am putting together a new Foundation Programme which will run to 24 modules. The first three have gone out to my existing members and I am working on the 4th one now. I intend to have it ready to send out next week. The new programme is a development on the 9 module sequence I started on last year and I am applying everything I learned from creating and sharing the first one. At the moment I am just proving to myself that I can successfully create the first 4 modules. In the new year I will offer it more widely.
regards
Graham
PS People keep telling me that having a baby changes everything. I should soon know if they are right or not. In the meantime I realise that I need to be more systematic in the way I write and send these posts. From now on I will aim to do two a week, Monday morning and then Wednesday or Thursday. On Mondays I will share a pre-Gutenberg (before the printing press) quote (maybe from the Eddas but not exclusively) with some thoughts on it. Later in the week I will write a response to something that has inspired me to think and what you might take away from it. I am currently reading Mongomery’s memoirs which are very interesting and I am getting a lot of ideas.