The Wanderer's Havamal

I have found a lot of value in this book, and Dr Crawford's translations and explanations on pronunciation and meaning make this text easily understandable. The Cowboy Havamal is great too for imparting the same wisdom in a more modern light. My only issue with this translation is my favorite verse is from an older translation: "A coward thinks he'll ever live if he keeps himself from strife; but, he'll find no peace in his old age though spears may spare his life." Dr Crawford's translation doesn't always rhyme, but his translation makes it FAR more easily understandable than any previous translations. I really enjoy reciting the Old Norse along with the English translation to memorize my favorite verses. His explanation in the book and youtube videos are great at teaching proper pronunciation. Whether you're philosophically pagan or not: This is an amazing poem, full of wisdom, and Dr Crawford's translation is extremely understandable. You can even check out his youtube channel to hear him read and explain it for free. I get almost all my books from Thrift stores; but, I bought this brand new, and I am glad I did. I have 20+ sticky notes in it and regularly revisit it.

Great book by the legend Jackson Crawford.

Highly recommend this book!!! I have read multiple versions of Hávamál and by far The Wanderers Hávamál is the most well written, easiest to understand for modern English speakers and most free flowing version of come across. Great book, enjoyable read, resources abundant.

Wonderful translation and love the additional comments as well as translation on right side with original text on the left page. This may be my most favorite book I’ve ever owned. Thank you, Jackson Crawford.

This is easy enough to read and follow for a child. If you're into theology it's a good book to have in your library It came well packaged, printed nicely, and it's a proud addition to my collection

I love Jackson's work, and the Hávamál is such a great and interesting read.

My son is very pleased with this book I got him for his birthday. He is fairly picky as he is very intelligent and passionate about history and so was thrilled that he got 2 books both authored by Jackson Crawford.

I love The Wanderer's Havamal. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the ethics of Vikings. Crawford's translation is crystal clear and his introduction is helpful in providing a foundation for understanding the poem. It almost reads like a sort of Viking book of scripture, laying out what a man should and shouldn't do. But the reader soon realizes that it never seems to be saying "you need to do this or that because regardless of the consequences to you it's the intrinsically moral action," it's more hard nosed than that. The Havamal told its readers what its author (or authors) thought would be beneficial to them in a very hard headed and practical way. One stanza provides advice on how to attack your enemy so you can take his stuff, another tells you how to milk a friendship for your own benefit when you don't actually trust the friend. Other stanzas include advice that a modern liberal reader can agree with. The mix is interesting. This book was written for people who had a very different culture, but are still recognizable in many ways. I also enjoyed The Cowboy's Havamal included at the end of the book. This poem puts the ideas of the Havamal into the language of Crawford's cowboy grandfather. It's funny how tweaking the language a bit makes the sometimes alien ideas included in the Old Norse Havamal seem more relatable.

I really enjoy it!

In my opinion there is a lack of good havamal translations especially in The Netherlands. They are either non-explainatory (why or how they translated it), non-accurate, too simple written or copied by people who have no background in norse studies thus making all kind of small mistakes. Because there are not many correct versions the margin of error is pretty high people who are into norse will pick up small mistakes easily. The main difference between this version and other version (from different authors) is that they do not have academic backgrounds. You do not need to have an academic background to come up with knowledge or skill but you notice it in writing style/grammar. You can clearly see jackson's accurate way of presenting information, crisp, clear and really short in any way it does get the message across. The font, lettersize, formulation, spaces and layout is highly efficient but also kind of old school. The size of the book and pages are the right size especially when it comes to text vs page size ratio. Basically it hit the golden mean for me, most pocket size books are way too small. The cover design/artwork and cover itself is also well done First the translation is explained why this one differs from other ones, which corrections are added. Also the grammar and tonality/pronouncation is described. This is all explained in short presentation format without making it too complex. One can also skip details and go straight to the stanza's. At the left pages are the stanza's in old norse and on the right size in english, i'm not an ezpert but they seem highly correct (in my opinion). At the end there are also cowboy stanza's which is basically wisdom from his elder family as a bonus, i wish more academics do such things it add more soul to a book. Of course stanza's should never be picked at face value both spiritually and philosophically. It's obviously that norse gods, egyptian gods are linked and others are linked indirectly. The eye of Odin and the eye of Horus is linked to the 3th eye or pineal gland (gland of conciousness, eye of wisdom). Hanging on the tree for 9 nights is astrological, the spear is also a sun symbol. The number 9 is a sacred number which stands for inifinity. 9 is also the number of birth it takes 9 months to give birth. 9 is the infinite fibonacci number which when multiplied or in prime result in number 144 which is the number of the crown chakra. I challenge every reader to change their perspective and study other religions and other occult sciences like kabbalah, astrology, numerology as well. The stanza's are more like wisdom which should be applied daily to ones lifestyle (conciously and rigoriously). They should also be somewhat reflected/meditated on like one does in taoism...perhaps you will open the eye odin, lose the eye of odin or find the eye of odin. Possible additions could be a frisian-dutch version or german translation perhaps in fraktur. In any way jackson nailed it with this havamal.

Nice modern take, especially the cowboy version

Best Havamal I've ever seen and I have 5 of them. Good design on the outside but better design on the inside! Really good job from Mr. Crawford! Highly recommended.

The book itself is beautiful, excellent typography. The content is so rich and interesting, opens new horizons on a classic text, too often buried in academic dust. Dr. Crawford deep knowledge and beautiful translation makes this book a masterpiece of poetry.