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Hávamál, The Saying of Odin, Stanza 18
Hail and welcome! This is Huginn's Heathen Hof, with your Daily Hávamál.
Original-
Sá einn veit
er víða ratar
ok hefr fjölð um farit
hverju geði
stýrir gumna hverr
sá er vitandi er vits
Translation-
The man who explores
the world beyond his village
will better understand
the motivations of others
-Hávamál: Stanza 18
There's really only so much you can learn from a book. At a certain point, if you really want to understand a person (or a culture) you need to leave your couch and go see it for yourself. In Anthropology there is a common term used for those who write about a culture, but never explore it themselves. We call them "Armchair Archaeologists".
It's only in the past hundred years that the Scientific community has figured out that this is a problem, yet here we are looking at a verse written about 800 years ago, warning us about this very issue.
Guess some things never change!
