Washing, combing, eating
A Norse collocation with parallels in Tacitus
In his Germania, Tacitus writes (ch. XXII, Church and Brodribb 1876 trans., emphasis my own):
On waking from sleep, which they generally prolong to a late hour of the day, they take a bath, oftenest of warm water, which suits a country where winter is the longest of the seasons. After their bath they take their meal, each having a separate seat and table of his own. Then they go armed to business, or no less often to their festal meetings. To pass an entire day and night in drinking disgraces no one. Their quarrels, as might be expected with intoxicated people, are seldom fought out with mere abuse, but commonly with wounds and bloodshed. Yet it is at their feasts that they generally consult on the reconciliation of enemies, on the forming of matrimonial alliances, on the choice of chiefs, finally even on peace and war, for they think that at no time is the mind more open to simplicity of purpose or more warmed to noble aspirations.
The “feasts” (in the original Latin convīvia) are certainly the Things of later sources: legal assemblies, feasts and markets alike. Upon reading this passage, I was struck by a close resemblance to a verse in the Hávamǫ́l (‘Speeches of the High One’), namely 61 (all verses henceforth my ed. and trans.):
Þvęginn ok męttr · ríði maðr þingi at,
þótt hann sé-t vę́ddr til vęl;
skúa ok bróka · skammisk ęngi maðr
né hęsts in hęldr (þótt hann hafi’t góðan)1.‘Washed and full ought a man to ride to the Thing, although he be not clothed too well;
of his shoes and his breeches ought no man to be ashamed, nor of his horse instead. (Although he has not a good one.)’
The description is identical to that of Tacitus, but here presented as a word of advice: one should first wash, then eat2, and then ride to the Thing.
I could end this short post here, having already demonstrated an interesting textual parallel, but I’ve found two further self-standing instances that confirm the existence in Norse poetry of a collocation involving the verbs:
þváa ‘to wash’,
kęmba ‘to comb’ (cf. English un-kempt),
and mętta ‘to fill with food’.
The first is in Reginsmǫ́l (‘Speeches of Rein (Ręginn)’), the last in a section of advice-verses:
Kęmbðr ok þvęginn · skal kǿnna hverr
ok at morni mettr,
því’t ósýnt es, · hvar at aptni kømr;
illt ’s fyr hęill at hrapa.‘Combed and washed shall each keen man be, and full in the morning,
for ’tis unseen where he will come by evening: ’tis ill to rush before one’s luck.’
The second is in Vǫluspǫ́ 33 (‘the Spae (spǫ́) of the Wallow (vǫlva)’), regarding Wonnel (Váli), who slew his half-brother Hath (Hǫðr) in order to avenge his other brother, Balder (Baldr).
Þó hann ę́va hęndr · né hǫfuð kęmbði,
áðr á bál of bar · Baldrs andskota.‘He [= Wonnel] washed never his hands, nor combed his head,
ere onto the pyre he did bear Balder’s opponent [= Hath].’
Lastly there is Baldrs draumar (‘Balder’s dreams’) 11, which I do not count as a separate example, since it is clearly echoing (or being echoed by, depending on the relative dates of the two poems) Vǫluspǫ́ 32–3:
hǫnd of þvę́r-at · né hǫfuð kęmbir,
áðr á bál of berr · Baldrs andskota;‘His hand he washes not, nor combs his head,
ere onto the pyre he bears Balder’s opponent.’
The part within parenthesis is certainly a later addition, it does not follow the meter and is wholly superfluous.
męttr ‘full, satisfied’ being derived from the word matr ‘food’.