Nearly there! But 'manngi' in the last line but one of the first stanza means 'no man' -- so the couplet means '(the tree) of which no one knows from what roots it came'.
And, as I said in an earlier posting, a negative has got dropped accidentally in copying the first line of the second stanza; Othinn is complaining that he was not given food or drink during his ordeal.
Jacqueline Simpson
--- On Tue, 11/11/08, Jez <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Jez <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Havamal
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Tuesday, 11 November, 2008, 9:48 AM
> But let's have a go...
>
> 138
> Veit ek at ek hekk
> vindga meiði á
> nætr allar níu
> geiri undaðr
> ok gefinn Óðni
> sjálfr sjálfum mér
> á þeim meiði
> er manngi veit
> hvers hann af rótum renn
> I know that I hung
> upon a windy tree
> for nine whole nights,
> wounded with a spear
> and given to Othinn,
> myself to myself for me;
> on that tree
> I knew nothing
> of what kind of roots it came from.
> 139
> Við hleifi mik sældu
> né við hornigi
> nýsta ek niðr
> nam ek upp rúnar
> œpandi nam
> fell ek aptr þaðan
> They cheered me with a loaf
> and not with any horn,
> I investigated down below,
> I took up the runes,
> screaming I took them,
> and I fell back from there.
>
> --
> Jez
>
> --
> If ignorance is bliss why aren't more people happy?
>
> Leonard Rossiter
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