Stanza 43

Original Old Norse:

Vin sínum

skal maðr vinr vera

þeim ok þess vinr

en óvinar síns

skyli engi maðr

vinar vinr vera

Auden & Taylor:

A man should be loyal through life to friends,

To them and to friends of theirs, 

But never shall a man make offer 

Of friendship to his foes.

Bellows:

To his friend a man | a friend shall prove,

To him and the friend of his friend;

But never a man | shall friendship make

With one of his foeman's friends.

Bray:

To his friend a man should bear him as friend,

to him and a friend of his;

but let him beware that he be not the friend 

of one who is friend to his foe.

Chisholm:

A man shall always be a friend

to friends and to the friend of a friend

but never a friend

to a friend’s enemies.

Hollander:

With his friend a man should be friends ever,

and with him the friend of his friend;

but foeman's friend befriend thou never,

(and keep thee aloof from his kin)

Terry:

A man should be faithful to a friend

and to the friends of a friend;

it is unwise to offer friendship

to a foe's friend.

Thorpe:

To his friend

a man should be a friend,

to him and to his friend;

but of his foe

no man shall

the friend’s friend be.

We continue on with the subject of friendship today. We need to be picky on who we call friend. The strength of clan relationships is the bedrock of the family sagas. To be an enemy to one person is to be the enemy of their family and close friends as well. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" is an ancient proverb which suggests that two opposing parties can or should work together against a common enemy. The earliest known expression of this concept is found in a Sanskrit treatise on statecraft, the Arthashastra, which dates to around the 4th century BC, while the first recorded use of the current English version came in 1884.