Wealth and Generosity
Wealth is meant to be shared; generosity creates bonds while hoarding leads to isolation.
The Norse viewed wealth as a means to create and maintain social bonds, not as an end in itself. A generous ring-giver earned loyalty and fame, while the miser sat alone with gold that brought no joy. True wealth is measured in relationships, not possessions.
With presents friends should please each other, with weapons and with clothes; gift-givers and receivers, when other things are equal, keep friendship longest.
The economy of gift-giving was essential to Norse society and power structures.
Poetic Edda
Written about in
- What Norse wisdom says about friendship
Havamal 41 says friends should please each other with weapons and clothes, and that givers and receivers keep friendship longest. The Norse treated the hoarder's isolation as a consequence rather than a moral verdict: he sits alone because nobody owes him anything.