At 9:05:42 AM on Saturday, January 28, 2012,
indefinable_magic wrote:

> Hello,

> I hope you can help. I've come here for advice, is
> possible. I'm working on a book which very tangentially
> touches on the Poetic Edda - I'm writing on an archive
> television series which quotes it. I'm not remotely an
> expert in the field or in Old Norse, but I'm trying to
> find the source for this particular translation of a
> section of Hávamál. The text is below: does anyone have
> idea of the translator? Doesn't appear to be Bellows,
> Hollander, Thorpe, Auden/Taylor, Bray, Larrington, or any
> of the other obvious sources, as far as I can tell.

> 'Well-being I won
> And wisdom too.
> I grew and took joy in my growth:
> From a word to a word
> I was led to a word,
> From a deed to another deed.'

I have seen it attributed to Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones.
It also appears at
<http://www.american-buddha.com/asatrunordic.htm> in an
article by one Anders Sandberg, who does not credit it to
anyone. I've not been able quickly to determine the actual
author, but perhaps with this much of a start you can pin it
down.

The first two verses of that are slightly free translations
of verses 138 and 139 of Hávamál. The third is a rather
more free translation of verse 141; a much more accurate
translation (by Jackson Crawford) is

My imagination expanded,
I became wise,
I grew, and I thrived.
One word chased another word
flowing from my mouth,
one deed chased another deed
flowing from my hands.

This translates

Þá nam ek frævask
ok fróðr vesa
ok vaxa ok vel hafask;
orð mér af orði
orðs leitaði,
verk mér af verki
verks leitaði.

I might render this *very* literally something like this:

Then I began to fertilize myself and be wise and grow and
thrive; a word sought for me a word from a word, a deed
sought for me a deed from a deed.

Brian