The thrall alone takes instant vengeance; the coward never.

Thursday's are Viking quote days and today marks a full year of my weekly Viking quote posts. I choose one, sometimes randomly and sometimes based upon relevance or meaning to my life, and share some thoughts on it. These thousand year old phrases still offer value in modern society. _{original im src}

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This week's Viking quote

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The thrall alone takes instant vengeance; the coward never.

_{- Grettir Saga -}

I'm the first to admit my actions have sometimes been dictated by emotion and I've acted hastily or rashly because of it, with mixed results. It doesn't happen much anymore but, as a younger man, teenager and child, it happened, as it did with all of us should we be honest enough to admit it.

There's also been times I've acted too slowly or reluctantly, for various reasons. Fear, uncertainty, selfishness...there's many reasons I suppose, but again, as I got older these occasions became less.

Both situations have outcomes, rarely desirable, but outcomes nonetheless.

As I grew older, experienced more of life and the happenings within it, I came to understand the benefits of handling things in a timely manner, not quickly, but timely. That means acting after gathering the right information, evaluation, thoughtfulness, perspective, planning and strategy, or whatever one chooses to label it; basically, I came to look more objectively at situations, weigh and measure them and plot a way forward confidently rather than fly into something quickly or with little thought.

I've been in situations where my decisions mattered greatly to myself and others and in which the luxury of time wasn't always present. That's why I learned to evaluate and understand a situation efficiently, determine a path forward and gained the skill of decisiveness and affirmative action; it's made a difference many times and I'm fortunate to have learned that process. With the benefit of hindsight I can see I could have done things differently in certain cases, but generally I'm content that the decisions and actions I took were sound.

Of course, one must also know when to apply restraint, to be cautious in respect of one's actions and even thoughts; I don't mean indecisive here, I simply mean that it can be prudent to sit back and consider just a little longer before taking action or taking a particular thought-path.

Thrall means, 'to be in someone else's power', and in the Viking days it meant, 'slave, captive or servant'. Coward...well, you know what that means.

I am neither fortunately, although have been a slave to my emotions at times which hasn't always ended well for me or others, usually when I've allowed those emotions to inspire rash, hasty or uninformed decisions and actions. I'm lucky that those occasions haven't cost me too dearly, but cost me they have. Fortunately I learned, as did the Vikings, and have achieved better results due to that understanding and more appropriate thought and action.

This quote means something to me today specifically, something personal that I cannot mention here, hence my decision to use it as this week's Viking quote. I don't know what it may mean to you, maybe nothing, however that's the nature of wisdom, we all receive it differently.

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That's it for this week, a thousand year-old Viking quote that suggests one should think before he or she acts: Evaluate, contemplate and understand, then take action, but also know when to hold back, to be prudent and cautious.

Please feel free to disagree with my interpretation and add your own in the comments below or to simply add some thoughts of your own.

Skol.

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