Asatru/Vanatru women: what do you think of this quote from the Havamal?

No man should trust a maiden's words,
Nor what a woman speaks:
Spun on a wheel were women's hearts,
In their breasts was implanted caprice,

Your thoughts and observations would be welcome.

Thanks in advance.

why dint you write proper English

Women always get bad press in religions. I get the feeling a lot of very sour men, who couldn't get laid, wrote religious texts. Don't you?

The Havamal is presented as wise advice from Odin. I suspect that Frigga's version would have just as uncomplimentary things to say about men! My own comment is that Norse Heathen society treated women better than Christian and Muslim countries, but women were still far from equal. In societies where women are not equals, sometimes they have to behave as presented above if they want any control over their lives.

If you look at the Havamal in context, you'll see that in the lines near where this appears, there is also mention that men aren't all that trustworthy either, i.e. because they'll do what they can to seduce women.

"Now plainly I speak, since both I have seen;
unfaithful is man to maid;
we speak them fairest when thoughts are falsest
and wile the wisest of hearts. "

Both the above stanza, and the one you pointed both come from a section of the Havamal that's all about love and the conquests thereof, and thus the 'commentary' really only applies in the guise of love as it pertains to seductions. And it's not something you should be using to apply to women outside of this context (i.e. women in general). If you look to our narrator's perspective in the tale, he'd been made a fool of by women in his attempts at seduction.

One could argue, this is a cautionary tale to instruct men that they should be careful in their seductions and courtship of women. (Which in itself isn't really a bad thing.) In fact, certain forms of erotic poetry, and so called love charm magic were outlawed in the legal codes because of the concerns the ancient culture had concerning the subject of seductions.

In fact, the various sagas about human families pretty much agree that the most dangerous thing a young Icelandic man could do was to court a woman. At the merest whisper of anything out-of-bounds occurring with the woman could have her entire familial clan coming after the man to kill him. Not to mention, the woman's family may kill the man too if they felt he was acting too slowly in the courtship as well!

As far as using this as social commentary or context, think of it along the lines of what we hear all the time in our pop culture, male characters saying they will never understand women. Men are from Mars and women from Venus... and a load of other similar expressions. As this appears in the Havamal I think it's more along these lines, then trying to use it as some sort of social commentary and proof that the religion was misogynistic. If you look at the cultural power structure of antiquity women actually wielded power (and control over the wealth).

Also remember that this text was penned by a Christian scribe centuries AFTER conversion, The Havamal comes to us from the Codex Regius, which is a 13Th Century text. So it's possible this represents Christian attitudes (of Eve as the source of original sin) than it does the Prue-Christian attitudes.