margur verður af aurum api

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Icelandic[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From margur (“many a man”) + verður (“becomes”), the third person singular of verða (“to become”) + af (“by, from”) + aurum, form of aur (“money”) + api (“monkey, ape”). Literally meaning "many become a monkey from money" or "money makes monkeys out of men".[1]

The proverb is a reference to (quotation of) the seventh-fifth verse of the Hávamál, one of the books of the Poetic Edda.

the 75th verse of the Hávamál
  • Hávamál verse 47 in updated (Icelandic) spelling[1]
    Veit-a hinn
    er vætki veit:
    Margur verður af aurum api.
    Maður er auðigur,
    annar óauðigur,
    skyli-t þann vítka vár.
  • English translation by Benjamin Thorpe[2]
    He (only) knows not
    who knows nothing,
    that many a one apes another.
    One man is rich,
    another poor:
    let him not be thought blameworthy.
  • English translation by Henry A. Bellows[3]
    A man knows not,
    if nothing he knows,
    That gold oft apes begets;
    One man is wealthy
    and one is poor,
    Yet scorn for him none should know.
  • English translation by Olive Bray [4]
    He that learns nought will never know
    how one is the fool of another,
    for if one be rich another is poor
    and for that should bear no blame.
  • English translation by W. H. Auden and P. B. Taylor[5][6]
    The half wit does not know that gold
    Makes apes of many men:
    One is rich, one is poor,
    There is no blame in that.

Proverb[edit]

margur verður af aurum api

  1. possession of money or worldly goods can make fools out of people

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Icelandic Web of Science: Í Hávamálum er sagt að margur verði af aurum api. Hefur höfundurinn vitað hvað api var? (“It is written in Hávamál that money makes monkeys out of men. Did the author actually know of monkeys?”)
  2. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[1], 2009 October 8 (last accessed), archived from the original on 27 October 2009
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]; The Elder or Poetic Edda, edited and translated by Olive Bray (London: Printed for the Viking Club, 1908), pages 61-111
  5. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[4], 2009 October 8 (last accessed), archived from the original on 17 October 2008
  6. ^ “Archived copy”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)‎[5], 2009 October 8 (last accessed), archived from the original on 12 September 2005
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