Viking personal identity is quartered:
Hamr is malleable, changeable, forgettable
Your appearance is least important of all 
Fylgja - a knowledge font, a female family spirit,
Ancestrally inherited, Incestuously shared. 
Hugr - personality perhaps - it’s not clear
And the fourth leaf of the clover?
Hamingja, no less than luck.

My Luck, formerly fleet of foot, 
Shadow of my endeavours
Has staged a slow departure
Now I only see him at distance: he waves
To draw my attention to what I’ve just stepped in

Intimate and breathless between the lugholes
I hear clear the voice of my grandmother
The tone a tinkling teaspoon on teeth
She imparts art and experience;
Wisdom above all - I assume? 
As the words make no sense

And whatever I have of soul
Is a bin-dipping magpie 
Frightened of every salute
Hiding in Hamr 
Defecating in the eaves of this unshapely shell