Introduction to the Runes

(Original Author was Lady Abyss)

Runes originate in the Viking period, in the time of Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, a time
when longboats sailed from the fjords of Scandinavia on military missions. It is part of Viking legend
that Odin’s horse, Sleipnir, had runic symbols engraved upon its teeth. Maybe for this reason, the 19th
rune is called Ehwaz, the horse.

Fortunately runes and runic symbols did not die with the Vikings. Thanks to television and film, many
people who would otherwise know nothing of the Vikings are aware of them, their gods and their
lifestyle, but relatively few also know that the lore of the Vikings continues well into our modern-day
lives through the use of the runes.

Every rune symbolises not only an alphabetical letter, but a deeper meaning, an energy. It is our aim
to show the relevance of the wisdom of the runes even in this day and age in our everyday lives as we
progress through this book. At the end of the day, wisdom is ageless and its source never dries up.

What Is The Futhark?

Runes are often called the Futhark, Futhorc or Elder Futhark after the first six letters of the runic
alphabet in traditional order. The runic alphabet has undergone various changes over the years, and
runic characters are not only the alphabet of their time but also have their own meanings. They are not
mere letters with sounds, and in many ways are similar in character to ancient Egyptian or Hebrew.

Those who are interested in language foundation may already know that runic was originally the
language of the northern Germanic races, and that there are remarkable similarities between runic and
other early languages, such as early Celtic. Stemming from an unwritten language, the runic symbols
were often regarded as magical.

All the characters of the runic alphabet are in straight lines, as with the Ogham alphabet, of which we
will learn a little more at a later stage. This is probably because it made them easier to carve on stone.
As we progress with our studies of the runes, we will link the runic symbol with its modern English
alphabetical equivalent.

What Are Runes?

Runes are both strangely marked standing stones found in Scandinavia (more correctly known as
runestones rather than runes) and also smaller stones or wooden pieces used as a tool towards self-knowledge
and self-help. There are some fine examples of runestones in Stockholm Museum.

Many runic carvings can still be found throughout Europe, but unfortunately some of the original
carvings, many made in wood, have now perished, and only the stone carvings remain.

Until relatively recently, runes were seldom heard of and seldom used outside Scandinavia. Readers
of Tolkien may have heard of runes, but few people understood their significance. However, their
very accessible symbolism began to attract more attention towards the end of the 1960s, and today
many people around the world are using them.

Unfortunately the traditional meanings of the runes and their uses have been lost in time, and modern
interpretations have had to be formulated. However, as with the Tarot, the runes lend themselves to
the use of intuition, and most modern runemasters rely heavily on this faculty.

The Meaning of Runes

The word rune (sometimes also seen as run, runa or runar) actually means ‘secret’, ‘whisper’ or
‘mystery’, and it is therefore probably no surprise that the original meanings were never written down,
just as the Kabbala in Hebrew/Chaldean times was never written down, but passed on by word of
mouth.

The fact, however, that the runic symbols were at least carved in rocks meant that they survived, both
as a means of communication and as a means of self-enquiry, or as the Vikings thought, a means of
getting in touch with the gods.

Thinking In Terms Of Symbolism

Runes have links with many other forms, and are very much in tune with I Ching (the Chinese Book
of Changes). It is fair to say that in a sense they were the I Ching of the Viking race. Just as I Ching is
concerned with polarities, so are runes, but whereas in I Ching the polarities are termed yin and yang,
in runic lore they are fire and ice – images easily understood by the Vikings.

As with Tarot symbolism, which does not end with the picture, runic symbolism does not stop with
the outline of the character. The hope is that the drawing or casting of the runes will produce
information enabling us to access our own unconscious, thus expanding our awareness and shedding
light on our options.

Runes can help with what modern-day psychologists call ‘the learning process’. They carry inner
meanings which go far beyond their initial appearance and shape. They will give honest answers, but
sometimes these answers may not be what we want or expect.

The trick is, at such times, to learn from that answer and to broaden our horizons and experiences.
Maybe our destiny lies in a different direction to that which we would wish.

Symbolism can suggest many meanings; the aim in using the runes is to allow the symbolism to
permeate the very heart of our being and contact the essence of man.

Runes can help to form a bridge between our logical thinking mind, and that part of ourselves which
few understand, but so many wish to find.

Asking Questions

Whatever you seek an answer on, you can consult the runes for their wisdom. The question need not
have great worldly significance, and may even be fairly trivial – though never frivolous. The main
emphasis should be on the need for an answer. Whilst purists would say that one should not ask the
runes questions pertaining to the future (such as whether something is likely to turn out well or not),
questions can range from ‘Should I think of moving house now?’ to something more profound that
involves spiritual or emotional needs.

The only time you are unlikely to get a straightforward answer is if the blank rune appears, in which
case the situation is likely to be in a state of flux, or it is too early to judge the issue effectively. We
will look at the blank rune later.

THE ORIGINS OF THE RUNES

While runologists argue over many of the details of the historical origins of runic writing, there is widespread agreement on a general outline. The runes are presumed to have been derived from one of the many Old Italic alphabets in use among the Mediterranean peoples of the first century CE, who lived to the south of the Germanic tribes.^[7][8] Earlier Germanic sacred symbols, such as those preserved in northern European rock carvings, were also likely influential in the development of the script.^[9][10]

The earliest possibly runic inscription that we know of is found on the Meldorf brooch, which was manufactured in the north of modern-day Germany around 50 CE. The inscription is highly ambiguous, however, and scholars are divided over whether its letters are runic or Roman. The earliest unambiguous runic inscriptions are found on the Vimose comb from Vimose, Denmark and the Øvre Stabu spearhead from southern Norway, both of which date to approximately 160 CE.^[11] The earliest known carving of the entire futhark (alphabet), in order, is that on the Kylver stone from Gotland, Sweden, which dates to roughly 400 CE.^[12]

The transmission of writing from southern Europe to northern Europe likely took place via Germanic warbands, the dominant northern European military institution of the period, who would have encountered Italic writing firsthand during campaigns amongst their southerly neighbors.^[13] This hypothesis is supported by the association that runes have always had with the god Odin, who, in the Proto-Germanic period, under his original name *Woðanaz, was the divine model of the human warband leader and the invisible patron of the warband’s activities. The Roman historian Tacitus tells us that Odin (“Mercury” in the interpretatio romana) was already established as the dominant god in the pantheons of many of the Germanic tribes by the first century.^[14] Whether the runes and the cult of Odin arose together, or whether the latter predated the former, is of little consequence for our purposes here. As esteemed Indo-European scholar Georges Dumézil notes:

If Odin was first and always the highest magician, we realize that the runes, however recent they may be, would have fallen under his sway. New and particularly effective implements for magic works, they would become by definition and without contest a part of his domain. … Odin could have been the patron, the possessor par excellence of this redoubtable power of secrecy and secret knowledge, before the name of that knowledge became the technical name of signs both phonetic and magic which came from the Alps or elsewhere, but did not lose its former, larger sense.^[15]

From the perspective of the ancient Germanic peoples themselves, however, the runes came from no source as mundane as an Old Italic alphabet. The runes were never “invented,” but are instead eternal, pre-existent forces that Odin himself discovered by undergoing a tremendous ordeal. This tale has come down to us in the Old Norse poem Hávamál(“The Sayings of the High One”):

I know that I hung
On the wind-blasted tree
All of nights nine,
Pierced by my spear
And given to Odin,
Myself sacrificed to myself
On that pole
Of which none know
Where its roots run.

No aid I received,
Not even a sip from the horn.
Peering down,
I took up the runes –
Screaming I grasped them –
Then I fell back from there.^[16]

The tree from which Odin hangs himself is surely none other than Yggdrasil, the world-tree at the center of the Germanic cosmos whose branches and roots hold the Nine Worlds. Directly below the world-tree is the Well of Urd, a source of incredible wisdom. The runes themselves seem to have their native dwelling-place in its waters. This is also suggested by another Old Norse poem, the Völuspá (“Insight of the Seeress”):

There stands an ash called Yggdrasil,
A mighty tree showered in white hail.
From there come the dews that fall in the valleys.
It stands evergreen above Urd’s Well.

From there come maidens, very wise,
Three from the lake that stands beneath the pole.
One is called Urd, another Verdandi,
Skuld the third; they carve into the tree
The lives and fates of children.^[17]

These “three maidens” are the Norns, and their carvings surely consist of runes. We therefore have a clear association between the Well of Urd, the runes, and magic – in this case, the ability of the Norns to carve the fates of all beings.

Presumably, then, after Odin discovered the runes by ritually sacrificing himself to himself and fasting for nine days while staring into the waters of the Well of Urd, it was he who imparted the runes to the first human runemasters. His paradigmatic sacrifice was likely symbolically imitated in initiation ceremonies during which the candidate learned the lore of the runes,^[18][19] but, unfortunately, no concrete evidence of such a practice has survived into our times.

References:

^[7] Looijenga, Tineke. 2003. Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions. p. 87.

^[8] Flowers, Stephen E. 1986. Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Older Runic Tradition. p. 71-73.

^[9] Ibid. p. 70.

^[10] Simek, Rudolf. 1993. Dictionary of Northern Mythology. Translated by Angela Hall. p. 268.

^[11] Looijenga, Tineke. 2003. Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions. p. 78.

^[12] Elliott, Ralph W. V. 1959. Runes: An Introduction. p. 14.

^[13] Flowers, Stephen E. 1986. Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Older Runic Tradition. p. 85-105.

^[14] Tacitus, Cornelius. Germania 9.

^[15] Dumézil, Georges. 1973. Gods of the Ancient Northmen. Edited by Einar Haugen. p. 34.

^[16] The Poetic Edda. Hávamál, stanzas 138-139. My translation. The original Old Norse verses read:

138.
Veit ek, at ek hekk
vindga meiði á
nætr allar níu,
geiri undaðr
ok gefinn Óðni,
sjalfr sjalfum mér,
á þeim meiði,
er manngi veit
hvers af rótum renn.

139.
Við hleifi mik sældu
né við hornigi;
nýsta ek niðr,
nam ek upp rúnar,
æpandi nam,
fell ek aftr þaðan.

^[17] The Poetic Edda. Völuspá, stanzas 19-20. My own translation. The original Old Norse verses are:

19.
Ask veit ek standa,
heitir Yggdrasils,
hár baðmr, ausinn
hvíta auri;
þaðan koma döggvar,
þærs í dala falla,
stendr æ yfir grænn
Urðarbrunni.

20.
Þaðan koma meyjar
margs vitandi
þrjár ór þeim sæ,
er und þolli stendr;
Urð hétu eina,
aðra Verðandi,
– skáru á skíði, –
Skuld ina þriðju;
þær lög lögðu,
þær líf kuru
alda börnum,
örlög seggja.

^[18] Flowers, Stephen E. 1986. Runes and Magic: Magical Formulaic Elements in the Older Runic Tradition. p. 161.

^[19] Eliade, Mircea. 1964. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Translated by Willard R. Trask. p. 380.

Published on Norse Mythology for Smart People