A short bare bone introduction to the Runes
To start my own series on the Rune’s I first wanted to acknowledge them in their entirety. I am going to start off with a short history of them and their references in lore and then later I will make a post diving into more UPG on the Runes and how I use them. Before we get started, I wish to make a few disclaimers.
1. Historical Accuracy is not a requirement to use Runes, if you want to use them in Divination, even if there is not an ancient recourse saying that they were used that way, then that is up to you and no one else.
2. Anyone can use the Runes. They are not a closed practice. Learn their history and cultural context, absolutely, but there is no reason why anyone can’t use them.
3. My personal interpretations on the Runes and how I use them are not rules. I encourage you to develop your own interactions and relationships with using them.
4. The History I am sharing is a simplified breakdown for tumblr, and I heavily encourage anyone interested in learning more to please do your own research on any of the topics mentioned.
The Runes are a very old writing system in Germanic Europe, and that makes them first and foremost, an alphabet. A Phonetic Alphabet, and an ideographic alphabet, where the individual characters both represent a sound and a concept. Some of the earliest examples of the use of Runes are on Runestones as old as 50 CE. Often these Runestones had names carved into them, and were located at grave sites. There are several variations of the Runes across history, the earliest being the Elder Futhark.
The word Rune, is attested to come from a Proto-Germanic word, rūnō which has been translated to mean “mystery, secret.” There are other possible origins to the word, or likely branches of similar etymology, such as “The Finnish word runo, meaning 'poem'” or “Lithuanian runoti meaning both 'to cut (with a knife)' and 'to speak'”
Besides Archeological stones and Etymology of the runes, we also have references to them in the Sagas, and Eddas. The poem, The Havamal has stanzas 80, and 138-139, which attest the origins of the Runes being from Odin. Learning of them as he hung himself from Yggdrasil. In another Eddic poem, Rígsþula from the Codex Wormianus, Rig (Heimdallr) is the progenitor of the three ‘casts’ of human civilization, Thralls, Freemen, and Nobility, and gave the Runes to the “Noble” son.
The Runes themselves have changed over time, as most Alphabets do, either adopting or dropping letters as needed, during their development. The different variations to the runes, include Elder Futhark (8th - 11th Century) Anglo-Saxon Runes (5th-11th Century) Younger Futhark (8th-11th Century) as well as many other variations from Medieval to Post Reformation (PR) Runes, such as the Norwegian (PR) runes.
The following are variations of the runes that are not historical before the 19th century and originate with Volkish occultists, such as Guido Von List. It is worth knowing about these variations at the very least, that you can avoid them; Armanen Runes, Wiligut Runes, and Runengymnastic. (these are made by nazis)
Over the next several weeks, I am going to break down my own experiences with each of the runes and how I use them in my craft. To do this I would like to first address the Rune Poems and historic/literary References to their use in Magic. There are a few notable Rune Poems, being The Icelandic, The Norwegian, The Swedish and the Anglo-Saxon Rune poems. Each poem has a stanza dedicated to describing each of the runes, theorized to have been mnemonic devices to help remember the runes, (similar to the alphabet song.) Many people have used the Rune poems to develop the individual meanings of the runes. Using the context in the poems stanzas to derive meaning.
There is a variety of evidence that the Runes were used throughout Germanic Europe for magical or esoteric purposes. Both in the Egil’s Saga (Chapter 60) and in the Vatnsdæla saga (Northern Antiquities;Thomas Percy; pp 151-157), the construction of a Nithing pole is depicted. In both cases, the curse is written out on the pole itself in runes, implying a use for them in a cursing. In the Havamal stanza 157, it is suggested the Narrator (Odin) uses the Runes to bring the dead back to life.
a dangling corpse in a noose,
I can so carve and colour the runes,
and talks with me (Larrington, 1999)
