I’ve been using runes for a while now, and I am looking for a theft prevention rune. My one concern is that I don’t usually use a rune without first knowing it’s name, and the anti-theft runes I found on your site isn’t explicitly named. Does it/do they have a specific name, or just a general category that they are grouped into like Þjófastafirs?
Þjófastafir - Icelandic “Thief Staves”
Good question. Let’s start with clearing up a few things. “Stafir” is the plural of “Stafur”, which originally were translated to “character/s”, but for the purposes of writing about “Galdrastaf-ir/ur”, have been given the word/s “stave/s”, i.e. “Galdrastafir” is translated to “Magic staves”.
A stave can either be a rune-like shape, a string of rune-like shapes, a symbol, an insignia, or any bunch of lines and squiggles put together either in a symmetrical pattern or in what appears to be chaotic randomness.
Some staves are named and some are not, and this tends to follow the scribe’s choice. The scribe usually is someone who copied from an earlier manuscript. The few manuscripts that seem not copied generally do not have names. As a rule, Christian linked staves are named, usually referring to a particular entity (God, spirit, priest, etc.). When non-Christian staves do have names, it is common that then all the staves in that manuscript are named. The name can then be either unique to that single stave or a class, category or kind, such as “Þjófastafur” (Thief stave) and “Ægishjálmur” (Helm of Awe).
Þjófastafir are actually one of the most common types of stave. By my count, there are over 50 unique designs. That count does not include the same stave appearing in duplicated manuscripts, though standardly, they can then take a slightly changed design or different proportions depending on how exact the scribe copied. Even the earliest manuscript known as “Lækningakver” (Medical Book) from around 1500 AD has one:
Its purpose is given: “If a man wants to know who has stolen from him…”. It then provides instructions on preparing the stave and other actions to follow so that “I may see the shadow of the one who has stolen from me and others.”
This is actually pretty standard for most of the Þjófastafir. Methods can differ from one to the other. In some, the stave is carved on wood to be placed under one’s head during sleep so that the thief will be revealed in a dream. In others, the stave is scratched on a bowl, it filled with water, and the face will appear in it (called “coscinomancy”). It should be noted that this kind of magic is not unique to Galdrastafir - appearing across most of Europe in the late middle-ages.
There are a few rune-row staves that appear in the “Huld” manuscript with the purpose of revealing the thief:
However, not every Þjófastafur is for revelation. This messy three-set is to get back stolen goods (after written text “og lát undir höfuð þér” = “and put under your head”):
There are some that intend that the thief cannot leave, some to allow theft, but of most importance to my anonymous poster, this stave “to prevent theft”:
If you want further information or a stave graphically remastered, contact me by email from my homepage at:
Galdrastafir history, meaning and use in grimoires, charms, and tattoos, with particular focus on Ægishjálmur, Vegvísir and the Lukkustafir
2087
yousharknotpass
areudirty
origamiaround
blakekathryn
gamechangershow
gracieabrams
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
