FEHU
The meaning of this
rune is 'cattle', a vital aspect of the life of any
agricultural community and an important factor in the
economy of a group of peoples initially unacquainted with
the use of money. The rune represents possessions won or
earned and thus also material gain.
The
Anglo-Saxon runic
poem
#1 describes wealth as a comfort to all men, then goes
on to add that they must bestow it freely if they wish to
gain favour in the sight of the Lord. This is not the
Christian interpolation that it at first appears, as the
bestowing of rewards and generosity is an important
feature of much of the extant saga literature. As we shall
see later there is even a 'gift' rune.
The Norwegian and
Icelandic rune poems take a more cynical view and regard
wealth as a cause of discord among kinsmen. The Norwegian
poem (NRP
#1)
compares this to the wolf living in the forest, whilst the
'fire of the sea and path of the grave-fish' of the
Icelandic text (IRP
#1) is a clear allusion to its
inspiration of Viking practices.
The rune may be
linked to Frey or Freya. Oxen were sacrificed to Frey, as
detailed in Gisli's Saga and Viga-Glum's Saga.
IRP
#1 glosses
'gold' for this rune and both gold and amber, which was
mentioned by Tacitus as one of the trade commodities of
the Aestii which fetched a good price from the Romans, are
referred to in Norse myth as the 'tears of Freya'.
Significantly the Aestii were said to have worshipped the
mother of the gods and worn her emblem, the wild boar.
This will later be found linked to Frey, Freya's brother,
and while in later myth Freya tends to be the whore of the
gods rather than their mother she has also been identified
with Frigg.
The necklace
Brisingamen, obtained by Freya at the price of sleeping
with the four dwarf craftsmen who created it, is the
symbol of Freya's wealth. The rich God Njord, her father,
has been implied here, but his place comes more properly
when we examine Laguz.
Runes, as both
letters and mnemonic symbols, undoubtedly had
correspondences attached to them. Continuing the
association of Fehu with Freya, the following
correspondences should be mentioned. Freya found her
missing husband, Od, beneath a myrtle tree. Myrtle wreaths
are said to have been worn by northern brides, possibly as
a symbol of the defloration of the first night.
The butterfly was
called Freya's hen. Cats were sacred to Freya and drew her
chariot. The cat isn't a particularly old domestic animal
in Scandinavia, and a suggestion has been made that the
creatures which pulled the chariot may have been ermine.
These could also have provided the white catskin gloves
for the völva in Eirik the Red's Saga. The main
qualification for an animal being designated köttr, a cat,
was the ability shared by both cats and ermine to catch
mice.
With the advent of
Christianity all the Norse gods were demoted to the status
of common demons and Freya became the patroness of the
witches. Her sacred animal, the cat, became the archetypal
witch's familiar, or animal go-between serving both the
Christian devil and herself. Two of her sacred birds, the
swallow and the cuckoo, also fell from grace.
An identification of
Norse paganism with later witchcraft isn't as fanciful as
might at first appear. Several authors have already made
the identification, and witch persecutions were chiefly a
Northern European phenomenon.
When speaking of
Nerthus, who might be identified as a mother of the gods,
Tacitus mentions that her carriage was drawn by kine. Two
of Freya's titles are hörn and syr, the former meaning
liquid manure and the latter meaning sow. Both have,
albeit differing, fertility connections, and sow would be
an appropriate attribute in opposition to Frey's boar.
Fehu is pronounced as
F in modern English.
This represents the
aurochs, the great wild and untameable cattle of northern
Europe which are now extinct. Julius Caesar described them
in De Bello Gallico as slightly less than the elephant in
size and of the colour and shape of a bull. They had
extraordinary strength and speed and were exceptionally
ferocious. By far the best way of capturing an aurochs was
with a pit trap, and the proof of the adventure was the
display of the dead beast's horns. These were of massive
size and were bound at the tips with silver for use as
festive cups.
Thus the aurochs came
to be a symbol of great strength and speed, and in being
such a challenge to the hunter, also a symbol of man's
prowess. There was also a parallel to be implied in its
defence against the hunter, which compared to man
defending his home against the invader. The Anglo-Saxon
rune poem (ASRP
#2) describes the beast in terms similar to
those employed by Caesar, as both proud and 'having great
horns; it is a very savage beast and fights with its
horns; a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of
mettle'. NRP
#2 tooks a new meaning of dross, or slag, while
perplexingly offering the line that the 'reindeer often
races over the frozen snow'. This echoes the speed of the
aurochs and shows an awareness, albeit a reduced one, of
the earlier meaning. IRP
#2 offered a meaning of shower,
making the strength of the noble beast into the force of
rain beating down upon crops and livestock.
The bull was believed
to have been dedicated to Thor, and certainly the strength
of the one reinforces a possible correspondence with the
other. 'Achievement' may also have been a meaning of this
rune, with the hunting of the aurochs providing an
ultimate test of strength and initiative.
Uruz is pronounced as
the double O sound in the modern English word 'book'.
This is of disputed
meaning, but is generally regarded as unpleasant in
nature. Giant, troll and demon have all been given as
possible interpretations, and the 'thorn' of
ASRP
#3 cannot
be ignored either.
This is the
troll-rune as used in the Norse poem For Scirnis or
Skirnir's Ride. It has the power when employed in a
sequence of three to alter the meanings of succeeding
runes. Its use was said to evoke demons from the
underworld, and it was also known as 'Hrungnir's heart',
after the legend recorded by Snorri Sturluson of the
killing of the giant Hrungnir by Thor. The giant's heart
was said to be like the runic character, sharp-edged and
three-cornered, and on the Skane bracteate 1 Thurisaz is
written !\ which is perfectly in accord with this
description. !/
ASRP
#3 reads 'thorn'
for the meaning of this rune. This description of a sharp
and evil thing to touch, uncommonly severe to those who
sit amongst them, applies as well to the enemies of the
Æsir as to thorns. NRP
#3 and
IRP
#3 retain 'giant' as the meaning, and ascribe
to these creatures a penchant for torturing women. This
could well be a sexual allusion, as the ideas of the thorn
and the penis are not unrelated, as the archaic but still
current slang term 'prick', meaning the male member, ably
demonstrates.
The shape-shifting
power of this rune is that ascribed to trolls or ogres.
That it is hardly favourable is supported by the
NRP
#3 gloss that 'misfortune makes few men cheerful'.
Thurisaz is
pronounced th as in 'thin'.
This rune has the
meaning of a god or deity, specifically one of the Æsir,
and as such it is usually ascribed to Odin as their
leader. In later times Odin was also regarded as a wind
God and the leader of the Wild Hunt of disembodied and
damned souls, leading them through the air on the storm
clouds. The hanged were sacred to him because of his
hanging upon Yggdrasil to win the runes, and sacrifice to
Odin by hanging was occassionally practised.
ASRP
#4 terms this rune
Os, praising it as the source of all language, a blessing
and joy and a comfort to the wise.
NRP
#4 reads Oss, meaning an estuary and further
describing it as the beginning of most (Viking) voyages. A
further cryptic gloss is that a 'scabbard is of swords'.
IRP
#4 reads Oss as god, specifically making the God Odin by
adding 'Prince of Asgard and Lord of Valhalla'. In case
this were insufficient to render the meaning clear, the
Latin gloss in IRP
#4 is 'Jupiter, Father of the Gods', which
Odin indubitably was - physically in most cases.
ASRP
#4 also provides a
verse for Aesc, the 'ae' rune of the Anglo-Saxon Futhork,
which would have taken the place of Ansuz had not Oss been
ascribed. The meaning equated here is the ash tree, said
to be exceedingly high and precious to men, whose sturdy
trunk offers a stubborn resistance though attacked by
many. The ash is worldly counterpart of the world-tree
Yggdrasil, and this meaning reinforces the connection of
the A-rune with Odin/God. Indeed, Yggdrasil means 'Ygg's
horse' as 'Ygg's gallows', and it was here that Odin hung
while discovering the runes, making ash one of the sacred
trees of both runecraft and Northern myth. According to
one authority venomous animals wouldn't shelter beneath
its branches. A carriage with axles of ash went faster and
tools with ash handles performed better for the craftsman.
Witches rode upon ash branches and ash is the ideal handle
for a besom. Those who ate the red buds of the tree upon
St John's Eve would be invulnerable to bewitchment.
Yggdrasil is rendered
as Ygg's, or Odin's, horse or gallows. As the discoverer
of the runes, Odin was also the sorcerer of the gods, and
his magic is invariably more powerful than anyone else's.
Among his most famous worshippers was the runemaster Egil
Skallagrimsson.
The spear was
pre-eminently Odin's weapon and ash was the wood most
favoured for spear-shafts. The casket in which Idun kept
the apples which prevented the gods from ageing was made
of ash-wood.
Ansuz is pronounced
as in the modern English word 'stack'.
A variety of meanings
have been ascribed to this rune. They include journey,
cartwheel, ride, long journey on horseback and cart or
chariot. The rune could have served as a journey charm to
protect both the living and the dead, and there is also
some reason for ascribing it to the God Thor. The Old
Norse word reid could mean either a wheeled vehicle or
thunder. Thunder was caused by Thor's wheeled chariot
drawn by two he-goats, rattling across the sky.
ASRP
#5 offers Rad as
the name for the Rune, but in doing so fails to provide a
clear meaning. The gloss, that Rad seems 'easy to a
warrior indoors and very courageous to one abroad on
horseback', fits well with the meanings of either thunder
or riding. Both NRP
#5 and IRP take riding as the meaning,
IRP
#5 in its
Latin gloss adding iter, or journey.
NRP
#5 is again somewhat cryptic in its remark that Regin,
the master-smith who was foster-father of Sigurd and
brother of the dragon Fafnir, forged the finest sword.
Thor is closely
associated with the oak, and it is widely recognized that
the god of the oak, the tree more frequently struck by
lightning than any other, is also the god of thunder.
ASRP
#5
provides a verse for Ac, the 'ai' rune, describing how
acorns fatten swine for man's table, as well as the wood
being used for building ships. Oak was also the wood of
the Yule log, and it would have been very appropriate for
the wood burned upon Thor's principal festival to come
from his sacred tree. Oak pillars are associated with Thor
in Iceland, as in Eyrbyggja Saga, where Thorolf Mostur-Beard
throws his high seat pillars, made of oak, overboard to
establish where he should settle, the decision being taken
for him by the place at which they drift to land. Here, as
is other places, the additional matter which can be
derived from the extra verses provided by
ASRP
#5 invariably
seems to show that, in order to find material with which
to gloss the extra letters, an earlier, now lost, source
was dissected.
This rune is
pronounced exactly as in modern English.
As with Raido, no
immediate and clear interpretation emerges for this rune.
Meanings which have been given include torch, light, boil,
abscess and ulcer.
ASRP
#6 reads 'torch',
known to all living by its pale, bright flame, and adding
that it always burns where princes sit within. This could
read just as easily if the meaning were fever, and the
less equivocal renderings of
IRP
#6 and
NRP
#6 agree that the rune's most likely interpretation
is an association with some form of discomfort or disease.
Both these texts take ulcer as the most probable meaning,
and IRP's 'disease fatal to children, and painful spot,
and abode of mortification' can leave us in little doubt,
as does its Latin gloss of flagella.
NRP
#6 provides a direct parallel with
ASRP
#6 by stating
that this rune 'makes a man pale'.
Other possible
interpretations include an association with cremation, as
well as a correspondence with kano, skiff, the sacred
vehicle of the cult of Nerthus. Some form of burning pain
or fever, however, still seems the most likely
interpretation.
The rune is
pronounced exactly as in modern English.
This rune has the
meaning of a gift, but the nature of the gift remains
ambiguous. It could be the sacrifice of man giving to the
gods, or the bounty of the gods giving to man. Man giving
to the gods would imply a religious act, and religion
could be regarded as the gift of the gods to man.
This rune was said to
protect against the poisoned cup, and as such may have
formed a part of the sequence scored by Egil
Skallagrimsson at Bard's feast, when Gunnhild passed a
poisoned cup to him. When we examine the numerology of
runecraft later we shall see that three is an important
number, and beer-barrels marked with thee Xs, or gebo-runes,
are almost a cliche.
This was one of the
runes which was dropped from the later Scandinavian
Futhork, and only ASRP
#7 holds a comment upon it. The name
as given here is Gyfu, and it translates to mean
generosity. Thus it is said to bring credit and honour to
the support of one's dignity, and in the sense of charity
it furnishes help and subsistence to those in need. Again
this represents situations applicably to man to man, man
to god or god to man.
The pronunciation of
this rune is rather difficult. It is only rarely used as a
hard sound, as in 'girl', and never as a J equivalent.
Mostly it was a soft sound with the tongue further back on
the palate than for the hard sound, producing a longer,
more rolling 'gh'.
The meaning of this
rune was bliss, comfort and even glory. It might be taken
to mean the support of concrete possessions, but it
primarily represented an absence of suffering.
Linguistically it compares favourably with the Germanic
wulthuz, glory and winjo, pasture, both of which support
its meaning. Wulthuz may also support an association with
the Norse God Ull.
ASRP
#8 has Wenne,
bliss, enjoyed by the prosperous and contented ones who
don't know suffering, sorrow or anxiety. One opinion has
it that this rune induces intoxication, linking it to
Gothic woths, furious or raging, and the frenzy rune which
was employed by Skirnir. Woths may in turn descend from
the Germanic wod-z, which has the same meaning and is one
of the most probable derivations of Odin. In the
Anglo-Saxon 'Nine Herbs Charm' Odin performs magic with
'glory wands', leading us around in almost a complete
circle, with the truth lying somewhere therein. After all,
there is no reason why the 'glory wands' should not be
'glory staves', which in turn would relate to the 'glory
runes' of Wunjo. The nine twigs bore the runic initials of
the nine plants they represented, which in turn were
related to the powers inherent in the plants.
This rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This rune means
'hail', both as an aspect of the weather and in the sense
of a hail of missiles in battle. In both senses it has the
implication of a destructive and order-threatening force.
ASRP
#9 ascribes hail as
the 'whitest of grain, whirled from the vault of the
heavens and tossed about by wind before turning finally to
water'. NRP
#7 agrees with this, whilst irrelevantly adding that
Christ created the world of old.
IRP#7 refers specifically
to hail as an aspect of the weather, with its 'cold grain
and shower of sleet and sickness of serpents'. 'Sickness
of serpents' is a kenning, or poetic simile, for Winter.
Both as a weather
weapon and as phenomenon of battle, hail represents a
force not completely within an individual's control.
The flaming wheels,
which were later representations of symbols from the
hällristningar, traditionally rolled by the Germanic
peoples upon St John's Eve, were called 'hail-wheels'.
Their purpose, in that uncertain climate, was to protect
the ripening crops from the ravages of hail. This opens
the speculation that the power of this rune could be
magically counteracted by the use of the sun-wheel.
Another measure against hail is remarkable because it was
employed by a Christian bishop yet obviously referred back
to paganism in its usage. The dignitary concerned took a
piece of wax from the grave of a saint and cut pagan
signs, which were most likely runes, upon it. This piece
of wax was then fastened to a tall tree to ward off the
hailstorms which had previously damaged the bishop's
crops.
This rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This rune has the
meanings of need, constraint and even, in extremis,
misery. Some authorities read this as a fate-rune and
equate it with the Nornir, or Fates, or Norse myth. It had
the power of providing help when scratched upon a
fingernail, and its meaning thus vacillates between
assistance and the need to survive.
While Nauthiz might
provide assistance, NRP
#8 glibly states that constraint gives scant choice,
and that a naked man will be chilled by the frost.
IRP
#8
also offers constraint, but equates the rune with the need
for work, thereby offering a solution to its attendant
difficulties. It glosses the rune with the Latin opera, or
work, confirming this.
ASRP
#10 alone offers a degree of hope,
despite rendering the rune-name as Nyd, which translates
as trouble.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This means ice, which
like hail, is an essentially damaging natural force.
ASRP
#11
regards ice as very cold and slippery, like a floor which
has been made from glass but which is nevertheless fair to
look at. NRP
#9 calls it the broad bridge and adds that the blind
man must be led. This could be taken as a cryptic warning
or as a straightforward piece of practical advice.
IRP
#9 glosses this rune
with the Latin glacies, or ice, and provides kennings with
the phrases 'bark of riveers', 'destruction of the doomed'
and 'roof of wave', despite the fact that salt water
freezes with less ease than fresh.
In some
interpretations of the story of Odin's wooing of Rind, ice
is regarded as the power he used to bind his enchanted
bride-to-be. If this is the case, then one virtue of this
rune might be to reinforce the strength of a rune-spell.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
Interpretations which
have been offered for this rune include year, spear,
harvest, year of plenty and year of good harvest. Both
NRP
#10 and
IRP
#10 prefer to render the meaning as 'plenty',
IRP
#10 adding a good summer and thriving crops for good
measure. NRP
#10, cryptic as ever, adds that the peace-loving
Danish king Frothi was generous, adding to the overall
impression of prosperity associated with this rune.
IRP
#10
offers the Latin gloss annus, year, and
ASRP
#12 reads
'summer' while giving the name of the rune as Ger. This
derives from gear, a word originally referring to the warm
part of the year.
The concepts of a
season of fertility and a good harvest were vital, in the
true meaning of 'vital', to agricultural communities in
the uncertain northlands.
The rune is
pronounced as in the modern English word 'yes'.
This rune means
'yew', a wood both sacred to runecraft and used for the
making of bows. The hunting God Ull built his hall in
Ydalir, Yewdale, and the bow was regarded as his sacred
weapon.
ASRP
#13 and
NRP
#16 eulogize the qualities of the tree, which has
rough bark, stands hard and fast in the earth, is a
guardian of flame, a joy upon an estate, the greenest of
trees in winter and, lastly, apt to crackle when it burns.
Only IRP
#16 reads 'bow', describing it as an implement of
battle and speeder of the arrow, and using arcus, bow, for
the Latin gloss. In Christian times Ull's place was taken
by St Hubert, the hunter, patron of the first month of the
year. Ull was regarded as a winter God and the first month
began, appropriately, on 22nd November, when the sun
passed into the sign of Sagittarius, the archer.
In Christian myth,
the yew was both a help and a hindrance to witches.
According to some, it was of assistance because it was
planted near to churches, thus offering some sacrilegious
but unspecified benefit. According to others it protected
churchyards from the demonic arts of these vile creatures.
Certainly it was of use to the third with in Macbeth, who
employed among other charm ingredients 'slips of yew,
sliver'd in the moon's eclipse.' In German folklore, yew
ground to powder and baked was a sovereign remedy against
the bite of a mad dog.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English 'yet'.
Perhaps the greatest
mystery in the futhark is the meaning of this rune.
Attempts to interpret its meaning range from dance,
through fruit tree, to hearth.
ASRP
#14 offers
'chessman' as a meaning, describing it as a source of
recreation and amusement to the great gathered together in
the banqueting hall. Yet in citing this, Dickins notes a
comparison of the rune-name with the Slavonic word pizda,
or vulva. This would make the rune sacred to Frigg as the
mother figure of the gods and provide direct parallel with
the essentially male fertility implicit in the later rune
Inguz. Pertho has also been thought to be symbolic of the
magical powers of the earth, through a supposed derivation
from the Latin petra, rock.
A brief examination
of some of the other meanings may serve to clear things up
somewhat. Dance was one of the earliest symbolic acts of
worship, possibly because of the erotic excitation it was
capable of producing. Certainly in some of its motions it
could provide parallels with movements used in sexual
activity. Its suppression by Christianity, probably during
the council held under Boniface in 742, and the
identification in Anglo-Saxon of the word lac with both
religious ceremony and dance, combine unerringly when we
realize that lac forms the second syllable of the
Anglo-Saxon for wedlock, and is still identifiable in the
word we use today.
A possible candidate
for the fruit tree might well be the elder. 'Devil's wood'
is a folk-name still extant for elder in our own time,
because of its difficult properties when burning. Elder is
wood associated with witchcraftm and its name is said to
be derived from the Slavonic hohl, hollow, itself a
synonym for the female genitalia. The use of both elder
flowers and berries for wine, Odin's intoxicating staple
diest, is well-known. The church's regard for witchcraft
as an essentially female phenomenon, coupled with 'devil's
wood', and the derivation of its name from a synonym for
the female sexual organs, begins to reinforce the
interpretation of vulva for this rune. Elder is regularly
used in charms to relieve pain, and the therapeutic value
of sexual intercourse is too widely known to require more
comment.
The rune is
pronounces as in modern English.
This rune implies
defence and protection, possibly even in the form of an
amulet or temple sanctuary, and related words are the
Gothic alhs, temple and the Old English ealgian, to
protect. There may also be a relationship here with the
mysterious runeword alu. The meaning has also been equated
with the elk, mentioned by Caesar as sleeping upright
leaning against a tree to elude the hunter more easily,
and thus in some measure a symbol of preservation in the
face of adversity.
ASRP
#15 confusingly
takes the meaning as some kind of sedgegrass found in
marshes, and inflicting terrible wounds on anyone
incautious enough to brush against it. This would be an
admirable protection against being uprooted or eaten.
The rune's
resemblance to the outstretched hand, palm outwards or
upwards, has also been pointed out by some writers, again
implying a protective power which can avert or banish
evil. This is a tempting reinforcement of the rune's
meaning, but it has the disadvantage of leading into the
highly speculative area of attributing pictographic
meanings to the runes. This has led many would-be
interpreters into gross errors, yet its resemblance to the
branch configurations of ash, walnut or linden trees, at
which witches were wont to assemble at the full moon in
Slavonian gypsy lore, might be noted in passing.
The rune is
pronounced somewhere between z and r.
This rune represents
the sun, the heavenly body upon which all life depends and
one of the principal objects of any ancient worship.
Caesar observed that the Germani worshipped both the sun
and the moon, and both of these luminaries would have
played an important part in daily life, regulating as they
do between them both the seasons and the tides.
ASRP
#16 describes this
rune as the hope of seafarers,
NRP
#11 has it as the light of the world, and
IRP
#11
poetically calls it shield of the clouds, shining ray and
either destroyer of ice or circling wheel. The Latin gloss
is rota, wheel. As shining is the most frequently applied
adjective to the sun we may trace a correspondence with
the Shining God of Norse myth - Baldur, patron of
innocence and light. Camomile was called 'Baldur's brow'
because the flower was so immaculately pure it resembled
the god's forehead. Baldur is also closely associated with
the mistletoe, a shaft of which was set into blind Hodur's
hand by Loki to kill Baldur.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English 'sea'.
This is the rune of
Tyr, God of war, giver of victory and protector from harm.
Amuletic use of this rune was widespread, even in the
earlier centuries of runecraft.
ASRP
#17 stands alone in
not ascribing the rune to the God of war. Yet although it
prefers to make Tyr a star, possibly a circumpolar
constellation, the descriptive gloss goes well enough with
the war God: 'well does it keep faith with princes; it is
ever on its course over the mists of night and never
fails.' Thus it confirms the sense of optimism integral to
this rune.
NRP
#12
and IRP
#12, which glosses Tyr as Mars, both refer to
Tyr as the one-handed God. When the Fenris Wolf was being
bound with fetter from which it could not escape, Tyr
placed his hand in the creature's mouth as a false pledge.
It discovered it was trapped and bit Tyr's right hand off.
Despite the falsity of the pledge, this story is used to
illustrate Tyr's nobility of spirit. Frey gave his sword
for love of Gerd; Odin gave his eye for personal love of
wisdom; but Tyr gave his hand for love of his fellows.
(For this reason the wrist is referred to as the
'wolf-joint'.)
Aconite was known in
the north as 'Tyr's helm', an interesting fact in view of
its folk name of wolfsbane. Wolfsbane was also known as
Sagittarius because of its poison was used on arrow-heads.
It was also a principal ingredient of the witches' flying
ointments. In view of the rune being a perfect
representation of an arrow, this association is both
remarkable and apposite.
This rune has also
been identified as the geir's-odd or spear-rune. This was
the sign supposed to be cut by an ageing warrior in his
own flesh so that he might enter Valhalla, instead of
dying a 'straw-death' in bed of old age.
Teiwaz is the
commonest of the runic symbols found upon English
cremation urns. On the one from Sawston in Yorkshire, it
appears in connection with that other archetypal Germanic
symbol the swastika.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
The birch tree was
regarded as sacred and associated with spring fertility
rites. Idun was believed to be the Goddess of spring, and
her youth, vigour and beauty were symbolic of the
vegetative resurrection which the season brought. She was
also the keeper of the apples that gave perpetual and
spring-like youth to the gods.
ASRP
#18 confuses the
issue by describing a tree which is more likely to be a
poplar than a birch. NRP
#13 and
IRP
#13 agree that birch has the greenest leaves
of any shrub, and NRP
#13 comments cryptically that Loki was fortunate in
his deceit, which would appear more perfectly applicable
to the mistletoe.
This rune is rarely
pronounced as a stop, as in 'bird'. Elliott compares the
sound to that made when blowing out a candle without
rounding the lips.
This is the horse
rune. Horses have been regarded as sacred since the
earliest times, and Tacitus describes pure white horses,
kept at public expense and not used for any kind of work,
yoked to a chariot and used to confirm divinations by
their snorts and neighs, which were interpreted either by
the king or by a state priest. He added that the horses
were believed to be privy to the counsels of the gods.
Odin's own eight-legged mount, Sleipnir, was believed to
have been either pure white or dappled grey.
ASRP
#19 confirms the
rune-meaning of horse, describing it as a joy to princes
in the presence of warriors, a steed in the pride of its
hoofs when rich men bandy words about it, and ever a
source to comfort to the restless. The horse was
frequently regarded as sacred to Frey, and the animal's
dedication to that deity is a central theme of Hrafnkel's
Saga.
The heathen Swedes
were called 'horse-eaters' by their converted compatriots,
an appellation which continued to be used throughout the
eleventh and twelfth centuries. Such a diet, albeit
ceremonial, was also the reputed provender of giants and
witches and was associated with the worship of Odin. The
witches, the equivalent of the old pagan völvas or sybils,
suitably denigrated for the purposes of the Christian
hierarchy, were well-suited to keep company with the
giants, who were themselves a distorted memory of the old
pagan heroes. The horse was the favoured animal of that
folkloric archetype the solar hero, and thus to the virtue
of this rune may be added that certainty which accompanied
the exploits of the invulnerable hero carried along by the
sacred solar horse.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English 'end'.
This rune stands for
man, either the individual or the race, and it was thought
to possess powers for defence and protection.
ASRP
#20 comments with
true pessimism that every man is doomed to fail his
fellows, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile
carrion to the earth. NRP
#14 adds, cryptically as ever, that great is the claw
of the hawk. IRP
#14 maintains a steady optimism by describing
man as the augmentation of the earth and the adornment of
ships, and glosses the Latin homo, man. Some authorities
note mention in Tacitus of an earth-bound God called
Tuisto, who had a son called Mannus, thus establishing a
speculative link between the deity and this rune.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This rune represents
water, perhaps as a source of fertility. One authority
regards the name as a late replacement and prefers to read
an earlier sense of leek, or herb, pointing to an
association of the shape of the leek with pagan phallic
practices. Whilst this coincides with the fertility aspect
of the rune, the water interpretation is very well
established, and the rune is associated with the Vanir God
Njord. The marine sponge was known as 'Njord's glove', and
he was regarded as a wealthy deity associated with the
sea. Gulls and seals were sacred to him.
ASRP
#21 reads 'ocean'
for the meaning and glosses this with a note on the
terrors of the deep. NRP
#15 reads waterfall, but glosses Njord's richness with
the line that 'ornaments are of gold'.
IRP
#15 glosses the
Latin lacus, lake, and confirms water as the eddying
stream and the land of the fish and the broad geyser.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This rune is
associated with the deity Frey, also known as the hero Ing.
It denotes fertility, as as Frey has been represented
ithyphallically, it may well stand for the male generative
organ and be a direct equivalent to the female Pertho.
ASRP
#22 refers to Ing as
a departed hero of the Danes. Fertility flourishes best in
peacetime and Frey's cult as a god of peace and prosperity
descends from that of the earlier Goddess Nerthus. The jul,
or Yule, feast was dedicated to Frey, and the head of his
sacred animal, the boar, was served crowned with laurel
and rosemary.
The rune is
pronounced as in the modern English word singer.
This rune means
inheritance, in the wide sense of anything of value which
can be passed down or handed over, including knowledge. It
can also refer to the ancestral home and, by extension,
the native land.
This is one of the
runes not included in IRP and
NRP, and so we only have the
words of ASRP
#23 to work with for amplification.
ASRP
#23 glosses
the meaning with 'estate', which is very dear to every man
if he is able to enjoy, in his own home, whatever is right
and proper in constant prosperity. Unfortunately here we
have the materialistic tendencies of medieval Christianity
creeping in to modify the wider meaning.
The rune is
pronounced as in modern English.
This stands for day,
the security of daylight as opposed to the inconvenience,
if not actual terror, of night. Day is the time of being
able to see and thus counteract one's foes, the time when
work may go ahead well.
Again, we only have
the glosses from ASRP
#24 to help augment the interpretation
here. Yet the poem is optimistic, for once, if Christian,
in saying that the glorious light of the Creator, send by
the Lord, is beloved of men, serviceable to all, and a
source of hope and happiness to both rich and poor alike.
Despite representing
the letter D this rune is usually pronounced 'th' as in
modern English 'then'.
The Elements of Runes by
Bernard King
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