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CHAPTER 1
WHAT ARE RUNES?
Runes are letters of an alphabet that developed from extremely ancient illustrations, each of which once had a specific meaning. These glyphs developed into an ancient form of old writing, which can be traced back from markings that appeared on rocks as early as the Neolithic period. Pre-runic symbols have been found in various Bronze Age rock carvings, mainly in Sweden. Some of these are easily identifiable in later alphabets while others represent ideas and concepts incorporated into the names of the runes. They can be found chiselled in rocks throughout the areas inhabited by the Germanic tribes. These people shared a common religion and culture. Their mythology was passed on through an oral tradition. The people of Northern Europe used the rune script until well into the Middle Ages. As well as a written alphabet, runes also served as a system of symbols used for magic and divination. In this way the process of writing becomes a magical act.
Runic letters were used to foretell the future by casting. Runes were also inscribed into tools, weapons, rocks, altars, and personal items. According to mythology, the runic alphabet was discovered by the god Odin while he hung head down for nine days and nights from Yggdrasil, the World Tree that supports the universe. From this position, he spied the rune stones and fell from the tree crying and full of knowledge. Each runic character is connected with a deity from Scandinavian mythology and so contains in it a sequence of meanings derived from the deity's connections and relations.
As Christianity spread into the northern realms, the development of the Nordic mythologies began to fade. However, the Vikings colonized Iceland where Christianity had a much weaker influence. There it was possible to preserve the pre-Christian myths, and it was in Iceland that the Nordic mythologies were first written down.
The use of runes fell into disuse as the Roman alphabets became the preferred script of most of Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Interest in the runes began to rise again in the seventeenth century, and it was then that the Christian Church banned them. Runes have since been rediscovered as a symbolic system and have become very popular as a means of divination.
The runic alphabet is one of the oldest forms of writing known. It is made up of straight lines that cross and break. Each letter, or rune, has its own meaning in addition to being used as part of an alphabet for writing. For example, the first rune, "Fehu," is an actual word meaning "cattle." What we now know as the runic alphabet has developed from two different sources — magical and literate.
Runes as we know them are formed from three main alphabets: the Teutonic, which has twenty-four letters; the Anglo Saxon, with thirty-two letters; and the Scandinavian, with sixteen. It is the Teutonic alphabet that we tend to use for divination today. Many runic characters bear a resemblance to Latin letters, except that runes have few curves, which makes them suitable for carving with a knife.
These different alphabets are referred to as "Futharks." The Elder Futhark is basically the Teutonic alphabet. The Younger Futhark contains only sixteen runes, as in the Scandinavian set. There are many variations in the names given to individual runes. There are also variations in the exact shape of certain runes. The Elder Futhark is divided into three groups or "aettir" and each rune has an assigned place. The name Futhark is derived from the first six runes.
Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido, Kaunauz
Each aet ("eight") is named for a Norse god; the three aertir are the aets of Freya, Hagal, and Tyr. The first aet comprise Freya's Eight: Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido, Kaunaz, Gebo, and Wunjo. The second is Hagal's Eight: Hagalaz, Nauthiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Pertho, Algiz, and Sowelo. The third is Tyr's Eight: Tiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Inguz, Othila, and Dagaz.
There is a link between the picture, the letter, and the sound that each rune represents. Runes are more properly glyphs rather than simple alphabetic characters. At this distance in time we cannot be completely sure what the individual glyphs are meant to show. As time has passed, the shape of some of the runes has changed. Most sources use the Germanic names for the runes and the Anglo Saxon name is often given in brackets. The difference in meaning under the two systems for the names given can add to our understanding of the runes. The Anglo Saxon names are much closer to modern English and so more accessible to us. Knowing how English developed can help us to understand the runes better. For example, the "g" in Old English often becomes the letter "y" in Modern English, "a" often becomes "o" and "ae" becomes "a." Using those rules we can look at the names of the Anglo Saxon runes and make more sense of them. For example, "Rad" becomes "road" — highly suitable for a rune connected with travel.
As well as changes in the names and symbols, there has also been a change of attitude toward runes. The Saxons renamed the runes, breaking the links with the pagan gods, but still permitted their use. In later years the Christian Church sought to eradicate the runes, believing (rightly so) that the runes are much more than a mere alphabet and contain magic within the symbols.
The word "rune" is derived from the Old Norse and Old English "run" and the Gothic "runa," meaning a secret thing, a mystery. Their reputation as a divinatory tool was enhanced when the Christian Church claimed they were used for casting magic spells and communicating with the devil. In recent years the popularity of runes increased when the author J.R.R. Tolkein used a form of runes as "dwarfish" writing.
Runes, as used today, are a method of divination similar to the Tarot or I Ching. As with the Tarot, different meanings can be given to the runes that fall in the reverse position. Not all runes can be read reversed because of their symmetrical shape, and not all readers differentiate between upright and reversed runes. Runes can be made from any material though most readers choose wood or stone.
CHAPTER 2
RUNE HISTORY
Before the Germanic peoples of Western Europe possessed a true alphabet, pictorial symbols were used and carved into stones. About 3,500 stone monuments in Europe, concentrated mostly in Sweden and Norway, are claimed to have been inscribed with this writing. The earliest of these writings date from about 1300 BCE. It is likely that they were linked to Sun and fertility cults. Among the symbols were those of parts of the human body; weapons; animals and variations on the circle, square and swastika. Later, these glyphs evolved into more abstract characters resembling no particular objects. The names given to the runes indicate that there was power endowed to them. The most famous users of the runes were the Vikings who scribed them everywhere they went.
The name "rune" means a secret thing, a mystery. When the high chieftains and wise counselors of Anglo-Saxon England met, they called their secret deliberations "Ruenes." When Bishop Wulfila made his translation of the Bible into fourth century Gothic, he rendered St. Mark's "the mystery of the kingdom of God" using the word "runa" for "mystery."
When the Greek historian Herodotus travelled around the Black Sea, he encountered descendants of Scythian tribesmen who crawled under blankets, smoked themselves into a stupor, and cast marked sticks in the air and "read" them when they fell. These sticks were used as Rune sticks. By 100 AD, the runes were already becoming widely known on the European continent.
The most explicit surviving description of how the runes were used comes from the Roman historian, Tacitus. Writing in 98 AD about practices prevalent among the Germanic tribes, he reports:
To divination and casting of lots they pay attention beyond any other people. Their method of casting lots is a simple one: they cut a branch from a fruitbearing tree and divide it into small pieces which they mark with certain distinctive signs (notae) and scatter at random onto a white cloth. Then, the priest of the community, if the lots are consulted publicly, or the father of the family, if it is done privately, after invoking the gods and with eyes raised to the heaven, picks up three pieces, one at a time, and interprets them according to the signs previously marked upon them. (Germania, Ch. X)
Runic letters were used to foretell the future by casting. They were also inscribed into tools, weapons, and other items to enhance their energy and power. They were used by the clergy as an alternative to the Latin alphabet. Some believe that they were derived from a northern Etruscan alphabet and developed among people living in Bohemia.
According to Norse belief the runes were given to Odin, the father of creation. By means of the runes he could communicate with his people, giving them warnings, blessings, and curses for their enemies. The Norse belief system meant that the runes were regarded as sacred and treated with respect and dignity.
The runic alphabet appears to have been derived from two distinct sources. Pre-runic symbols have been found in various Bronze Age carvings, primarily in Sweden. Some of these symbols are identifiable in later alphabets whereas others represent concepts incorporated into the names of the runes. Cases have been made for a Latin and Greek derivation of the runic alphabet and this is still argued over among scholars. The strongest evidence appears to point toward a North Italic origin. There are close parallels between the forms of the letters as well as the variable direction of the writing. This would explain why so many runes resemble Roman letters as both Latin and Italic scripts are derived from the Estrucan alphabet. This would place the creation of the Futhark sometime before the first century CE, when the Italic scripts were absorbed and replaced by the Latin alphabet. Linguistic and phoenetic analysis points to an even earlier inception date, perhaps as far back as 200 BCE.
The Anglo Saxons are credited with spreading the runes throughout Europe. As time went on, runes became standardized; however, in some places the runes numbered as few as 16 or as many as 36. Twenty-four of these formed the basic runes that we know today as the Futhark.
The Common Germanic Futhark (alphabet) remained in use among most of the Germanic peoples until approximately the fifth century CE. It was at about this time that the first changes in the Futhark emerged on Frisian soil. The fifth and sixth centuries were a time of great changes for the Frisian language. Many vowels shifted in their sounds while new phonemes were added. This necessitated the expansion of the rune row. In this first expansion, four new runestaves were added to represent the new sounds in the Frisian language.
The changes in the Frisian language also represented many of the changes that would be seen in Old English. Starting in the eighth century, yet more runestaves were added. It must be pointed out, however, that some of these staves are not properly runes, but "pseudo-runes."
In the eighth century, Old Norse was also going through changes. Sounds shifted, some ceased to be used, and others were added. Old Norse speakers reduced the size of the rune row from 24 to 16. As some sounds ceased being used, the runes representing them fell out of use as well. Similarly, the sounds of some runes were taken over by others, resulting in those runes ceasing to be used as well.
Though we speak of the Younger Futhark as if there is only one, in reality there were two different Old Norse Futharks — the Danish and the Norwegian-Swedish. As might be expected of a script which often uses a single stave to represent several different sounds, the sixteen-rune row apparently proved impractical for writing. Eventually a system of "pointed runes" developed, whereby a runestave that denoted several sounds would have a point or dot added to it in a particular place to differentiate between sounds. This appears to have started in Denmark and spread from there. Unlike the Anglo-Frisian rune row, the Younger Futhark did not fall completely out of use. The runes were used well into the Middle Ages, so much so that Iceland eventually banned their use.
From the ninth through the twelfth centuries, the runes were carried to AngloSaxon England, and then to Iceland. Rune carvings have been found as far afield as Russia, Constantinople, the Orkney Islands, Greenland and, some believe, the North American continent. Shaped by the tribal wisdom of northern Europe, the Viking runes emerged.
With the onset of Christianity, the runes were seen as demonic and as letters of the devil. By 800 ACE there was such persecution of the runes and their users that their use slowly began to wane.
The situation was different in England where runes weren't actively suppressed by the Church and where they appear in Christian documents. They fell out of use by the ninth century when they were overtaken by the Latin script, even for the purposes of inscriptions. They were still being used, although in a more limited way, in Scandinavia and Iceland.
In 1486, the Malleus Maleficarum by Henricus Institoris (Heinrich Institoris Kraemer) and Jacobus Sprenger (Johann Sprenger) began the witch hunt that was to burn throughout Europe. This book was basically a guide to witch hunting and specifically mentions runes:
Or even let us conceive that if they superstitiously employ natural things, as, for example, by writing down certain characters or unknown names of some kind, and that then they use these runes for restoring a person to health, or for inducing friendship, or with some useful end, and not at all for doing any damage or harm, in such cases, it may be granted, I say, that there is no express invocation of demons; nevertheless it cannot be that these spells are employed without a tacit invocation, wherefore all such charms must be judged to be wholly unlawful. (page 19)
The runes did not disappear however. The magician John Dee worked with runes. And mystical works about rune interpretation and magic continued to be written.
Calendars known as primstave, or runstaf, used to mark Church holy days as well as times for planting and harvest, persisted beyond the medieval period in Scandinavia. An indication of their enduring popularity is evident from a seventeenth-century inscription on the choir wall of a church in Oland, Sweden: "The pastor of the parish should know how to read runes and write them." Among the country people of Dalarna, a remote region of western Sweden, survival of knowledge of the Runes has continued into the twentieth century. In Norway, among the Lapps of Finnmark in the country's far North, shamans' drums painted with runes are still in use today.
Until the seventeenth century, runes had remained in common use. They were found on everything from coins to coffins, and in some places their use was actually sanctioned by the Church. Even the common people knew simple runic spells, and the runes were frequently consulted on matters of both public and private interest. By 1639, they were banned by the Church along with many of the magical arts, in an effort to "drive the devil out of Europe."
Runes were primarily of interest to antiquarians by this time. With the Enlightement, interest in the runes was rekindled. The rune poems were transcribed and the first studies into the runes and runic inscriptions were made. By the nineteenth century, many scholars had chosen to study the runes.
In recent history the runes were revived by German scholars connected with the Nazi movement in the 1920s and 30s. In 1902 the Austrian journalist and author Guido Von List suffered a period of blindness following a cataract operation. It was during this period that he experienced a vision in which an alternative set of runes were revealed. He published details of these in his 1908 book, The Secrets of the Runes. Von List was a German nationalist, and his runes were linked with the mythological and racial ideology that was Armanism. He founded the Thule Society, an occult right-wing political organization, to propagate his views.
Though occultism was officially banned under the Nazis and many leading German occultists were imprisoned, a large number of key members of the party, including Himmler and Hitler himself, maintained a strong interest in the occult. The works of Von List therefore found favor, and it was his Armanen runes that were adopted by the party and used on a number of their badges and emblems.
The Tiwaz rune served as the badge of the Hitler Youth movement. The Sigil rune was linked with the German word "sieg" ("victory") and a doubled version was used as the logo of the SS. The lightning flash emblem of the British Union of Fascists was inspired by the Sig rune too. Throughout the Nazi period, runes were seen throughout Germany, including on tombstones.
In 1937 runes gained ground in the UK with the publication of J.R.R. Tolkein's The Hobbit. Runes were used in the map and cover illustrations of the book. He continued to use runes as dwarvish writing in his other books. Runes appear on the title pages of The Lord of the Rings published in 1954. Tolkien is said to have taken his runes from a Viking long boat found in the river Thames.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Reading the Runes"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Kim Farnell.
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