SSO-20

Runic

Rune, meaning “mystery” or “secret,” is the name given to an alphabet character found in all Germanic countries. It has been suggested that the runes derive from Greek, but recent evidence seems to support derivation from an Italic alphabet of Etruscan origin. Runes were found in third-century Scandinavia and in remote districts of Sweden down through modern times.

The earliest form of runes had 24 letters and was known as futhark, after the first six letters (“th” had a single rune). These 24 were divided into three groups of eight runes, each group known as an aett or aettir (Scandinavian meaning “number of eight”). The three groups were named after three Norse gods: Freyr, Hagal, and Tyr. Every individual rune had a name and these names were known and recorded in ancient Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.

Mythology tells that the great Norse god Odin hung from the Tree of the World, Yggdrasil, for nine days and nights, pierced by a spear. He hung there as a self-sacrifice. At the end of that time, just before he fell, he was able to reach out and grasp the runes, bringing humankind the gift of learning.

Ralph H. Blum, in The Healing Runes, says that “from its very inception, runic writing was not primarily utilitarian, and that the evidence of its sacred function is found first in the bonding of secular letters with the pre-runic symbols employed in pagan Germanic rites and religious practices and, even more dramatically, in their association with the Germanic gods, thereby situating the runic alphabet at the very heart of the old German religion.”7 As he points out, to the Pagan everything in nature was alive. Hence, stones and wood were carved to serve as runes for casting, since they embodied the sacred.

Over the centuries runes have been used to foresee the future and to protect, heal, curse, and invoke the gods. They have been used in medicine, magic, and war. They have also been used simply as writing, albeit as magical inscriptions. (See also the chapter on Magical Alphabets.)

Although used for a relatively brief period on the western Germanic continent, the runes were used for many centuries in Britain. New letters were added, giving a total of 28. This increased again in the ninth century, in Northumbria, to 33 runes. The opposite took place in Scandinavia, with the number of runes dropping from 24 to 16. This was due to the same rune being used for a number of different sounds. There were also variations on the runes; the Swedish-Norwegian, for example, differing slightly from the Danish. There is also the Hälsinge version of the runes, named for the region of Hälsingland where they were first found. They seem to be a sort of runic shorthand. By the eleventh century, Norway was using a mixture of Swedish-Norwegian and Danish runes. The Danish, meanwhile, had followed the lead of the Anglo-Saxons and placed an i inside a u to make a y. Out of the i they made a special letter for e, and out of the k a special letter for g.

Germanic Runes