Meditations on BAR: The Return of Frigga's Beloved Son

This essay began also as a progress report of my continued studies of the Armanen Futhorkh. It was written on 13 and 14 March 2021. My further exploration of the Armanen Runes confirms my theory that the Eddas provide a vast array of secret knowledge and a deep esoteric message for those willing to plumb their depths.

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As I continue my study of the Armanen Runes, I come to the thirteenth rune of the Futhorkh, BAR. While meditating on the meaning of the rune BAR, I focus my thoughts on Hávamál verse 158:

“A thirteenth I name: When I wetten the son,
The beloved, with holy water;
When he is facing the foe, he cannot fall,
And no blade can strike him into the dust.”[1]

There is an important relationship between this verse and the one that precedes it. That verse is associated with the rune TYR in Armanen runology. As noted in my article on TYR,[2]  the esoteric meaning of that rune is self-sacrifice. Not only does it recall Odin, the “Hanged Man shaking in the wind on the tree (Yggdrasil),” it also leads to our initiatory transformation in which, following Odin as our model, we see ourselves “hanging on the tree.” Similarly, while meditating on the words of “Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins” [Odin's Rune Song], Odin clearly becomes a model for behavior. The song begins importantly with the phrase, “I know myself hanging on the wind cold tree.” While the words are attributed to Odin, the phrasing is all rendered in first person thereby emphasizing the reader of these verses. Here it is also crucial to note that Odin bends “down in search” from the Tree. The Tree Yggdrasil has its roots in the very chaos that was the Ginnungagap. This reveals that life energy (rune energy) originates from that chaotic time and space –beyond time and space –where the universe / multi-verse began and continues to manifest. Karl Hans Welz notes, “In ancient mythology, this state of existence carries the name of chaos.”[3]  Welz also emphasizes that “BAR teaches that the universe comes from chaos continuously rather than having come from chaos long ago. Creation is a continuous process and the Eighteen Sacred Futhork Runes are among the first manifestations of creation.” 

Following the sacrifice and death of the old self in TYR, BAR represents birth and rebirth. The word imagery of wettening the son with water stirs thoughts of Christian baptism –a rite that famously results in its adherents being “born again.”[4]  But the rituals of “wettening children” or “sprinkling with water” dates back to a pre-Christian Europe and the Heathen Naming Ritual. The Naming Ritual, largely adopted by Christianity as it spread through Europe generally and Germany specifically, not only welcomed the child into the community or tribe (on the ninth day after birth) but often signaled the rebirth / reincarnation of some beloved ancestor by making the child their namesake.

Here my mind turns to powerful heroes and gods of old who through some process were protected from enemies’ blows during battle. From a Norse perspective, I think immediately of Baldr. Following Baldr's baleful dreams, recounted in “Baldrs draumar” [Baldr’s Dreams], Snorri Sturluson reveals that Baldr's mother Frigga attempted to thwart the prophecies of doom by gaining promises not to harm her beloved son from “fire and water, iron and all kinds of metal, stones, the earth, trees, diseases, the animals, the birds, poison, snakes.”[5]

While no specific ritual of “wettening” of Baldr to achieve this “invulnerability” is known in the lore, it is possible that such a tale was lost or transformed into the tale of oaths from various organic forms. My memory turns to the Greek hero Achilles and legends dating back to the First Century which state that he was invulnerable in all his body except one heel, because his mother Thetis dipped him (wettened him) in the river Styx as an infant –holding him by one of his heels. There are also tales of Sigurd / Siegfried who is rendered “invulnerable” by being “wettened” with dragon’s blood. In each case the tales turn because of some flaw in the process. For Baldr, the tragic flaw or hamartia was that no oath was given by the lowly mistletoe plant; for Achilles, his heel was withheld from the river Styx; for Sigurd, a vulnerable spot the size of a leaf on his back.

During the Viking era, the time of the Younger Futhark, BAR was known as BEORC (Old English) or BJARKEN (Old Norse) with its exoteric meaning of "Birch." On its surface, the Old English Rune Poem (OERP) seems straightforward:

“BEORC (Birch) is fruitless, yet bears
Shoots without seeds, is pretty in its branches
High in it’s spread, fair adorned
Laden with leaves, touching the sky.”[6]

The Norwegian Rune Poem (NRP) is less clear and appears in near riddle-like form. The reader is left to solve the puzzle of how the second phrase is associated to the first:

“BJARKEN is the leaf-greenest of branches; Loki had luck in deceit.”[7]

The answer to the riddle brings us back to the myth of Baldr. BIRCH is called out in these two poems as being either “pretty in its branches,” or the “leaf greenest of branches.” Snorri describes Baldr in Gylfaginning ["The Tricking of Gylfi"] in this way,

“He is the best and all praise him. He is so fair in appearance and so bright that light shines from him, and there is a plant so white that it is called after Baldr's eyelash. It is the whitest of all plants, and from this you can tell his beauty both of hair and body.”[8]

The Norwegian Birch tree notably has green leaves, but may also be described as "the whitest of all plants." "Birch" then appears to be a secret or forgotten kenning for the god Baldr.

If we look further to the second half-line from the NRP, BJARKEN is described as “Loki had luck in deceit,” pointing to the tragic role that Loki had in the death of Baldr. Welz's translation of the Hávamál verse associated with the BAR rune, "When he is facing the foe, he cannot fall, And no blade can strike him into the dust" is also an apt description of Baldr. To the reader familiar with Baldr's tale, these words, which on the surface suggest invulnerability, actually make veiled reference to Baldr's tragic flaw.

The Eddas recount that Baldr does not face a “foe” when he falls - but rather his blind twin brother Hoth. Futhermore, Baldr does not fall by the blow of a “blade” but rather by a slender mistletoe dart. So the Hávamál verse originally associated with the rune BAR by Guido von List[9]  points us, as do the Rune Poems, back to the tragic figure of Baldr.

As we seek to understand BAR, we must recall that Baldr's tale does not end in his death. Rather he returns to life –is reborn –in the days following Ragnarök to rule in Gimle. BAR then reminds us also of Rebirth following the self-sacrifice of TYR. It indicates death as well, despite the protections of this and other runes, and the rebirth that follows. Welz explains,

“In its most simplified meaning, BAR represents death and birth, day and night, life and light. It represents these things not as isolated but as an all encompassing unity.”[10]

Here too, the myths of Baldr are critical for understanding. For the shining and beloved son, Baldr surely dies, but is reborn to rule again. Astronomically, Baldr represents the sun and daylight while his blind twin Hoth represents the night and darkness. It is in Hoth's blindness that he unwittingly kills his brother. The events of Baldr’s death play a significant part in the Ásatrú celebration of Midsummer. Von List writes: 

“Baldr in Breidablik (Broad-view). The Sun is at its full power, ascended to its highest height, when Hoth’s deadly shot hits Baldr. Gods and humans are seized by wild terror and fearful anxiety, for Oski, the Ase who has every ability, has been killed off. The Ases prepare a funeral pyre for the fallen Baldr and his things along with his dead wife, Nana. Humans attend the Midsummer festival (summer solstice).”[11]

Not only does Baldr return from Hel to set up rightful rule –but his dark twin Hoth returns as well –establishing unity in the time following Ragnarök.

Welz is surely correct when he writes,

“BAR is truly a Rune of birth as well as it is a Rune of death. BAR perceives the human being as a whole. It perceives the human form as a whole consisting of that which lives in the universe and that which exists in transition.”[12]

In BAR we may be said to rise up continuously from the chaos –being born –and born again. We see light joined with darkness in a rightful whole –not unlike day and night. With BAR we are able to utilize the powerful life energy that resides beneath the roots of Yggdrasil and we become aware of the endless and timeless cycle of that which forever came, that which forever is happening, and that which forever will become.

Notes:

1. Translation by Karl Hans Welz, “Letter of Instructions # 13: The Rune BAR.” https://knightsofrunes.com/rune_magic13.html The word “holy” is added by Welz and does not appear in the original Old Norse. Henry Adams Bellows translates the second phrase as “with water I sprinkle well.” 

2. https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2021/01/meditating-on-tyr-in-light-of-runatals.html 

3. Welz.

4. The Gospel of John (3:3) attributes the following words to Jesus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

5. Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes (North Clarendon, VT: Everyman, 1995) 48.

6. Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore (Cambridgeshire, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011), 49. 

7. Pollington, 53.

8. Sturluson, 23. 

9. Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen E. Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988.) 

10. Welz.

11. Guido von List, The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric trans. Stephen Flowers (Bastrop, TX: Lodestar, 2014) 16. Von List not only relates the astronomical association of gods to months but associates each back to a name of Odin. In this case, Oski the Ase, the sixth name provided by Snorri for Odin in Gylfaginning. 

12. Welz.