The Mystery of the Runes

This essay was originally written on 18 March 2018, almost precisely three years ago. It was the first time that I recorded my thoughts on the runes. It later became Chapter 10 of my book, Tales from the Ironwood. Since that time, I have devoted many hours to reading, learning, and working with the runes to discover their meaning, understand their power, and of course, to unlock their mysteries. 

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When one chooses to follow the path of Ásatrú, they will inevitably discover the runes somewhere along the way. While some discover Ásatrú after first encountering the runes, others like me may be introduced to the runes at a gathering of Ásatrúars.

The Winter Nights event was well organized and lasted for several days. The organizers created a schedule and I was thrilled to see that the days were filled with several promising lectures as well as various rituals. Wanting to gain as much information and knowledge as possible, I attended each class with the enthusiasm of a recent convert. One such class was a profane consideration of the runes. By “profane” I simply mean that the consideration was not religious or magical—but rather a simple look at writing the runes as one might use the letters of an alphabet.

The newcomer to Ásatrú will quickly learn that the runes, on the most simplistic level, are a type of alphabet. The most-common set of runes is known as the Elder Futhark with the word “futhark” derived from the first six runes F, U, Th, A, R, K—much as our word “alphabet” is derived from our first and second letters A and B (alpha, beta). Study of the runes gets more and more complex the further one delves into the subject. One quickly learns that there are multiple futharks. The Elder Futhark is a set of 24 symbols and is the oldest runic system dating back to approximately 200 B.C.E. Since there is an “Elder” Futhark, it comes as no surprise to learn of a Younger Futhark. The Younger Futhark was that in use during the Viking period. It was developed around 700 C.E. and inscriptions were carved through about 1050 C.E. The Younger Futhark has several runes in common with the Elder but interestingly contains only 16 symbols—a one-third reduction from the older system.

There are several other historical runic alphabets including the 33-character Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.[1]  The newcomer may also learn of the Armanen Futhorkh.[2]  The Armanen Futhorkh is the result of a mystical vision that the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century occultist Guido von List had while recuperating from cataract surgery. This system is the most controversial as its skeptics argue against its historicity. It is a system however that was largely embraced in Germany in the early twentieth century by the leading runic magicians of the day and was largely responsible for a revival in interest in these ancient symbols.[3]

In all cases it is important to understand as Edred Thorsson explains in his landmark study Futhark,

A rune is not merely a letter in an old Germanic alphabet, but rather it bears the primary definition of “secret” or “mysterium.”[4] 

The “rune” itself then is a mystery, an idea or a secret. The runes hold a special place in the lore where it is recounted how Odin attains an understanding of their cosmic mystery. In a frequently cited passage from the "Hávamál" ("The Sayings of Har"), we read of Odin’s self-sacrifice:

I ween that I hung on the windy tree,
Hung there for nights full nine;
With the spear I was wounded,
And offered I was
To Othin, myself to myself,
On the tree that none may ever know
What root beneath it runs.
None made me happy with loaf or horn,
And there below I looked;
I took up the runes, shrieking I took them,
And forthwith back I fell.[5]

In this act of self-sacrifice, Odin hangs himself on the world-tree Yggdrasil, sacrificing himself to himself in order to gain the wisdom of the runes.

The wisdom and cosmic ideas of the runes themselves were then incorporated into the hieroglyphic figures that we have commonly come to call “runes” but are more accurately described as “runestaves.” Each runestave then is a symbol representing some cosmic idea. They also have a specific form and phonetic value. Finally there are often numbers associated with each runic symbol that associate one to another.

When people, especially Ásatrúars, think of runes, they often think of magick, and particularly divination. The idea is that, perhaps like tarot, in a proper setting and done in the right manner, the runes could reveal the future or answer questions that one might pose to them. First, of course, one must acquire, or preferably make a set of runestaves for oneself. These are typically rendered as small wooden discs with the runic symbols carved on each—and then colored red—oftentimes with a few drops of one’s own blood. Some adherents of the use of divination through runes may perform a “rune-pull” by choosing a single runestave from a bag or bowl specially made or dedicated for such a purpose. The person doing the rune-pull is then left to interpret what may happen based on the rune that was pulled.

There are many books devoted to the subject of runecasting and each offers several methods that may be used for such activity. One such method is to cast the runes onto a white cloth and select three runestaves to respond to a particular question or concern that one may have. The first rune cast indicates the past. It reveals to the runecaster what they might or might not already know of a given situation. The second rune cast indicates the present. The third reveals what may come to pass in the future. 

While there is considerable evidence for the use of runes in magical workings, the evidence for historical divination through runecasting is quite limited—and generally depends upon one’s interpretation of a passage in Tacitus’s first-century Germania.

The class I attended taught us how to read and write using the Elder Futhark. The idea was not to simply replace an English letter with its equivalent rune, but to replace it with one that had the same or a similar sound. By the end of this relatively short class, I found myself able to read basic inscriptions and spell out my name using this ancient Germanic alphabet.

That weekend also included a course in rune-chant. With several other early risers, I arrived at a small building at 7:00 a.m. after a night of ritual and celebration to learn about the art of Galdr. Originally this word “galdr” meant “incantation;” later it came to mean “magic,” but it is often used to connote the singing or chanting of the runes.

As the sun rose, our small group chanted the runes, creating a glorious harmony. With eyes closed, I listened as the sound reverberated around the wood-framed room. The simple chant was a spiritual reawakening. The sound that morning struck me to my very core. I knew I must seek to learn the mystery of the runes—they were in my blood, just as my blood was in that first set of runestaves that I carved as surely as my ancestors had, many generations ago.

Notes:

1. Similar to the Elder and Younger Futharks, Futhorc is derived from the first six characters of the Anglo-Saxon rune system: F, U, Th, O, R, C. 

2. Futhorkh is derived from the first seven characters of the Armanen rune system: F, U, Th, O, R, K, H.

3. See especially Guido von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. and ed. Stephen E. Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988). 

4. Edred Thorsson, Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic (San Francisco: Weiser Books, 1984), 1. 

5. Henry Adams Bellows trans., The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2004), 60-61.