Meditations on EH: Uniting with the Fylgja

"Meditations on EH" was completed on 16 May 2021. My primary discovery is the inward spiritual meaning of the Armanen Futhorkh. I don't through this essay declare that I'm right in my interpretation. I only offer it as a means of sharing of information gathered along the way on my journey of self-discovery.

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I begin my meditations on the seventeenth rune, EH, by considering the first part of Hávamál strophe 162.[1] Karl Hans Welz translates the beginning of the strophe as follows:

A seventeenth I know: It is to
Join two lives together in love
With wise law, so that both are
In tune forever.[2]

A somewhat more literal translation is:

A seventeenth I know: so that seldom shall go
A maiden young from me.[3]

In the balance of the strophe, Odin indicates the complexity and challenges of the Rune Songs themselves, by revealing to Loddfafnir, a character of which little is known, but who may represent the various seekers who intend to cull wisdom from the ancient poem:

Long these songs thou shalt, Loddfafnir,
Seek in vain to sing;
Yet good it were if thou mightiest get them,
Well, if thou wouldst them learn,
Help, if thou hadst them.[4]

Perhaps as Odin warns, the Rune songs will not be understood if the practitioner does not develop a profound understanding of each. The rune EH certainly seems to exemplify this challenge. On the surface, many have understood EH to simply mean “marriage.” Karl Welz comments, “The superficial meaning is too easy. The beginner tends to stumble over this easiness and thinks that this is all there is to EH.”[5] Beyond beginners, even the master Guido von List appears to embrace this definition, “’the marriage [Ehe[6]]-rune’ confirms the concept of lasting love on the basis of marriage as the legal bond between man and woman.”[7]

Other authors have defined EH simply as “Horse” or –somewhat better, the relationship between a horse its rider. This definition is based on the Old English Rune Poem (OERP):

EH (Steed) is noblemen’s joy before heroes, / a hoof-proud horse, where about it warriors / rich in stallions exchange words / and is always a comfort to the restless.[8]

For the initiate however, the EH rune, like the other seventeen runes of the Armanen Futhorkh, describes a concept that is internal and what one might call spiritual. Understood in this way, both the concept of marriage and that of rider and horse are valid. One must recognize that there is a more profound meaning in these verses that is obscured by poetic language. While many readers understand that kennings and other poetic forms mask (and beautify) the actual meanings of various tales or verses in the lore, those same readers often accept the Hávamál verses at a literal level and look no further. As the Hávamál ("The Sayings of Har") are verses of the wisdom of Har (one of Odin’s many names) and Odin is the God of magic and poetry, it is baffling that most consider this lay to be didactic. One does well to recall that another name of Odin is Grimnir, “the masked one.” Of all the poems contained in the Poetic Edda, this is the least likely to not contain a hidden and deeper meaning.

In order to understand EH, we must fully grasp the meaning of the two runes that precede it in the Futhorkh -- MAN and YR. In short, MAN represents spiritual consciousness while YR represents material consciousness. EH then is a “marriage” of these two concepts. Welz explains, “EH combines, re-combines, the spiritual with the material-conscious.”[9] While “marriage” may be the best descriptor of this cosmic union of male and female divine principles, Aelfric Avery aptly describes the traditional symbolism of the horse and rider:

“EH is Wuotan riding on his horse Sleipnir, journeying through the nine worlds. Yggdrasil is the steed of Wuotan and represents both the material cosmos and the physical body which is ‘ridden’ by the soul, the spiritual consciousness that is Wuotan.”[10]

Both the horse and rider imagery and the female / marriage imagery are interestingly joined in the Old Norse concept of fylgja (fetch) –one part of the Germanic soul-complex. The fylgja is a part of the soul that is associated with one’s luck and may be passed from one person to another after death.[11] The fylgja has often been represented by horse imagery. Edred Thorsson notes, “that this symbolism is deep rooted is demonstrated by the Old Norse formula marr er manns fylgja (the ‘horse is a man’s fetch.’)”[12]

Returning to the union of male and female divine principles, it is useful to consider Welz’s reminder from Greek mythology:

“An old Greek myth says that at some time man became so powerful a being that the gods were afraid of being dethroned. So they decided to split man into two sexes, which, since then, expend most of their energy in finding each other. Consequently the gods were safe again.”[13]

The fylgja represents the Divine Feminine within the male, it is fair to assume that the Divine Masculine likewise exists in the female. Edred Thorsson explains:

“In some, the fetch itself is a complex entity—with as many as three aspects: an animal-fetch (there may be more than one of these), a contra-sexual fetch (gender opposite that of the lyke[15] to which it is attached), and an abstract geometrical shape (often a crescent).”[16]

Very closely related to the concept of fylgja is that of hamingja (luck). Hamingja provides the abilities described throughout the Norse lore that we would call “astral projection” or “bilocation.” Hamingja means “shape-changing force,” “luck,” and importantly, “guardian spirit.”[17]

From a Norse perspective, the guardian spirit so closely tied to a warrior’s luck in battle is the Valkyrie. “Luck” then is provided to the male warrior by the feminine within—the fylgja. While thinking in these terms, it is quite illustrative to turn to the Sigrdrífumál ("Lay of Sigrdrifa"). Sigrdrífumál reveals how Odin put the Valkyrie Sigrdrifa[18]  to sleep as punishment for bringing “bad luck” on the battlefield to the warrior Hjalmgunnar. Her fate, following a long sleep is to be awakened and “wedded.” To this fate, Sigdrifa added the vow that she would only marry a man who knew no fear.

“Sigdrifa slew Hjalmgunnar in the battle, and Othin pricked her with the sleep-thorn in punishment for this, and said that she should never thereafter win victory in battle, but that she should be wedded.”[19]

The warrior Sigurth discovers the sleeping Valkyrie lying beneath a wall of shields. He removes her helmet and then her coat of chain mail and finally cuts her free from her byrnie. At this very moment she awakens. Many think that the Valkyrie is awakened with a kiss, but this is a later Romantic invention of Richard Wagner in his operatic retelling.[20] The removal of these various layers of protection reveals the fylgja –the divine feminine—within Sigurth himself.

Having awakened the "Valkyrie," Sigurth asks that she teach him wisdom. The Valkyrie proceeds to teach Sigurth much wisdom –and much about the Runes.

Winning-runes learn, if thou longest to win,
And the runes on they sword-hilt write;
Some on the furrow, and some on the flat,
And twice shalt thou call on Tyr.[21]

Following the lessons in rune-wisdom, Sigdrifa offers counsels that are foreordained—but leaves the choice on whether to hear such counsel to Sigurth. Sigurth, demonstrates his fearlessness as he proclaims:

Flee I shall not though fey I know me:
since a babe my breast knew no fear.
Thy loving counsel I lief would have
As long as my life doth last. [22]

Ultimately through this fearlessness, rather than fearlessness on the battlefield, Sigurth has connected with his fylgja and gained significant magical insight and wisdom. We might say that Sigurth uncovered the Valkyrie or Divine Feminine within and was filled with greater intuition and magical understanding that transcends typical worldly knowledge. The Lay rather explicitly tells us that the warrior lays down his weapons to gain these powers long associated with the divine feminine.

The male principle does not succumb however to the female, rather it is joined in an internal sacred “marriage.” While some have written of symbolic image of EH being formed by joining the runes KA and AR, it may be more important to notice the upper half of the rune MAN (without its left upward arm) joined to the lower half of the rune YR (without its right downward arm). In this form, something is both gained and lost as the male and female principles are joined as one.

Welz writes in his Song of EH,

“I experience the power of ideal love. Spirit and Matter, Will and Consciousness, join into one.”[23]

Welz’s emphasis on “love” is not unique, albeit perhaps more esoteric than some of his predecessors. Siegfried Kummer, exclaimed in his Heilige Runenmacht (Holy Rune Might):

“Two Ichs, two lives, two souls, who through pure love unite in marriage and reach a higher life through spiritual, physical, mutual polarity reversal."[24]

While Welz and other authors have associated runes with chakras, oddly enough they do not typically identify the relationship of EH to the Anahata chakra—the heart chakra. The function of the heart chakra is love. It’s vowel sound is “Ay” pronounced identically as EH. The symbol of the Anahata chakra represents the Sacred Marriage: a balanced interpenetration of masculine and feminine. The heart chakra integrates and balances our being thereby bringing a sense of wholeness. It merges spirit and matter. The element associated with Anahata is air.[25] Air represents breath and what the Hindus call prana or vital energy, what we refer to as Odic energy.

EH brings integration and unity. It makes us whole in a cosmic marriage. If we are fearless, we may awaken our fylgja and through a perfect union, one of cosmic universal love, discover the mysteries of the runes and the wisdom of the nine worlds.

Notes:

1. In some translations, this strophe is numbered 163.  

2. Karl Hans Welz, Letters of Instructions #17, The Rune EH. https://knightsofrunes.com/rune_magic17.html 

3. Henry Adams Bellows, trans., The Poetic Edda: The Mythological Poems (Mineola: Dover Publications, 2004), 67. 

4. Bellows, The Mythological Poems, 67. 

5. Welz. 

6. Ehe is the German word for marriage. 

7. Guido Von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen E. Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 63. 

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

 9. Welz. 

 10. Aelfric Avery, Armanen Runes and the Black Sun In Modern Heathenry Vol. II (Vavenby, CA.: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 73. 

11. Edred Thorsson, A Book of Troth (USA: Runestone Press, 2015), 55. 

12.Edred Thorsson, Runelore: The Magic, History, and Hidden Codes of the Runes (San Francisco: Weiser Books, 2012), 129. 

13.Welz. 

14. Donald van den Andel, "Meditations on YR: Confronting One’s Valkyrie." https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2021/05/meditations-on-yr-confronting-ones.html 

15.Lyke is the part of the Germanic soul-complex that refers to the physical body itself. 

16. Edred Thorsson, The Nine Doors of Midgard: A Curriculum of Rune-work (South Burlington: The Rune Gild, 2016), 24. 

17. Edred Thorsson, Futhark: A Handbook of Rune Magic (San Francisco: Weiser, 1984), 77. 

18. Some authors have theorized that Sigrdrifa is another name for Brynhildr. 

19. Henry Adams Bellows, trans., The Poetic Edda: The Heroic Poems (Mineola: Dover Publications, 2007), 138. 

20. See Richard Wagner’s opera Siegfried Act III, scene 3. So saug’ ich mir Leben aus süßesten Lippen, Sollt’ ich auch sterbend vergeh’n! ("Then life from the sweetness of lips will I win me, E’en though I die in a kiss!"). 

21. Bellows, The Heroic Poems, 139. 

22. Lee M. Hollander, trans. The Poetic Edda (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2012), 238. 

23. Welz.

24. Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Holy Rune Might, trans. Aelfric Avery (Vavenby CA.: Woodharrow Bund Press, 2019), 66. 

25. Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn, 2019), 192-196.