Tales from the Ironwood

Technically I began writing this essay on 26 September 2021. The ideas however began forming years earlier. OS has enabled me to give this essay a voice. OS freed it from the captivity of time, of space, of procrastination, of lethargy. Revised 3 October 2021. ********* As I begin my meditations on the fourth rune OS, I consider Hávamál verse 149: “A fourth song I know: Should an enemy put A tie onto pliable limbs; Then I speak the spell, the shackles break from the feet And the fetters from the hands.”[1] With this verse it is the act of “speaking” or “chanting”[2] that not only realizes the intended effect of OS but which aligns it to the Old English Rune Poem ( OERP ). The OERP tells us: “Os (God) is the origin of all language, wisdom’s foundation and wise man’s comfort, and to every hero blessing and hope.” [3] Guido Von List emphasized the relationship of OS to the mouth and to the power of speech. Also importantly he associated the word Os to As and Ase – meaning

On one hand, the current article was begun on 29 August 2021 and completed on 5 September 2021. On the other hand, my meditations that brought Ymir raging into my consciousness occurred sometime in 2017. At that time I was working my way through Edred Thorsson's curriculum known as The Nine Doors of Midgard .  My meditations then focused on the rune that would come to be called *THURISAZ. In its actual ancient rendering it is known as THURS or THORN. It is in the latter form and within the context of my Armanen studies that this essay has formed like so many droplets from the melting rime. ********* I begin my meditations on THORN by considering Karl Welz’s translation of verse 148 from the Hávamál : “A third song is mine: If urgency tells To tie the opponents with magic Then I blunt the steel of my foes So that their swords will not cut any more.” [1] To be fully transparent, I performed substantive meditation on the meaning of THORN prior to beginning my Armanen rune work.