Meditations on THORN: Ymir’s Blood

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.

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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. I meditated over and over again on the words from the traditional rune poems. The Old English Rune Poem (OERP) tells us:

“THORN (Thorn) is painfully sharp to any warrior/ seizing it is bad, excessively severe / for any person who lays among them.”[2]

The Norwegian Rune Poem’s verse uses the rune name THURS rather than THORN and is the root from whence academics named the equivalent Elder Futhark rune, *THURISAZ.

“THURS (Giant) causes women’s sickness; few are glad at bad luck.”[3]

Finally, the Icelandic Rune Poem (IRP) echoes the NRP:

“THURS (Giant) is women’s sickness and a dweller on cliffs and husband of [the giantess] Varthrun.”[4]

As I have previously explained,[5]  my meditations were overwhelmed by images and thoughts of Ymir, the primeval frost-giant or hrímthurs. On one hand, this revelation didn’t seem so far-fetched as both the NRP and the IRP refer to the rune as THURS –the Old Norse term used to describe the frost giants generally, and Ymir specifically.[6]

Not being one to promote a UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis), I set out to research the association of THORN with the ancient giant Ymir. I scoured my collection of rune books but was unable to find any association of Ymir with THORN. In fact, most authors provided a rather mundane explanation for THORN. This was true even of those Rune Masters who are quite comfortable with magical and esoteric explanations. The late Jan Fries is a perfect example of such mundane interpretation. In his Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick, he writes, “The Thorn is one of nature’s ways of protecting her fruits.”[7] While I don’t deny the obvious exoteric explanation, I am convinced that the skaldic poets concealed a deeper hidden message.

I was thrilled to find a verification of THORN as Ymir – in fact several in Snorri Sturluson’s Skaldskaparmal [“The Language of Poetry”].[8] Edda translator Anthony Faulkes calls Thorn an equivalent of Ymir.[9] In fact, Ymir’s blood is often used as a kenning for water. This makes sense since following Ymir’s death; Odin, Ville, and Ve use his blood to form the seas.[10]

I also discovered that thursam (giants) were associated in the popular imagination with disease. Magical rune formulas have been discovered in which the runes were used to vanquish disease / thursam.[11] The association then in the NRP of “women’s sickness” (menstruation) with Thurs generally and with Ymir / Thorn specifically becomes clear.

With the association between THORN and Ymir confirmed, I sought to better understand Ymir in order to explore the esoteric meaning of this rune. There are two decidedly different aspects of Ymir. The first is that of the fierce frost-giant (hrímthurs) who was formed from the melting rime during the Ginnungagap. It was from the chaos of Ginnungagap that Ymir derived his power. In Gylfaginning Snorri describes Ymir as “evil.”

“Not at all do we acknowledge him to be a god. He was evil and all his descendants. We call them frost-giants (hrímthursa).”[12]

Ymir, a chaotic being, is able to wield the tremendous life-force that originated in the timelessness of the Ginnungagap. Snorri writes:

“And it is said that when he slept, he sweated. Then there grew under his left arm a male and a female, and one of his legs begot a son with the other, and descendants came from them. These are frost-giants.”[13]

One aspect then of THORN then is unbridled rune energy. It may be wielded through individual will and will power. THORN is the power and raw energy of the runes in its uncontrolled chaotic and even dangerous form.

But there is another aspect of Ymir (and thereby THORN) to understand. This form becomes clear following the birth of his descendants, Odin, Ville, and Ve. Odin and his brothers kill Ymir to establish order in the universe. They transport Ymir’s body to the middle of the Ginnungagap and make the earth from his corpse. In fact, they construct all of the heavens thereby establish initial order and rightness throughout the cosmos.

Importantly it is also explained that from Ymir’s hair, trees were formed. Odin and his brothers shortly thereafter provide breath, life, consciousness, movement, and senses to the first man and woman (Ask and Embla) who are manifested from trees. It is evident then that all mankind is descended organically from Ymir. Ymir, the ancient ancestor is the ordered Ymir of Odin, Ville, and Ve as well as the original chaotic hrímthurs of Ginnungagap.

This second aspect of Ymir represents harnessed energy. THORN then is not solely a rune of unbridled rune energy and uncontrolled will but rather a rune of polarities. It is the Odic energy that may be used for order or for chaos, good or evil. One may think of it as one thinks of electricity. Uncontrolled electricity has the power to destroy and to kill – it may also be used to provide many conveniences such as light and energy to power modern technologies.

THORN then has the power of both light and dark, day and night. Guido von List emphasized opposites when he referred to THORN both as a “thorn of death” and a “thorn of life” reminding all of Wuotan[14]  putting his daughter Brunhild into a “death sleep” following her disobedience.[15] Emphasizing this aspect of opposites, Karl Hans Welz writes in his “Song of THORN:”

“With THORN, I am aware of the inner meaning of the play of opposites. THORN opens up my understanding of re-action to action. Death follows life, new birth follows death, when perceived from within the confines of time. When perceived from beyond time, then all of this is part of the same process; all is part of the same existence. I am opening up to the hidden meaning of opposites. Light and shadow co-exist, day and night co-exist, waxing and waning co-exist, life and death co-exist. Opposites emerge when the wheels of time are in motion, when the wheel of life is in motion. THORN leads me to an elevated level where action and re-action are equally and eternally present. When I look at the planet Earth from outer space, then one half is day, one half is night. For the person who lives on this planet, day follows night and night follows day.”[16]

Many Rune Masters including Von List and Spiesberger also associate THORN with the thunder-god Thor. Siegfried Kummer not only makes such an association with Thor, but importantly with Thor’s hammer. He writes,

“The Thor-rune is dedicated to Thor the Third, whose hammer strikes in the Three Lands, becoming, prevailing, being and passing away to new arising.”[17]

Aelfric Avery calls THORN “the rune of Thor’s Hammer” and emphasizes its ability to move vril energy.[18] He writes:

“We draw vril into us, shape it into whatever runic trend we desire, and by the power of THORN we send vril directly to people, things or to magical operations to empower them. This process has been referred to as ‘throwing Thor’s Hammer.’ The Hammer is the means by which we achieve our own integration into the cosmic vril streams, and thus our own personal transmutation and development of magical abilities.”[19]

We see that THORN not only represents the thursam, but also the great giant-slayer Thor. This too emphasizes the opposites and polarities associated with this rune. THORN represents the power of chaos wielded by Ymir and the giants, but also the power of order manifested in Thor to slay such forces.[20]

For the initiate pursuing mastery of the runes, it is important to realize that THORN comes early in the Futhorkh. The budding Rune Master is still in the process of learning when he or she reaches this third rune. Understood in the context of the runes that precede it, we find the potential of the initiate in FA, and self-healing in UR before we encounter the power of rune energy through THORN. In terms from Norse spirituality we have the powerful potential of Ginnungagap in FA and the nurturing aspects of Auðumbla, the cosmic cow that fed Ymir rivers of milk from its teats. It has been called the son of FA and UR. There should be little wonder that caution is urged at this step in one’s development. The runic energies are still unbridled. It is critical at this stage to learn to control our will and thereby the energy source that we tap into.

A Rune Master is able to project rune energies to direct his or her will. With THORN we may indeed blunt the swords and weapons of our enemies as Odin suggests in the Hávamál. But THORN is also a threatening rune for the unprepared. The OERP warns that “seizing it is bad” and it may be “excessively severe.” Uncontrolled, the rune of the ancient frost-giant represents great power –that can indeed be dangerous and severe. Controlled, THORN can protect just as nature uses thorns to protect its fruits.

THORN is a rune to behold with awe. It is a rune that should not be taken lightly. It represents the runic energy –the Odic energy of all runes. THORN rises from the great chaotic magical gap – the Ginnungagap – the source of rune power and magic. Learning rune magick will reveal how such power may be wielded through one’s will. The initiate must always remember that such power may be used for good or evil, for day or night, for life or death. The Rune Master must learn to exercise the discipline necessary to wield such power wisely and responsibly- a lesson made clear with the runes to follow.

Notes:

1. Karl Hans Welz, Letter of Instructions # 3: The Rune THORN. https://runemagick.com/rune_magic03.html 

2. Stephen Pollington, Rudiments of Runelore (Cambridgeshire, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2011), 46. 

3. Pollington, 52.  

4. Pollington, 54. 

5. See my article “Armanen Runes: Untimely Meditations”: https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2021/06/armanen-runes-untimely-meditations.html 

6. For a more complete analysis of Giants in the Norse Lore see my article, “Of Giants, Gods, Chaos, and Magick”: https://talesfromtheironwood.blogspot.com/2020/12/of-giants-gods-chaos-and-magick.html 

7. Jan Fries, Helrunar: A Manual of Rune Magick (Oxford: Mandrake of Oxford, 2006), 351. 

8. See several passages in the Skaldskaparmal in Snorri Sturluson, Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes (Vermont: Everyman, 1995) 83-85. 

9. See the “Annotated Index of Names” in Snorri Sturluson Edda, trans. Anthony Faulkes, 256. 

10. See Vafþrúðnismál 21 and Gylfaginning 8. 

11. See for example the eleventh century Canterbury Rune Charm. See also the article by Alaric Hall, “Þur sarriþu þursa trutin”: Monster-Fighting and Medicine in Early Medieval Scandinavia.” https://www.alarichall.org.uk/thurs.pdf 

12. Sturluson, 11. 

13. Ibid. 

14. “Wuotan” is the Old High German form of “Wotan” or “Odin” used by G. von List in his writings. 

15. Guido Von List, The Secret of the Runes, trans. Stephen Flowers (Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1988), 51. 

16. Welz. https://runemagick.com/rune_magic03.html 

17. Siegfried Kummer, Holy Rune Might, trans. Aelfric Avery (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Bund Press, 2019), 94. 

18. Aelfric Avery, Armanen Runes and the Black Sun in Modern Heathenry Vol. II (Vavenby, CA: Woodharrow Gild Press, 2018), 27. Avery uses the term “vril” to describe what others call “Odic” or even “Orgone” energy when referring to rune energy. 

19. Ibid. 

20. Thor is the god from whence the day of the week Thursday gets it name. In the lore Thor is descended from both gods (Odin) and giants (Erde). Thor’s power and behavior often parallels that of the thursam.