Tales from the Ironwood

This essay was written in a blinding flash worthy of SIG itself on 23 January 2022. It was subsequently revised on 20 February. It marks an important point in my "Untimely Meditations" as it is the eighteenth such essay. In the past the "conquering" imagery associated with this rune was too brash and superficial. SIG does provide hope and victory in battle against all odds --but such battles are not necessarily of the material world, rather they may also take place in our daily lives in the realm of the spirit.  ********* I begin my meditations on the eleventh rune, SIG by considering Hávamál verse 156. Here Odin reveals how to be victorious in life’s battles. “This I know as eleventh: When I lead Into battle the friend, The beloved; I sing it in his shield: He will win in battle And good luck around him Wherever you look.” [1] Once again we are presented with a Hávamál verse that on the surface does not appear to align with the traditional rune poems. Ea...

This largely autobiographical piece was written on Memorial Day 2020 with minor edits performed on 28 May 2022 and 24 May 2024. As a preface to this article, it is useful to consider the etymology of the word memorial . Memorative was the Middle English word for "having to do with memory." It was derived from the Old French word memoratif which in turn came from the Latin memorativis . All suggest "of, or belonging to, memory." The Proto-Indo-European (PIE) term is *(s)mer- "to remember." ********* As I sit here on Memorial Day 2020, I’ve just read a report in The Sun that less than half of the American population knows the true meaning of Memorial Day. It is not really surprising, but it is certainly a sad statistic. While I never considered my family to be a military family, I was raised with a respect for those who served in the Armed Forces—even if the wars they fought were the result of some politician’s failures or foibles. Memorial Day always ...