Tales from the Ironwood

This essay finally took form in the closing days of 2021, being completed on December 30. I see that I began recording my thoughts on IS some two and a half years ago. Certainly my ideas have evolved over that time. While many Runemasters begin their exercises with IS, and with it falling ninth in Futhorkh order, it is revealing to me that it is the sixteenth of my written rune meditations. It appears that I could not have written it any sooner than I have. ********* I begin my meditations on the ninth rune, IS by considering Hávamál verse 154. Here Odin reveals how he uses this rune to calm raging seas. “A ninth one is mine: If danger is out in the sea To protect my good ship I conjure the wind on the billowing floods And I sing into slumber the sea.” [1] The exoteric meaning of the ninth rune is ice. Upon reading this verse, it immediately comes to mind that through the process of freezing, waves and running water become still. Guido Von List had this same thought, “Through the...

This essay was a long time in coming. Parts of it were written over a year ago. It was finally completed on the Winter Solstice of 2021. NOD is very personal to me. In fact, it is one of the two runes that I consider my personal runes. It is the rune that I call on in times of need. It may be said to have shaped my destiny and resulted in this essay as well each step of this journey that I tread.  ********* I begin my meditations on the eighth rune, NOD by considering Hávamál verse 153. Here Odin reveals how he uses this rune to settle all strife. "An eighth one is mine, quite useful to hear For all the people in danger and need. Where hate should arise from man against man This I settle fast!” [1] Many translations use the word “needful” where Welz has utilized the word, “useful.” For the eighth rune, the term “needful” may indeed be a more appropriate choice. The very name of this rune means, “need.” Guido von List provides an important clarification of the meaning of the ...

This essay was completed on 23 November 2021. Life's experiences over the past several weeks helped provide new insight into the HAG-ALL rune and in turn to that tree of which none telleth from what roots it doth rise. ********* As I begin my meditations on the rune HAGAL, I return to the Hávam ál. In verse 152 Odin reveals how he uses this rune magically to save people from a hall in flames: “A seventh I know: Should the hall blaze high in flames above all the people; no matter how it burns, I save them all: This magic I know to perform.” [1] Immediately the exoteric association of HAGAL with hail, which is emphasized in each of the standard rune poems, comes to mind. It is simple to envision hail colliding with the blazing hall resulting in the flames being extinguished. Each of the standard rune poems also use “corn” as a metaphor for HAGAL. Representative of these is the Old English Rune Poem ( OERP ): “Hail is whitest of corn, from heaven’s height it whirls, w...

This essay was begun on 3 October and completed on Samhain 2021. It completes my analysis of the Armanen Runes making up the initial aett. In KA I complete the first third of a voyage that began in the raw potential of the Ginnungagap and arrives at the manifestation of the first human beings. The cosmological fire of FA is now the fire of spirit glowing inside each of us. ********* My meditations on KA begin with a reading of the 151st verse of the Hávamál . “A sixth one is mine: Should a warrior try To hurt me with the roots of soft wood: This warrior who awakens the hatred in me Shall be struck before he can hurt me.”[1] Guido von List interpreted KA and this verse specifically based on the zeitgeist of his time commenting “The tribe, the race, is to be purely preserved; it may not be defiled by the roots of the foreign tree.”[2] The Old English Rune Poem ( OERP ) sounds a seemingly different note: “(CEN) Torch is known to each living being by fire Radiant and bright, ...

Begun on 26 September and completed on 3 October 2021, my "Meditations on RIT" was born in a flash. I realized that some of the key concepts of RIT had snuck their way into my essay on OS. This error was simple to make as one rune indeed leads to the next in a continuous process of initiation. Now in their rightful place, those ideas contribute to this essay that considers both the cosmological and personal journeys that RIT enables. ********* I begin my meditations on RIT, the fifth of the Armanen Runes by considering Hávamá l verse 150. “This I know as a fifth: If in hostile flight An arrow shoots into the crowd; No matter how it threatens, I block its force By grasping it tightly with the look of my eyes.”[1] On the surface, this verse from Rúnatáls-þáttr-Óðins “Odins Rune Song” seems similar to several other runic verses with the theme of “protection.” A key but subtle difference is that the protection of the folk[2]  empowered by this song and the Rune RIT is ...

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. ...