Runes As People
These Pagan Portals are all current works in progress, serialised here on the Pagan Collective blog with each chapter being open for comment. In due course the entire script will be published as a Pagan Portal book.
Over the next few months, we will be running weekly Spirit of the Rune lessons on this blog. Follow along and learn the runes!
Who Are The Runes
While there is little to debate about the various runes’ utilitarian function as writing systems, there’s more to runes than their use for keeping records and inscribing various objects. From an animistic perspective, runes are carriers of knowledge and purveyors of magic. The word ‘rune’ also means secret knowledge and may indicate a verse, poem or charm.
The connotation of secret-keeper is still apparent in modern languages from areas in which long ago the Norsemen settled. For example, in modern Irish, runai means secretary. The root word for secretary is secret, and by definition, the person holding the title or function of secretary is privy to information qualifying as secret.
While there is no single argument solid enough to convince everyone, it would be unwise to dismiss runes as holders of secret knowledge. To better understand the runes for who they are rather than what they are, we must look more carefully into the story about the runes’ origin.
According to the Old Norse poem Hávamál (138-139), Odin is the one who retrieved the runes, and indirectly from him they reached elves, dwarves, and finally, humans (Hávamál 143):
“Óðinn among the Æsir, ans Dáinn for the elves,
Dvalinn for the dwarves,
Ásviðr for the giants,
I carved some myself”
(Pettit 2023)
Odin pierced himself with a spear and then hung, presumably on Yggdrasill, the World Tree, for nine nights without food or drink. The most knowledge-thirsty of the gods decided not to back out of the self-inflicted torment without reaching his goal first. Then, according to the poem, Odin dove downward, grabbed the runes and dashed back up screaming. The length to which Odin goes to obtain the runes invites the thought that it was more than simple letters the Allfather was after.
But where did Odin go exactly to get the runes? Yggdrasil has three roots, each in a different realm with a different well. The first, in Asgard, was guarded by Urð, the eldest Norn. This well contains the accumulated ǫrlǫg of the worlds. It certainly contains great wisdom. The second well, in Jotunheim, was guarded by Mímir and was said to contain the wisdom of the worlds. Odin famously exchanged one eye for a single draft from this well. The last well is in Helheim, the realm of the dead, a place where ancestors go to spend the afterlife. In the Norse tradition, the acquisition of hidden knowledge is intrinsically connected to ancestors and the dead in general, and several mythical protagonists travel to the Underworld or contact the dead in some way in search of knowledge. The poem Baldrs Draumar talks about Odin himself journeying to the gates of Helheim to awaken an ancient völva and have her answer his questions. It is logical then to think that when Odin dove downward, he reached toward these wells to get the runes. Runes can thus be regarded as holders of sacred knowledge who can advise about the future or as agents by whose mediation different kinds of knowledge is attained. From myths, sagas, and archaeological findings, we know that in the past, runes were used not only for divination (“casting lots” in various sagas and hagiographic texts) but also carved on weapons for protection and on pieces of bone or wood for healing, love, or cursing spells.
Many heathens regard runes as inherently wise and endowed with spirit. This view of runes is not a modern pagan trend but a belief with old roots, strong enough to have survived through the Christianization process. A Christian text composed of fragments written between the 10th and 12th centuries, “The Dialogs of Solomon and Saturn” (II.84-102 – II.146-60)[1] showcases Anglo-Saxon runes as trusted allies and powerful spirit helpers to be called upon in exorcism or in battle magic.
“And he who wishes to sing eagerly and truly
that pronouncement of God and who wishes
to love him always without blemish,
he can put that hateful ghast to flight,
the fighting fiend, if first you bring from above
the fearsome prologa prima, peorth (P) by name:
that warrior holds a long staff, a golden goad,
and eternally the strong-minded scourges
that gruesome enemy—and pursuing him
along his tracks, ac (A) of overweening might,
also striking him down. Tir (T) injures him
stabbing him in the tongue, twisting his throat,
shattering his jaws. Eoh (E) harms him,
as he always wants to stand fixed upon
every one of his enemies. Then rad (R) angrily
attacks him in his displeasure, prince of all book-staves,
shaking at once the fiend by his locks,
causing flint to burst the shanks of spirits—
he never considers the joint of their limbs—
he will not be a good leech to them. (ll. 84-102)”
In Your Journal
- What are your thoughts and feelings regarding relating to the runes as individual beings?
- How do you feel about connecting with an alphabet as a single entity as well as each rune as an individual?
How would you explain this on a metaphysical level? For example, if you have physical runes, how do you envision their relationship to the rune spirits themselves?
[1] “The Dialogues of Solomon and Saturn” https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/solomon-saturn/
For more details on Daniela: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/daniela-simina
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