elder futhark runes and meanings open source

ELDER FUTHARK RUNES AND MEANINGS OPEN SOURCE SERIES

The vast mountains will begin to sway before I’ll forget her.Įminent woman, we love each other so that the earth bursts apart.īefore I discard the wise woman, the raven shallīe white as the snow lying on the mountains.Ĭarved on a piece of wood: Hér ferr Hafdjarfr/hafdjarfr. “Here sails Hafdjarfr/the seabold.”Ī rune stick tells the following: « Torkel Mintmaster is sending you pepper».Ī man in Bergen put about some gossip, or perhaps he was just boasting, when he wrote: Ingibjörg unni mér þá er ek var í Stafangri. This love poem was inscribed on a square-edged rune stick: On a vertebral of a cattle this request is carved: kyss mik.

ELDER FUTHARK RUNES AND MEANINGS OPEN SOURCE SERIES

= “Kiss me because I am troubled”.Īt Bryggen in Bergen, a series of runic inscriptions were discovered that provide insight into the daily life of people in the Middle Ages. Was Sigrid the name of one of the women buried in the Oseberg ship?Īn inscription found in Gol Stave Church, Bygdøy says: Kyss á mik, þvíat ek erfiða. This is interpreted as meaning “Man knows little”Ĭarved on a bucket found in the Oseberg Ship are the words asikriR which translates as “Sigrid owns”. The word litiluism is carved on a wooden rod, perhaps part of an oar, in the Oseberg Ship. Runes constitute contemporary documentation, but it can be difficult to decipher the runes and there are often several interpretations of an inscription. Sometimes the runic inscription is read from left to right, sometimes from right to left.

Runes were carved on weapons, tools, jewellery, amulets, bones, pieces of wood, memorial stones, church walls etc. Note that one does not write but rather carves a rune. Runes have a form such that they are easy to carve into a hard material. Although used by all Germanic peoples, most of them, however, are discovered in Scandinavia. Just as he was about to die, he found the runes, grabbed them and earned his life.Ī more prosaic explanation is that the runes were developed in the firsth century AD, possibly inspired by the Latin alphabet. He hung on the wind-blown tree for nine nights and days.

The old poem Hávamál explains that Odin discovered the runes when he hung himself from the world tree Yggdrasil in order to learn wisdom. Runes are woven into Norse religion and are closely associated with Norse magic ( seiðr) and skaldic poetry. Note that this technique is handy for recalling the runes, but it doesn’t always coincide with the way they’re meant to be pronounced as a single sound.Odin sacrifices himself on the world tree Yggdrasil and discovers the runes. There’s F - Fehu, U - Uruz, Th - Thurisaz, A - Ansuz, R - Raidho and K - Kaunaz. For example, ‘ Futhark’ makes up the first 6 runes (which is where it gets the name from). Using this aid makes it easier to recall the names of the Runes since every letter is the first letter of its corresponding Rune. Here we condense the three Aetts into small ‘phrases’ Futhark-gw, H-niji pas, and Tbem-ling-do. A handy way to remember the names of the Runes and to which Aett they belong to is to use the following:į-u-th-a-r-k-g-w - h-n-i-j-ï-p-a-s - t-b-e-m-l-ing-d-o The first is Freyr/Freyja’s Aett, the second is Heimdalls Aett and third is Tyr’s Aett. The Elder Futhark is ‘traditionally’ put in 3 parts or ‘Aetts’. * Eihwaz is not sufficiently correct for the letter ‘ Y’ as it is more accepted as an ‘ae’ sound. This list is just what I have gathered so far from multiple sources and compiling it into something that I feel makes sense.įire, Torch - Beacon, Illumination, Understanding, Knowledge ᛈ - is one of these runes that are far from clear as to their meaning. Note that many sources have differing interpretations of some of the more vague runes. Here’s the notes I’ve made on the Elder Futhark after studying and researching them online.

Elder futhark runes and meanings open source