Runes [further Considerations]

RUNES [FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS]. The first edition's article on "Runes" has held up well, although some updates are necessary. First, the Noleby stone is now believed to be from c. 600 CE. Second, the word alu, found frequently in runic inscriptions from the third to the eighth centuries, is no longer interpreted as "amulet" (cf. Gothic alhs, "temple"). Instead, a connection with Hethitic alwanzahh (to charm) and Greek alúein (to be beside oneself) suggests a meaning of "ecstasy" or "magic." Third, the continued use in the Christian era of serpentine patterns to contain a series of runes is now considered to be due to tradition rather than as signalling pagan defiance. Finally, it should be pointed out that the Ruthwell Cross inscription (now dated c. 627–725 CE) quotes an Old English poem that in the mid-ninth century was reworked into another Old English poem called The Dream of the Rood.

Early scholarship on runes assumed that this system of writing was essentially magical, and despite considerable skepticism about that view, many early inscriptions (second–eighth centuries CE) do appear magical in nature. But whether magical, religious, or secular, runic inscriptions provide much contemporary evidence regarding Germanic paganism. The Glavendrup (c. 900–925 CE) and Snoldelev (early ninth century) inscriptions on stone monuments refer to priests. Their formula "Þórr consecrate these runes" attests to a belief in this god, and the monuments themselves show the importance of commemoration of the dead. The Rök inscription (early ninth century) contains riddling allusions to obscure legends. The rune-master raised the stone in memory of his dead son, but evidently the father was a priest, and the stone appears to have a second purpose of testing a person's knowledge of ancient lore. Runes also appear on cult objects such as bracteates (medal-like gold jewelry) and drinking horns. An inscription on a secular item of jewelry, the south German "Nordendorf fibula" (c. 600–650 CE), refers to Wodan and Wigiþonar (Hallowing-Thor), making it one of the few sources that record the south Germanic belief in the Germanic pantheon.

Another aspect of Germanic paganism was the belief in the magical properties of runes. Each rune represented not only a sound but also the word that was its name. For example, the f-rune was named fé (cattle, or wealth), and the t-rune was named for Týr, god of victory, and was often carved on weapons. A rune could be repeated in an inscription to emphasize its concepts, as could magical words. Migration Age bracteates were inscribed with the words laukaR laukaR laukaR (leek, leek, leek) to invoke the particularly effective medicinal and magical powers of this plant. The healing power of runes is explained in the eddic poem Sigrdrífumál, and another eddic poem calls runes the antidote for misfortune (Hávamál, sts. 138–141). The þ-rune was sometimes called þurs (giant) and could be used in black magic; the eddic poem Skírnismál (st. 6) says that carving it three times will bring disgrace, madness, and restlessness to its victim. Yet another eddic poem (Rígsþula, st. 41) includes runic lore among the cultural gifts divinely transmitted to the nobility, along with the aristocratic pastimes of swimming and the chess-like game of "tables."

After the demise of paganism, runes were widely used in Christian contexts. On the Isle of Man, which developed Christianity from Irish sources but was later settled by Scandinavians, Celtic high crosses were carved with runic inscriptions and dedications like those on continental Scandinavian monuments. That Manx Scandinavians assimilated the Cross as a warrior standard and implement of power—akin to the weapons of the pagan gods—is seen from the tenth-century slate cross fragment at Kirk Andreas. On the right side of the cross, Óðinn with his spear and raven treads on the jaw of a wolf; on the left, Jesus or a saint, armed with cross and book, treads on a serpent, flanked by a fish (cf. Gen. 3:15). To either side of the upper member of the cross are runic inscriptions. The Danish Jelling Stone (c. 965–987 CE), raised by a king to commemorate his role in the conversion of Denmark, displays a simple cross surrounded by interlace and a serpentine runic inscription. A fashion for somewhat similar memorials left thousands of eleventh-century rune stones in Sweden, where memorial stones with runic inscriptions continued to be erected until around 1100. The custom died out not due to the introduction of Christianity per se (many of the later stones are definitely Christian), but perhaps due to the new custom of burying the dead in churchyards. Pieces of wood with runic inscriptions of mythological poetry, found in the Bryggen section of Bergen, Norway, show that this medium as well as this material had an enduring life in an Christian, urban, nonclerical environment as late as the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Runes in Bergen could be used for magical purposes—in love charms, for example, or as something like a curse ("Ími heated the stone so that the hearth would smoke! Never shall the food be cooked! Out with heat! In with cold! Ími heated the stone!")—but usually they had secular purposes, acting as ownership tags for merchandise, accounting records, packing slips, and other kinds of ordinary, everyday communication. The knowledge of runic writing was evidently widespread from the eleventh century on, and some 10 percent of all medieval (c. 1050–1500) runic inscriptions are in Latin and have religious content. Some are prayers; others are charms. Churches and ecclesiastical furniture such as baptismal fonts, bells, and censers were inscribed with runes.

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