THE RUNIC MYSTERIES


Quite a few of the aforementioned charms can be found in Anglo-Saxon. The reader is referred to Bill Griffith's Aspects of Anglo Saxon-Magic for examples. The connections of the written and spoken word with magic can be seen to antedate these charms. Before the development of the Anglo-Saxon script, one can see a magical association with the runic script. The Havamal speaks explicitly of the power of the runes. It seems quite clear that their power is an extension of the magical association of language. These conclusions can be deduced from the word "rune" itself and its history.

The ultimate origin and meaning of the word "rune" is obscure. It does not appear to have Indo-European cognates and likely falls into the 20% or so of the Germanic language family that is of non Indo-European origin. Some have attributed it to potential Proto-Indo-European roots, but the evidence is rather slim. Most scholars agree that the word originally meant mystery. Clark-Hall, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, defines "run" as "mystery, secrecy, secret; council, consultation; (secret) council." Similar meanings can be found in Old High German, Old Saxon and Old Norse. When Wulfila translated the New Testament from Greek into Gothic, using his newly created script, he translated the word "musterion," or mystery, of Mark 4:11 as "runa." We also see that this meaning of mystery or secret was adopted, by loan, in the Insular Celtic tongues, into which we shall digress for a short moment.

The word "run" in Old Irish had the meaning of secret or mystery, which later broadened in modern Irish to secret; intention; motion; and even love. Scottish Gaelic applies the same meanings to it, except for love, and adds inclination and disposition. While Welsh does not seem to display the root word itself, it has many variant forms denoting secrecy, mystery, and also love, as in Irish, and even virtue. Modern Irish has the word "runai," which like the Scottish "runair," quite literally translates as secretary, which etymologically means keeper of secrets. The Irish word "rundaimhair" means religious mystery. "Runda" means secret, confidential, mysterious. "Rundacht" means secrecy. "Runmahr" means secretive. "Faoi run" means in secret. A "cumann runda" is a secret society. The "runseirbhis" is the secret service. In Scottish Gaelic, "runach" means secret. In Welsh, a "cyfrinach" is a secret or a mystery. "Cyfrin" means secret or subtle. "Cyfriniaeth" means mysticism, while "cyfriniaeth" means mystic or mysterious and a "cyfriniwr" is a mystic.

The association and contrast between secret and mystery is a fine line. The root certainly conveyed the idea of secrecy in the Germanic tongues. As well, a meaning of religious mysteries and mysticism is also apparent and is most likely more primary. The Anglo-Saxon form "runlic," for example, meant mystical. The word mystical itself means pertaining to mysteries, according to its etymology. An interesting example of "run" appears in Anglo-Saxon in The Wanderer, line 111, "gesæt him sundor æt rune." This literally translates to "He sat apart, at a rune." It is commonly translated idiomatically as "he sat apart, in meditation" or "in secret meditation." Both are based on the assumption that "to sit apart at a secret" would imply meditation. What we are certain of, is that we cannot translate it as "he sat apart in secret." It should also be noted that the person sitting apart is explicitly referred to as a man "wise of spirit." The poem is also attributing to this man a series of comments on the transitory nature of the material world.

We have already seen that "rune" can mean council, consultation; (secret) council. It is used in reference to council in Beowulf, line 171. The Anglo-Saxon word "geruna" means counsellor, confidant, as does the Old Norse "rynandi." Also in Anglo-Saxon, we see "runwita" meaning advisor, counsellor or wise man. From these secret councils developed the idea of conspiracies, and whisperings in hushed tones. The idea of conspiracy is seen in the Anglo-Saxon "reonian," meaning to conspire or plot.

The idea of whispering and murmuring is widespread throughout the Germanic tongues. It still survives today in the German "raunen," which came down from the Middle High German "rounen" and the Old and Middle High German "runen." While these all mean whisper, in Middle High German it could also mean slander and we get the idea of gossipy whispers behind the backs of others. Old High German also had "runizen" or "runezen," meaning to speak, whisper or grumble, as well as "runezon," meaning simply to grumble. Middle High German also had "runer," which meant a whisperer. Old Norse had a similar "runa," who was also a whisperer. Middle Dutch has recorded "runen" and "ruinen," both meaning whisper. Old Saxon had "runon" of the same meaning.

Anglo-Saxon had "runian," which besides meaning whispering or murmuring, could also mean talk secrets, conspire, reminding us of the Middle High German "rounen." "Runian" survived in Middle English in two forms. We see it as "rounden," which gave us the Early Modern English "round," and "rounen," which gave us the Early Modern English "roun." Both "round" and "roun" can still be found in some dictionaries, with the meaning to whisper. Anglo-Saxon also had "runung" and "reonung," which can both be translated as whisperings, but the latter could also mean conspiracy or plot. These gave rise to the Middle English "rouninges," also meaning whisperings, as well as private conversations. Like "runer" and "runa," Anglo-Saxon also had "runere," meaning whisperer as well as tale bearer, which again brings us thoughts of gossip. The Middle English "sonderrune" meant private conversation or counsel. The "rune" root was not limited to whisperings and conspiracies, however. The Middle English "runinge" and "rouninge" simply meant conversation. Middle English also had the word "leodrune," meaning discourse. The word was also heavily borrowed from Germanic into Finnish, with the meaning of poem or song.

Putting aside all this historical linguistic obscurity, most people know that "rune" denotes a character of the early Germanic script, commonly known as "the runic script." The word designated the specific set of characters, by all our evidence, not written characters in general. The word was used by the early Germanic people themselves, as well as by the Romans, when referring to that script. We see the word for runic character in Runic Old Norse as "runar," Old Icelandic and Faroese as "run," Swedish as "runa," Danish and Norwegian as "runa" and in Middle High German and Anglo-Saxon as "run." This is the same word seen earlier as also meaning mystery. Stratmann's Middle English Dictionary records the phrase "write runen" from 1205 ce. It has changed little since.

The word "rune" and its variants are inevitably tied into the Germanic traditions of occultism and witchcraft. Their use for divination is widely commented on if not entirely proven. The most solid evidence for the use of runic characters in divination goes back to a passage from Tacitus, who comments on divinatory practices of the Germans. Tacitus does not, however, state that the runic characters were used. There is also what seems to be an allusion to their divinatory use in the Havamal, where we read "All will prove true, that thou askest of runes." (Bray translation) We are led to believe that this refers to the letters and not simply "mysteries," because this is immediately followed by comments on Odin painting them. We will return to the Havamal shortly, but for now let us continue. While we have little hard evidence of actual divinatory practice, it seems more than highly probable given the large amount of evidence we do have, however unclear or circumstantial it may be.

Beyond divination, runes have become associated with witchcraft spells. How far back this goes is hard to say for sure. Norwegian has a phrase "kaste runer etter," which means to cast a spell on or to practice magic on somebody. It is cognate to the Faroese "kasta runir a ein." Faroese also has the interesting words "runabinda," meaning to put a spell upon and "runabundin," meaning bewitched. It is worth noting that these words seem to be exact translations of the English words "spellbind" and "spellbound." We will return to "spell" in the next section. The word "run" itself, in Faroese, translates to witchcraft. To "runa" is to practice witchcraft, nearly identical to the Norwegian "rune," meaning roughly the same. Einar Haugen defines the word as "to cast charms and spells, engage in secret arts; bewitch, charm." A Norwegian sorcerer or magician is called a "runekall," or, literally, a runeman. Further, we also see the Norwegian word "runebomme," meaning magic drum.

Jordanes, when writing of the Goths in his Latin work, the Getica, speaks of Gothic witches, which are called "haliurunnae." We come across this same word in the Anglo-Saxon Beowulf, where we see the "helrunan." This is a plural of what would be a singular "helruna." The word also appears elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon as "hellerune" and "helrynegu." What this word actually translates to is subject to much debate. Besides being translated as witch, it is commonly translated as sorceress, pythoness, demoness or even hellish monster. The last is certainly influenced by the apparent similarity between the "hel" component of the word and the Germanic name "hell" for "hades" or "pandæmonium." While they are probably related, the "hel" component probably retains the original meaning of concealed, which gave us the word "hell." The most sensible guess at translating it would be concealed whisperers, or those that whisper in secret, referring to the secret enchantments or spells incanted in secret by witches. Anglo-Saxon has two other words for sorceress based on the word "rune." We also see "leodrune" and "burgrune." The etymologies of these are even less clear.

We return now to the Havamal with all of these considerations under our belts. As we mentioned above, the Havamal (verse 136) makes explicit mention of the use of runes against harm. Quite soon after in the text, while hanging from a tree, Odin is said to have "taken up the runes" ("namk upp runar"). This is generally taken by many to be saying that Odin discovered the runic script, but it seems more likely to be referring to the verses of mystery, or as we should say, charms or spells. We shall discuss both of those terms shortly, in turn. Returning now to the Havamal, in greater depth, we read the passage as "namk upp runar, œpandi namk" or "raised up the runes, raised a wailing." At this, he fell from the tree. This reminds us of charms of unbinding, as told of in many old stories. The wailing was probably referring to the runes, the uttering of which released him from the tree. Immediately following this passage, we are told that Odin learned "nine mighty songs." We may take this as saying that these nine mighty songs are the "runes" he received on the tree.