The original meaning of the word rune is _secret_, and it was used to
signify a mysterious song, mysterious doctrine, mysterious speech, and
mysterious writing. Our ancestors had an alphabet called runes, before
they learned the so-called Roman characters. The runic stave-row was a
futhore (_f_, _u_, _th_, _o_, _r_, _k_), not an alphabet (_A_, _B_) as
in Greek or Latin. But what does it mean mythologically, that Odin is
the inventor of the runes? Odin himself says in his famous Rune-song in
the Elder Edda:
I know that I hung
On a wind-rocked tree[48]
Nine whole nights,
With a spear wounded
And to Odin offered,
Myself to myself;
On that tree
Of which no one knows
From what root it springs.
Bread no one gave me
Nor a horn of drink,
Downward I peered,
To runes applied myself
Wailing learnt them,
Then fell down thence.
Potent songs nine
From the famed son I learned
Of Bolthorn, Bestla’s father,
And a draught obtained
Of the precious mead,
Drawn from Odrœrer.
Then I began to bear fruit
And to know many things,
To grow and well thrive:
Word by word
I sought out words,
Fact by fact
I sought out facts.
Runes thou wilt find
And explained characters,
Very large characters,
Very potent characters,
Which the great speaker depicted
And the high powers formed
And the powers’ prince graved.
Odin among the asas,
But among the elves, Daain;
Odin as inventor of runes
And Dvalin for the dwarfs;
Aasvid for the giants runes risted,
Some I myself risted.
Knowest thou how to rist them?
Knowest thou how to expound them?
Knowest thou how to depict them?
Knowest thou how to prove them?
Knowest thou how to pray?
Knowest thou how to offer?
Knowest thou how to send?
Knowest thou how to consume?
’T is better not to pray
Than too much offer;
A gift ever looks to a return.
’T is better not to send
Than too much consume.
So Thund risted
Before the origin of men,
There he ascended
Where he afterwards came.
Those songs I know
Which the king’s wife knows not
Nor son of man.
_Help_ the first is called,
For that will help thee
Against strifes and cares.
For the second I know,
What the sons of men require
Who will as leeches live.
For the third I know,
If I have great need
To restrain my foes,
The weapon’s edge I deaden:
Of my adversaries
Nor arms nor wiles harm aught.
For the fourth I know,
If men place
Bonds on my limbs,
I so sing
That I can walk;
The fetter starts from my feet
And the manacle from my hands.
For the fifth I know,
I see a shot from a hostile hand,
A shaft flying amid the host,
So swift it cannot fly,
That I cannot arrest it,
If only I get sight of it.
For the sixth I know,
If one wounds me
With a green tree’s root,[49]
Also if a man
Declares hatred to me,
Harm shall consume _them_ sooner than me.
For the seventh I know,
If a lofty house I see
Blaze o’er its inmates,
So furiously it shall not burn
That I cannot save it;
That song I can sing.
For the eighth I know,
What to all is
Useful to learn;
Where hatred grows
Among the sons of men—
That I can quickly assuage.
For the ninth I know,
If I stand in need
My bark on the water to save,
I can the wind
On the waves allay,
And the sea lull.
For the tenth I know,
If I see troll-wives
Sporting in air,
I can so operate
That they will forsake
Their own forms
And their own minds.
For the eleventh I know,
If I have to lead
My ancient friends to battle,
Under their shields I sing,
And with power they go
Safe to the fight,
Safe from the fight;
Safe on every side they go.
For the twelfth I know,
If on a tree I see
A corpse swinging from a halter,
I can so rist
And in runes depict,
That the man shall walk,
And with me converse.
For the thirteenth I know,
If on a young man
I sprinkle water,[50]
He shall not fall,
Though he into battle come:
That man shall not sink before swords.
For the fourteenth I know,
If in the society of men
I have to enumerate the gods,
Asas and elves,
I know the distinctions of all.
This few unskilled can do.
For the fifteenth I know.
What the dwarf of Thodrœrer[51] sang
Before Delling’s doors.
Strength he sang to the asas,
And to the elves prosperity,
Wisdom to Hroptatyr (Odin).
For the sixteenth I know,
If a modest maiden’s favor and affection
I desire to possess,
The soul I change
Of the white-armed damsel,
And wholly turn her mind.
For seventeenth I know,
That that young maiden will
Reluctantly avoid me.
These songs, Lodfafner,
Thou wilt long have lacked;
Yet it may be good, if thou understandest them,
Profitable if thou learnest them.
For the eighteenth I know,
That which I never teach
To maid or wife of man,
(All is better
What _one_ only knows:
This is the closing of the songs)
Save her alone
Who clasps me in her arms,
Or is my sister.
Now are sung the
_High One’s_ songs
In the High One’s hall,
To the sons of men all useful,
But useless to the giants’ sons.
Hail to him who has sung them!
Hail to him who knows them!
May he profit who has learnt them!
Hall to those who have listened to them!
Odin’s sister or wife is, as we have seen, Frigg, the earth, and there
is much between heaven and earth of which the wisest men do not even
dream, much that the profoundest philosophy is unable to unravel, and
this is what Odin never teaches to maid or wife of man.
The runes of Odin were risted on the shield which stands before the
shining god, on the ear of Aarvak (the ever-wakeful), and on the hoof of
Alsvin; on the wheels that roll under Rogner’s chariot, on Sleipner’s
reins, on the paw of the bear and on the tongue of Brage; on the claws
of the wolf, on the beak of the eagle, on bloody wings and on the end of
the bridge (the rainbow); on glass, on gold, on wine and on herb; on
Vile’s heart, on the point of Gungner (Odin’s spear), on Grane’s breast,
on the nails of the norn and on the beak of the owl. All, that were
carved, were afterwards scraped off, mixed with the holy mead and sent
out into all parts of the world. Some are with the asas, some with the
elves, and some with the sons of men.
All this and even more that is omitted we find in the Elder Edda. What
are Odin’s runes? What but a new expression of his being? Odin’s runes
represent the might and wisdom with which he rules all nature, even its
most secret phenomena. Odin, as master of runes, is the spirit that
subdues and controls physical nature. He governs inanimate nature, the
wind, the sea, the fire, and the mind of man, the hate of the enemy and
the love of woman. Everything submits to his mighty sway, and thus the
runes were risted on all possible things in heaven and on earth. He is
the spirit of the world, that pervades everything, the almighty creator
of heaven and earth, or, to use more mythological expression, the father
of gods and men.
Odin hung nine days on the tree (Ygdrasil) and sacrificed himself to
himself, and wounded himself with his own spear. This has been
interpreted to mean the nine months in which the child is developed in
its mother’s womb. Turn back and read the first strophes carefully, and
it will be found that there is some sense in this interpretation; but,
kind reader, did you ever try to subdue and penetrate into the secrets
of matter with your mind? Do you know that knowledge cannot be acquired
without labor, without struggle, without sacrifice, without solemn
consecration of one’s self to an idea? Do you remember that Odin gave
his eye in pawn for a drink from Mimer’s fountain? The spear with which
he now wounds himself shows how solemnly he consecrates himself. For the
sake of this struggle to acquire knowledge, the spirit offers itself to
itself. It knows what hardships and sufferings must be encountered on
the road to knowledge, but it bravely faces these obstacles, it wants to
wrestle with them; that is its greatness, its glory, its power. Nine
nights Odin hangs on the tree. Rome was not built in a day. _Tantæ molis
erat Romanas condere gentes!_ Neither is knowledge acquired in a day.
The mind is developed by a slow process. He neither eats nor drinks, he
fasts. You must also curb your bodily appetites, and, like Odin, look
down into the depths and penetrate the mysteries of nature with your
mind. Then will you learn all those wonderful songs that Odin learned
crying before he fell from the tree.
Odin is the author of the runic incantations that played so conspicuous
a part in the social and religious life of the Norseman. The belief in
sorcery (_galdr_ and _seiðr_) was universal among the heathen Norsemen,
and it had its origin in the mythology, which represents the magic arts
as an invention of Odin.