The Lesser Spheres · Norse

The Runes

The Elder Futhark is the oldest runic alphabet, carved by the Germanic peoples from around the second century. Its twenty-four runes are letters, sounds, and ideas at once, gathered in three families of eight called aettir.

In the Hávamál, Odin hangs nine nights on the windswept tree, wounded by a spear, and takes up the runes as he falls. Their meanings here draw on the three medieval rune poems, Old English, Norwegian, and Icelandic, and on modern rune practice. Many modern sets add a blank rune for fate, the unknowable; it is a modern addition, not an ancient one.