THE TERRIBLE ONE'S HORSE: CHAPTER 29

I TOOK UP THE RUNES: THE SPELLS OF ODIN IN HAVAMAL

In the Norse Eddic poem “Havamal”, the god Odin cryptically refers to eighteen magical songs or spells meant to be used in conjunction with the runes.  These songs have been variously interpreted in the past, and different runes or combinations of runes have been applied to each.  Unfortunately, as is true of Guido von List’s “Armanen” system (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armanen_runes), mystical or intuitive approaches have failed to yield any convincing analyses.  Some more rationalistic attempts have shown promise in their methodology, but have also produced dubious conclusions.

What follows is my own brief attempt to grapple with the problem posed by the eighteen Havamal songs.  My method is rather simple: begin by explaining why there appear to be 18 runes referred to when we know the Younger Futhark or runic alphabet of the time was comprised of 16 letters, and then, once that is accomplished, properly assign one rune to each spell.

I will begin with the 18th runic song.  Note that the translations offered here are from the Carolyne Larrington version of the Poetic Edda.

 163     

I know an eighteenth, which I shall

never teach to any girl or man’s wife—

it’s always better when just one person knows,

that follows at the end of the spells—

except one woman whom my arms embrace,

or who may be my sister.

The rune meant to attend this charm, as the context makes clear, is a so-called “secret rune”.  Secret runes were used to send or record coded messages.  One rune could be arbitrarily chosen to represent the meaning of another or the rune could actually be altered in appearance to take on a wholly new meaning, one known only to the originator of the coded text.  As such, this spell is not meant to be included in the 16 letter futhark, but is instead to be considered an “extra” rune whose nature cannot possibly be revealed.

This leaves us with 17 songs.  Fortunately, we know that the fourth letter of the Younger Futhark, /a/, could have two meanings.  It could represent ass, ‘god’ (perhaps, in particular, Odin himself), or it could stand for oss, ‘estuary, mouth’.  If we allow for both of these definitions for /a/ being found in the eighteen spells, which we have already reduced to seventeen, then we would be permitted to claim that, in reality, only sixteen runes belong to Havamal.

[The /u/ rune in the Younger Futhark means ‘slag, drizzle’, but in the Elder Futhark it appears to have been defined as “aurochs”, the wild ancestor of domestic cattle.  I don’t think this meaning was still significant for the inhabitants of late medieval Iceland, and probably it was no longer even recognized.  Domestic cattle as a measurement of wealth fell under the /f/ rune, and the Icelandic Runic Poem specifically describes /u/ as “lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay-harvest and abomination of the shepherd.”]

Assuming this to be true, I will proceed with an examination of the remaining seventeen spells.

146    

I know those spells which a ruler’s wife doesn’t know,

nor any man’s son;

‘help’ one is called,

and that will help you

against accusations and sorrows

and every sort of anxiety.

This, of course, is for the /n/ or naudr rune, ‘need, necessity, distress’.

147    

I know a second one which the sons of men need,

those who want to live as physicians.

The /k/ or kaun rune, ‘sore, ulcer.’

148     

I know a third one which is very useful to me,

which fetters my enemy;

the edges of my foes I can blunt,

neither weapon nor club will bite for them.

The /t/ or Tyr rune, said in the literature to have been applied to blades.  We can assume that such a rune would have an apotropaic function against the enemy in addition to providing power and resilience to one’s own weapons.

149     

I know a fourth one if men put

chains upon my limbs;

I can chant so that I can walk away,

fetters spring from my feet,

and bonds form my hands.

The ‘fetters’ referred to here are usually thought of as the battle-fear that freezes a person, immobilizing them even if just for a split second so that they can more easily be dispatched.  For this reason I would say the appropriate rune is /i/, ‘ice’.

150     

I know a fifth if I see, shot in malice,

a dart flying amid the army,

it cannot fly so fast that I cannot stop it

if I see it with my eyes.

The word dart here (flein in the Old Norse text) means also shaft, pike and the like, and so we must look for a corresponding potentially damaging natural force that could mimic such a weapon.  Hail is our best bet, and so I would risk attaching the /h/ rune to this spell.   Poetic kennings often refer to missile weapons in terms of weather phenomena, as in ‘hail of battle’.

151     

I know a sixth one if a man wounds me

with the roots of the sap-filled wood:

and that man who conjured to harm me,

the evil consumes him, not me.

The /y/ or ‘yew, yew bow’ rune.  The yew in European tradition is the tree of death.

152     

I know a seventh one if I see towering flames

in the hall of my companions:

it can’t burn so widely that I can’t counteract it,

I know the spells to chant.

Water is the opposing element to fire, so the rune for this song is /l/, ‘water’.

153     

I know an eighth one, which is most useful

for everyone to know;

where hatred flares up between the sons of warriors,

then I can quickly bring settlement.

The most commonly cited cause of such strife is gold or wealth (also cattle), and so the /f/ rune belongs here.  Wergild was money offered for settlement in the case of a slaying and payment could also be offered to compensate for other slights involving personal or family honor.

154     

I know a ninth one if I am in need,

if I must protect my ship at sea;

the wind I can lull upon the wave

and [sic] quieten all the sea to sleep.

The wind in the primitive, pre-scientific mind was related to breath, and for this reason I would tentatively place the first /a/ rune here, i.e. ‘estuary or mouth’, as the breath is drawn in and out of the mouth.

155     

I know a tenth one if I see witches

playing up in the air;

I can bring it about that they can’t make their way back

to their own shapes

to their own spirits.

The /u/ rune is ‘slag, drizzle’.  By drizzle here is meant cold rain that freezes upon contact with the ground.  Slag, of course, is similar in the sense that it is a by-product of the ore smelting process that runs off in liquid form only to harden when it cools.  If we metaphorically view the spirits of the witches as being transformed into drizzle, then they have effectively been prevented from returning home to their bodies (which would be lying in trance).

156     

I know an eleventh one if I have to lead

loyal friends into battle;

under the shields I chant, and they journey inviolate,

safely to the battle

safely from the battle

safely they come everywhere.

The shield in Norse mythopoeic language is referred to as the sun.  So the /s/ rune, ‘sun’, belongs here.

157     

I know a twelfth one if I see, up in a tree,

a dangling corpse in a noose:

I can so carve and colour the runes

that the man walks

and talks with me.

Odin’s “riding” on the gallows-tree Yggdrasill, and poetic use of “riding” for men on the “horse” known as the gallows-tree,  strongly suggests the rune for this song should be /r/, ‘ride, a riding’.

158     

I know a thirteenth if I shall pour water

over a young warrior:

he will not fall though he goes into battle,

before swords he will not sink.

One might think this is for water, the /l/ rune, but given the emphasis on youth we can point to the letter /b/ for ‘birch’, a tree in European tradition that symbolized birth and beginnings.  Here the young warrior should be seen as being “watered” like a new birth tree.  In the poetic kennings, warriors are often likened to trees.  The first man and woman in the world were created from trees.

159     

I know a fourteenth if I have to reckon up [give the number of]

the gods before men:

Æsir and elves, I know the difference between them,

few who are not wise know that.

The other /a/ rune, namely ‘ass’ or “god [= Odin?]”.  It is Odin as the triune god who in Snorri Sturlusson’s “Gylfaginning” enumerates and describes the gods.

160     

I know a fifteenth, which the dwarf Thiodrerir

chanted before Delling’s doors:

powerfully he sang for the Æsir and before the elves,

wisdom to Sage.

Delling, whose name may mean ‘the shining one’ (see Rudolf Simek’s Dictionary of Northern Mythology), is here chanting before the doors of the mountain or barrow, both being symbolic of the earth into which heavenly bodies pass, seed is planted and to which men go in death  - and from which all is ultimately reborn.  In fact, Thiodrerir has been etymologized as ‘the famous one in the burial mound’ (see again Simek).  The song is probably for a plentiful harvest, a good year, and thus a fertility charm.  The letter /a/ (for ar, not ass), ‘good harvest, plenty’, can be linked to this song. See H.R. Ellis Davidson’s “Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe” (p. 104) for the spirit known as the ar-madr in Icelandic saga.  This scholar says: “ar means harvest or season, and the implication is that the being in the stone could bring about a prosperous harvest.”

161     

I know a sixteenth if I want to have all

a clever woman’s heart and love-play:

I can turn the thoughts of the white-armed woman

and change her mind entirely.

We know from the Eddic poem “Skirnismal” that the /th/ rune, ‘thurs’ or ‘giant’, causes “lust” and “burning” and “unbearable need” to women (or at least to goddesses!).  For that reason, we can place that letter here.

162     

I know a seventeenth, so that scarcely any

young girl will want to shun me…

This is the ‘m’ or ‘man’ rune, the symbol of male virility.  The idea is, obviously, that young women cannot resist handsome, strong, well-endowed men, who are the human incarnation of the god, just as the woman is the avatar of the goddess.

It might, of course, be possible to arrange the runic letters differently in accordance with the “Havamal” songs.  It is also quite possible that instead of one runic letter being designated by each song, there originally were entire runic formulas composed of multiple letters, a phrase or even entire sentences.  If either of these alternatives hold true, then what I have offered above is quite worthless.  My suggestions are just that and sometimes a ‘best guess’ is merely a method for deriving the wrong answer to an unfathomable riddle.