The Riddle in the Runes

"And I know a rune...."

Thus sayeth Allfather Odin, all wise, all knowing, who sacrificed himself to acquire the runes. What is the nature of the runes that a personage of Odin's reputed power felt compelled to suffer unholy pain and humiliation for nine days to acquire them? This riddle has been pondered by aspirants and seekers for centuries. The following article seeks to answer that riddle and offers for consideration the idea that our ancestors were not content with fate and destiny. On the contrary, the very nature of divination is the assumption of alternate possibilities and the calculated probability of each.

In considering these ideas, we find that Odin often prefaces an answer to a query with these words, "... I know a rune..." or "...I know a charm ..." As if to say that anything that he cares to add to any given situation could all be summed up by one or two or, at most, three of these cryptic marks. How can a few scratch marks on a slip of unfinished wood determine the future?

The Other Rune Casters

Yet for all Odin's possessiveness of the runic script and his sacrifices to obtain it, he was not alone in the knowledge and use of the runes. Vafthrudnir, the giant, also had obtained the runes and from their source, just as Odin had. He says to Odin, in The Lay of Vafthrudnir, that he knows all the nine worlds and Niflheim, Hel's domain, too. We are to understand that it is because of these wanderings among the nine worlds and his journey to the land of the dead, along with the suffering he encountered there, that he was privileged to be able to read the runes.

The ancient writings on this subject such as The Lay of Vafthrudnir and the Havamal clearly indicate that the runes existed before either Vafthrudnir or Odin set out to obtain them. Both the Giant and the God suffered in their strivings to wrest the cryptic marks from their source.

Long before Odin and Vafthrudnir began their quest for the runes, however, Gullveig the Witch, the mother of all witches, cast wands with enchantments scratched upon them. Ugly old Gullveig the Witch whose lust for gold had incited the Aesir to murder her, not once, but three times, was a Vanir. She was a member of the race of gods who had preceded the Aesir. The Vanir were ancient beyond comprehension when Gullveig, already proficient in the casting of runes, paid a visit to the younger, action-oriented Aesir. It was her horrible deaths, three of them, that outraged the Vanir enough to rouse themselves to battle.

It was a war that could not be won. The transformative powers of the runes was not the least factor in the stalemate that followed. In the end the two clans of deities made peace and traded hostages who would live like guests among the host clan.

The Aesir received three hostages from the Vanir and among them was Freyja. It is generally accepted that Freyja and Gullveig are two aspects of one goddess. Both a cause of the war and a remedy to it, both aspects are known as seereses and mistresses of witchcraft. Both were known to cast runes, according to the Voluspa, The Song of the Sybil. Freyja's gift to the Aesir was her use of the runes on their behalf.

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Back to the Beginning

Nevertheless, before the building of Asgard, before the wars of the Aesir and the Vanir, before the humiliation and mutilation of Gullveig; when young Odin and his brothers concerned themselves with the creation of men and women, there already stood a singular ash tree. From the beginning of time, Yggdrasill has sent its leafy bowers and gnarly roots to cover and embrace the nine worlds.

The Norns

Urd, as Fate, represents the Past. She is the first of the Norns in that she is the first to speak, to give counsel, when the Aesir come to her for advice. It was she that consistently warned the Aesir of the dangers in Loki's three monstrous children.

As the ancient Crone, her gift is accurate memory. Like a grandma, she has a knack for pointing out the obvious and not letting anyone off the hook. She sees very clearly how one got into any given situation.

Verthandi as Necessity represents the Present. She understands the motivations behind the Aesir's approach.

Verthandi is the youngest and third of the Norns. Hers is the gift of material reality. Verthandi has a pragmatic grasp of the way things really are and like any young woman in her teenage years she isn't shy about expressing it.

The second Norn and perhaps the most enigmatic is Skuld, the runemaler. While all the Norns are naturally proficient with the runes, it is only Skuld who was singled out by the Voluspa as the one who casts them.

Perhaps this is because, as Being, she represents the Future. Her gift, rare and without equal in value, is the gift of becoming. With forsight and unwavering understanding of the consequences of any action, she is the most reticent and least understood of the Norns.

Yggdrasill, The Cosmic Tree of Life

At the base of Yggdrasill, the ash tree, both hidden and protected, exists a pool of water. It is a spring known as Urd's Well. Running deep under the second great root of Yggdrasill it bubbles up at the base of the cosmic tree. Eventually, the Aesir would come to build their great fortress, Asgard, to encircle and protect the pool. Yet, long before that even, in the earliest of times, Urd and her sisters, Skuld and Verthandi, ministered to the tree by sprinkling it with water and mud from the Well of Fate, Urd's Well.

The Norns, also known as the fate maidens, are as old as Time. Before the coming of the Aesir; before the Vanir who established the fertility and fecundity of our planet, there was the cosmos pregnant with probability and possibility. The three sisters Wyr, the Norns, represent the principles at work within that space time continuum.

While they are certainly the determiners of destiny for both gods and men, they are, significantly, the keepers of cosmic law. Quite literally, they represent the laws of nature and physics, mathematics and astronomy. They set and enforce natural laws such as gravity and administer materials and energies that interact such as centrifigul force. They did not set the stars and planets in the sky, along with the moon and the sun, but they make sure they stay there. As for humans, animals and the gods, the Norns know and keep the laws of genetics, the theories of evolution, ecology, biology and the principles of human behavior.

If the Norns are the keepers of the cosmos, then Yggdrasill, the cosmic tree is the cosmos.
It is into the pool under it's second root, Urd's well, The Well of Fate, that Odin, hanging on Yggdrasill in a delirium of unmitigating torture, looks and clearly sees the runes, 'hanging' there, shining. With his last shred of will, he grabs for them.

He clutches them to him like a child clinging to his mother. He cries and laughs at the same time and even though he is Odin, Allfather, great and terrible Patriarch of the Aesir, the murderer and mutilator of Gullveig the Witch; for the first time he looks into eternity and grasps infinity. Suddenly, he not only knows everything, he understands everything.

The Nature of the Riddle

There is much written about the runes: what they are and how they should appear. Some describe them as letters of an ancient Norse alphabet, some consider them in terms of an entire alphabet or script. Some writers go into great detail about how they look, what color they should be or the appropriate material for them.

Wonderous stone, wooden, resin, or plastic runes exist in many colors. Usually black, white, red and wood hues are the preferred colors. All of these are considered runes. Furthermore, some runemalers cast anywhere from 24 to 30 something runes. So that even the number of the runes is without solidarity.

Therein lies a hint to understanding the riddle of the runes. Odin, Allfather, did not rejoice in the acquisition of a few bits of plastic. Sturdy Vafthrudnir and ancient Gullveig suffered and died and were transformed not by symbols, but by the principles represented by the symbols. Odin describes to us in the Havamal, The Words of the High One, how he suddenly saw them hanging there, (in infinite space?) shining. Yggdrasill, with its branches and branching roots, its simultaneous existence in nine worlds and Niflheim represents our physical reality and the ten dimensions of time and space of which modern scientists are only recently aware.
Each branch and root as it intersects a world represents an infinite and eternal point in time and space. There are an infinite number of these shining interstices. Odin was able to grasp and describe only eighteen of them.
So, when we speak of casting the runes, we speak of manipulating time in relation to space. We yearn to understand the probabilities, as opposed to the possibilities, of a myriad realities. In the face of Urd and Verthandi, this would be a psychotic delusion if it were not for Skuld. At the time of our birth, it is she who casts the runes for each one of us. That is to say, with our past and present already governed by Fate and Necessity, it is our Being that looks into Eternity and picks out a few probabilities from Infinity and grasps them to us as The Runes. What we do with them, throughout the course of our lives, is the very gift of Becoming that is Skuld's to give.
Please Note: The following links will take you out of Gypsy Hollow and away from this article. Please bookmark this page before you leave.

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Read more on space, time and multi dimensional realities:
Space/Time and Relativity
Windows to the Universe

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Read directly from the ancient writings
Voluspa,
The Song of the Sybil
The Havamal,
Words of the High One
Vafthrudnismal
The Lay of Vafthrudnir

The Answer to the Riddle

When Odin, Allfather, says he has a Rune, he means he holds one of those interstices of time and space, a particular probability, in his devine hands. He knows it and understands it in all ten of its dimensions. With that in mind, it is easy to see that one would not need or want more than two or three of these things, these Runes, for any particular question in any particular moment.

Neither is this probability affected by the choice of the runic script used to represent it, nor the nature of the materials upon which it is printed, nor the colors that are chosen. For these are merely manmade symbols representing an abstract but very real point in time and space. As long as the layout is consistent from reading to reading and an effort is made to become thoroughly acquainted with each symbol any seeker should be able to access the Runes and gain an insight into the probabilities available at any given point in time.

More Rune Work

The Rune Worlds are short story interpretations of each rune of the Futhark Runic Script. In these short stories the probability of each rune is probed and revealed in an interesting storytelling session. The Rune Table arranges information in a quick to use reference that will help you to understand each rune and how to use it. In addition a beginner's set of flashcards that is fun and easy to use while learning the runes is offered in the Gypsy Hollow Shoppe.

Very special thanks to the following for the work that has gone before.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin: The Norse Myths, Pantheon Books, New York, New York, USA, 1980

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This web site has been developed and produced by Trina D. Schetzle d/b/a Gypsy Hollow. All material contained in "The Riddle in the Runes" is protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. No part of this cyber publication may be copied, printed, photographed or in anyway reproduced or re-distributed without the written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright 2000 USA.

Last updated July 10, 2000