Rune poems are proverbial mnemonic kennings that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Four different poems from before the mid-20th century have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, the Icelandic Rune Poem and the Swedish Rune Poem. Note that the singularis term "rune poem" is a bit anachronistic, as there exist several variations of the Icelandic, and Swedish poems, etc.
The Icelandic and Norwegian poems list 16 Younger Futhark runes, while the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem lists 29 Anglo-Saxon runes. Each poem differs in poetic verse, but they contain numerous parallels between one another. Further, the poems provide references to figures from Norse and Anglo-Saxon paganism, the latter included alongside Christian references. A list of rune names is also recorded in the Abecedarium Nordmannicum, a 9th-century manuscript, but whether this can be called a poem or not is a matter of some debate.
The rune poems have been theorized as having been mnemonic devices that allowed the user to remember the order and names of each letter of the alphabet and may have been a catalog of important cultural information, memorably arranged; comparable with the Old English sayings, Gnomic poetry, and Old Norse poetry of wisdom and learning. The Swedish poems features some clear neologisms for later sound developments, like replacing os ("inlet") with oos ("fumes") for the o-rune ᚯ, as the primary sound for o in Middle Norse became instead of .
Old English Rune Poem
The Old English Rune Poem as recorded was likely composed in the 7th century and was preserved in the 10th-century manuscript Cotton Otho B.x, fol. 165a – 165b, housed at the Cotton library in London, England. In 1731, the manuscript was lost with numerous other manuscripts in a fire at the Cotton library. However, the poem had been copied by George Hickes in 1705 and his copy has formed the basis of all later editions of the poems. In early runology it is referred to as "divided into three" (, Early Modern Swedish: tridelorne, ). Other variations have also been documented later on, and Olaus Verelius showcased some short-form variants in 1675, similar in length to the Swedish rune poems. Especially ᚿ Nauð (n), ᛆ Ár (a), ᛒ Bjarkan (b) and ᛦ Ýr (ʀ) are effected. British historian and runologist R. I. Page discussed this in detail in his publication "The Icelandic rune poem" (1999).
R. I. Page transcribed AM 687 d 4° (hereafter = A), text: f. Iv, 11. 1-16. (Plate 1), as the following. He gives the following notes for the transcription:<blockquote>Abbreviated words/syllables are rendered in italic (which cannot be more than a general indication since the scribe was inconsistent in writing out the forms of some endings). Letters and groups which the scribe omitted in error or through lack of space are supplied within angled brackets < >. Letter sequences that cannot now be identified are inserted, for convenience of reading, within square brackets [ ], on the evidence either of the available space or of related texts. Such added readings have, of course, little authority for the A version of the poem. The convention [....] indicates that the reading cannot be supplied with any conviction, and merely suggests very roughly how many graphs are lost. It is not always easy to distinguish certain spelling conventions in the manuscript - whether u or v, d or d is intended, for instance. In such cases I have perhaps rather arbitrarily chosen one graph or the other. It is sometimes hard to determine whether the scribe intended a space between adjacent words or not, and again my practice here is inevitably arbitrary. Stops (raised points, colons) are not always easy to distinguish from chance marks on the parchment surface. Rune forms are here given their conventional transliterations in bold characters. with slight corrections. Red markers indicates guesswork or other alterations from R. I. Page's transcription above.
{| class="wikitable"
! # !! Rune !! Name !! Old Icelandic !! English
|-
| 1 || ᚠ || Fé (livestock, loose wealth, gold)
|| <poem>
Fé er frænda róg
ok flæðar viti
ok grafseiðs gata</poem>
|| <poem>
Wealth = source of discord among kinsmen
and beacon of the flow (river)
and path of the serpent.</poem>
|-
| 2 || ᚢ || Úr (bad precepitation)
|| <poem>
Úr er skýja grátr
ok skára þverrir
ok hirðis hatr.</poem>
|| <poem>
Bad precepitation = lamentation of the clouds
and ruin of the hay-harvest
and the shepherd's hatred .</poem>
|-
| 3 || ᚦ || Þurs (giant, troll, demon)
|| <poem>
Þurs er kvenna kvöl
ok kletta búi
ok rúnar verr.</poem>
|| <poem>
Giant = torture of women
and dweller of cliffs
and husband of a giantess.</poem>
|-
| 4 || ᚬ || Óss (Æsir)
|| <poem>
Óss er aldingautr
ok ásgarðs jöfurr,
ok valhallar vísi.</poem>
|| <poem>
Æsir = Elder Gautr
and head of Asgard
and lord of Valhall.</poem>
|-
| 5 || ᚱ || Reið (ride, riding)
|| <poem>
Reið er sitjandi sæla
ok snúðig ferð
ok jórs erfiði.</poem>
|| <poem>
Riding = joy of the mounted (the horsemen)
and speedy journey
and toil of the steed.</poem>
|-
| 6 || ᚴ || Kaun (ulcer)
|| <poem>
Kaun er barna böl
ok bardaga [för]
ok holdfúa hús.</poem>
|| <poem>
Ulcer = children's woe
and painful spot
and abode of mortification.</poem>
|-
| 7 || ᚼ || Hagall (hail)
|| <poem>
Hagall er kaldakorn
ok krapadrífa
ok snáka sótt.</poem>
|| <poem>
Hail = cold grain
and shower of sleet
and sickness of serpents.</poem>
|-
| 8 || ᚾ || Nauð (need, distress, constraint)
|| <poem>
Nauð er Þýjar þrá
kostr
ok vássamlig verk.</poem>
|| <poem>
Constraint = grief of the bond-maid
and state of oppression
and toilsome work.</poem>
|-
| 9 || ᛁ || Íss (ice)
|| <poem>
Íss er árbörkr
ok unnar þak
ok feigra manna fár.</poem>
|| <poem>
Ice = bark of rivers
and roof of the wave
and destruction of the doomed.</poem>
|-
| 10 || ᛅ || Ár (year = yearly harvest)
|| <poem>
Ár er gumna
</poem>
||<poem>
Plenty = boon to men
and good summer
and thriving crops.</poem>
|-
| 11 || ᛋ || Sól (sun)
|| <poem>
Sól er skýja skjöldr
ok skínandi röðull
ok ísa aldrtregi.</poem>
|| <poem>
Sun = shield of the clouds
and shining ray
and destroyer of ice.</poem>
|-
| 12 || ᛏ || Týr (Tyr
|| <poem>
Týr er einhendr áss
ok ulfs leifar
ok hofa hilmir.</poem>
|| <poem>
Tyr = god with one hand
and leavings of the wolf
and prince of temples.</poem>
|-
| 13 || ᛒ || Bjarkan (birch)
|| <poem>
Bjarkan er
ok lítit tré
ok ungsamligr viðr.</poem>
|| <poem>
Birch = leafy twig
and little tree
and fresh young shrub.</poem>
|-
| 14 || ᛘ || Maðr (man)
|| <poem>
Maðr er manns gaman
ok moldar auki
ok skipa skreytir.</poem>
|| <poem>
Man = delight of man
and augmentation of the earth
and adorner of ships.</poem>
|-
| 15 || ᛚ || Lögr (whelving water body)
|| <poem>
Lögr er vellanda va
ok ðr ketill
ok glömmungr grund.</poem>
|| <poem>
Whelving water body = welling water (eddying stream)
and wide kettle (pool)
and land of the fish.</poem>
|-
| 16 || ᛦ || Ýr (yew)
|| <poem>
Ýr er ben
otgjarnt járn
</poem>
|| <poem>
Yew = bent bow
and brittle iron
and giant of the arrow.</poem>
|}
Old Norwegian Rune Poem
The Norwegian Rune Poem was preserved in a 17th-century copy of a destroyed 13th-century manuscript. The Norwegian Rune Poem is preserved in skaldic metre, featuring the first line exhibiting a "(rune name)(copula) X" pattern, followed by a second rhyming line providing information somehow relating to its subject.
Swedish Rune Poem
There are multiple recorded Swedish rune poems, all of which are short rune kennings. Some appears to be later Medieval creations pertaining to sound changes, while others show archaic features of unknown older descent. A select few are cognate to the Norwegian and Icelandic poems, and some others appear regional. Some of the kennings are classic proverbs or riddles, thus appearing standalone in other material as well. The poem for ᛁ is ("ice") is a common proverb or riddle, stating that "the ice is the broadest bridge". The poem for ᚾ nödh ("need, distress, constraint") is found as a proverb in the 14th century: nødh ær iw enga koster ("need is of no choice"), i.e. when forced, you only have one choice, later appearing in the 17th century as: noͤdhen aͤr eenda kost ("need is the only choice").
The earliest recorded poem was done rather unknowingly by Johannes Bureus in 1599, simply listing them as "signific" in Latin. An incomplete alternative collection was recorded in a letter by in 1600 (although not published until 1908), and a supplemented third version, more similar to the Bureus collection, was published by Georg Stiernhielm in 1685. Various anachronistic forms are also recorded by Olaus Verelius in 1675, found scattered alongside some equivelant short forms of the Icelandic poems.
The Swedish poems are understudied and have received relatively little attention from runologists.
Bureus rune poems
In the late 16th century, pioneer runologist and mystic Johannes Bureus traveled around Sweden and researched runic lore (by 1646, he and his assistants had recorded more than 650 runic inscriptions in Sweden). Bureus had learnt to read runes in 1594 by studying a runestone which was fitted as a stepping stone in the Riddarholmen Church in Stockholm. Five years later (1599), he had gathered enough knowledge to publish his first runological work, a copper-plate print, called Runakänslånäs räräspån (, roughly "first attempt at runic instruction"), also known as "Bureus' Runic Tablet" (). It was intended as a teaching tool in runic knowledge, and contains examples of different runic alphabets, runic forms and runestone texts, and explanations of the meaning of the runes, a work which was highly regarded and widely used by other researchers in the field of runology.
On said print, he lists runic poems for each rune. These poems are written in his own runic standard, which cannot be properly displayed in unicode. Bureus later refined his standard in his runic textbook Runa ABC, and this does align with unicode, and the poems below has been rendered in this standard. Transliterations have been rendered in the modern Swedish alphabet.
{| class="wikitable"
!# !! Rune !! Given names !! Given poems !! Translations
|-
| 1 || ᚠ || ᚠᛅ Fä (livestock), ᚠᚤᚱ Fÿr (?), ᚠᚱᚤᚼ Frygh<sup>?</sup> (Frigg) || ᚠᛅᚴᛚᛅ ᚠᚱᛅᚿᛑ_ᚱᚭ fäklä f͡ränd-ro || –
|-
| 2 || ᚢ || ᚢᚱ Ur (bad precipitation) || ᚢᛦ ᛁ ᚢᛅᛋᛏᛆᚿ ᚢᛅᚧᚱ ur i västa͡n vädhr || bad precipitation in weastern weather
|-
| 3 || ᚦ || ᚦᚭᚱᛋ Thors (jötunn/troll/demon) || ᚦᚭᚱᛋ ᚴᚢᛁᚿᚿᛆ_ᚴᚢᛮ tors kvinna-kva͡l || Jötunn, woman's pain
|-
| 4 || ᚭ || ᚭᚧᛅᛋ Odhäs (river-mouth) || ᛚᚽᚴᚱ ᚭᛋ ᛁ ᚢᛁᚧᛁᛅ lekr os i vidhiä || –
|-
| 5 || ᚱ || ᚱᚽᚧᚱ Redhr (ride, rider, riding) || ᚱᛁᛐᛐᚮᛦ ᛁ ᚼᛅᛋᛏᛅ_ᛋᛒᚱᚮᚿᚵ rittår i hästä-språng || rider? in horse-sprint
|-
| 6 || ᚴ || ᚴᚯᚿ Kön (ulcer), ᚴᛆᚼᚿ Kaghn (pillory) || ᚴᚬᚾ ᛁ ᚴᚬᛏᛅ ᚤᛅᚱᛋᛏᛆ kön i kjöte värsta || ulcer in flesh worst
|-
| 7 || ᚼ || ᚼᛆᚼᛮ Haga͡l (hail) || ᚼᛆᚱᚢᛮ ᛁ ᛒᚭ ᛒᛅᛋᛏᛆ ha͡rva͡l i bo bäst || hard dry ground?, best in home
|-
| 8 || ᚿ || ᚾᚮᚧ Nådh, ᚾᚯᚧ Nödh, ᚾᚭᚧᚱ Nodh͡r (need, distress, constraint) || ᚾᚬᚧ ᚽᚿᛑ ᚴᚮᛋᛏ nödh end kåst || need only choice
|-
| 9 || ᛁ || ᛁᛋ Is (ice), ᛁᚧᚱ idhr, ᛁᚱ ir (?) || ᛁᛋᛒᚱᚭ ᛒᚱᚽᚦᛆᛋᛏ isbro brethast || ice-bridge broadest
|-
| 10 || ᛆ || ᛆᚱ Å͡r, ᛆᚱᛋ Å͡rs (year, yearly growth) || ᚮᚱᛅ ᛒᛚᛆᚦ årä blath || yearly leaf
|-
| 11 || ᛋ || ᛋᚭᛚ Sol (sun) || ᛋᚭᛚ ᚴᚿᛅᛒᚬᚼ sol knäbögh || sun knee-bend
|-
| 12 || ᛏ || ᛏᛁᚧᚱ Tidhr (time), ᛏᚤᚱ Tyr (Tyr) || ᛏᛁᚧᚱ ᚢᛁᛐᚱᚢᛘ ᛚᛁᚧᛆᛋᛏ tidhr vit͡rum lidhast|| time is the worst for the wise
|-
| 13 || ᛒ || ᛒᛁᚱᚴᛮ Birka͡l (birch-bud), ᛒᛁᚯᚱᚴ Biörk (birch) || ᛒᛁᚬᚱᚴᛅ_ᛒᚱᚢᛘᚱ ᚠᚱᚭᚦᛆᛋᛏ biörka-brumr frodhast || birch-buds most flourishing
|-
| 14 || ᛚ || ᛚᛆᚼᚱ Laghr (law) || ᛚᛆᚼ ᛚᛆᚿᛏᛋᛅᚱᛆ lagh la͡ntsära || law, lands-honor
|-
| 15 || ᛘ || ᛘᛆᚧᚱ Madhr (man) || ᛘᛆᚼᚱ ᛘᚢᛚ_ᚮᚴᚱ maghr mul-åkr || meager mulch-field?
|-
| 16 || ᛦ || ᛋᛏᚢᛔᛅᛘᛆᚧᚱ Stupämadher (stoop-ᛘ) || ᚭᛦᛘᛆᚼᚱ ᛏᛁᚿᚵᛋ_ᚬᚴᚱ ormaghr tings-ökr || –
|-
| 17 || ᛮ || ᛆᚱ-ᛚᛆᚼᚱ Å͡r-Laghr (year-law) || ᚮᚡ_ᛚᛆᚼᛅᚦ åv-laghäth || absolved
|-
| 18 || ᛯ || ᛏᚢᚽᛋᛚᚢᚿᚵᛅᚿ_ᛘ Tveslungän ᛘ (two-slung ᛘ) || ᛏᚢᚽᛘᚮᚼᚱ tvemåghr || twin son-in-law
|-
| 19 || ᛰ || ᛒᛅᛚᚼ_ᚦᚭᚱᛋ Bälgh-Thors (bellow ᚦ) || ᚦᚭᚱᛋ ᛒᛅᛚᚼᛒᚢᚿᛑᚿ thors bälghbundn || ᚦ bulge-bound
|}
Granius rune poems
In 1600, Swedish-German mathematician (1569–1631) collected a number of Swedish rune poems in a letter.
Granius recorded poems for 14/16 runes, lacking poems for ᛘ (m) and ᛦ (ʀ), the last two runes in the Swedish Medieval Futhark order. Beyond poems, Granius also listed various names for the runes. The names and poems do not follow the exact same order – rune name order: ; poem order: . Below, the order is normalized, since Granius' orders appears non important. Translations and transliterations have been corrected slighty based on the original letter. Tÿf (thief) || Tÿr i vatŭm ledast, Tÿva raͤtten ledast || Torch-wood in water worst, Thief in justice worst
|-
| 13 || ᛒ || Birka (birch-grove), Bÿrkal (birch-bud) || <s>bioͤrkahŭltet groͤnast</s> || birch-grove greenest
|-
| 14 || ᛚ || Lagh (law) || Lagh aͤr Landsens aͤra || Law is land's honour
|-
| 15 || ᛘ || Madher (man) || (missing) || –
|-
| 16 || ᛦ || Oͤvermagi (inability) || (missing) || –
|}
Abecedarium Nordmannicum
Recorded in the 9th century, the Abecedarium Nordmannicum is the earliest known catalog of Norse rune names, though it does not contain definitions, is partly in Continental Germanic and also contains an amount of distinctive Anglo-Saxon rune types. The text is recorded in Codex Sangallensis 878, Reading the lines from the bottom up and resolving the kennings one gets the name of the woman with whom the rune-carver was in love.
{| style=text-align:left;
|-
! Original runes
! style=padding-left:2em; | Normalization
! style=padding-left:2em; | Translation
|-
|<poem>
</poem>
| style=padding-left:2em; |<poem>
</poem>
| style=padding-left:2em; |<poem>
What prevents me from sleeping is sickness of children,
hatred of workmen, dweller in the mountain,
toil of the horse and harm of the hay,
misfortune of the slave. This must be interpreted!
</poem>
|}
Resolving the kennings the reader gets the following runes:
{| style="padding-left:1em"
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚴ || style="padding-left:1em" | k || style="padding-left:1em" | G || style="padding-left:1em" | kaun || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘boil, ulcer’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (sickness of children)
|-
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚢ || style="padding-left:1em" | u || style="padding-left:1em" | ū || style="padding-left:1em" | úrr || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘(bad) precipitation’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (hatred of workmen)
|-
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚦ || style="padding-left:1em" | þ || style="padding-left:1em" | ð || style="padding-left:1em" | þurs || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘troll/jötun’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (dweller in the mountain)
|-
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚱ || style="padding-left:1em" | r || style="padding-left:1em" | r || style="padding-left:1em" | reið || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘ride, wagon’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (toil of the horse)
|-
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚢ || style="padding-left:1em" | u || style="padding-left:1em" | u || style="padding-left:1em" | úrr || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘(bad) precipitation’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (harm of the hay)
|-
| style="font-size:150%" | ᚿ || style="padding-left:1em" | n || style="padding-left:1em" | n || style="padding-left:1em" | nauðr || style="padding-left:1em" | ‘need, distress, constraint’ || style="padding-left:1em" | (misfortune of the slave)
|}
Together they spell out the name Gudrun.
See also
- Bríatharogam
- Gothic alphabet
- List of runestones
- Runic magic
- Apple Pie ABC
- Alphabet song
Notes
References
Footnotes
Sources
- (1998). Revising Oral Theory: Formulaic Composition in Old English and Old Icelandic Verse. Routledge.
- (1915). Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples. Cambridge University Press. (Internet Archive)
- (Editor) (2007). Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge University Press.
- (1999). An Introduction to English Runes. Boydell Press.
- (1942). The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems. Columbia University Press
- The Rune Poem (Old English), ed. and tr. , Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English. Cambridge, 1976: 80–5.
- et al. (eds.) Old English Poetry in Facsimile Project, (Madison, WI: Center for the History of Print and Digital Culture, 2019-). Online edition of the Old English Rune Poem, annotated and linked to digital facsimile of its first transcription, with a modern translation.
External links
- Rune Poems from "Runic and Heroic Poems" by Bruce Dickins