Mythological Origin of the Runes

The gift of the runes was given to humanity by the Teutonic/Germanic god Odin. In an act of shamanistic self-suffering, Odin hung from the world-tree Ygdrassil for nine days until the secrets of the runes were revealed to him. Encoded within them were all the patterns of the universe.

I know I hung on that windswept tree,
Swung there for nine long nights,
Wounded by my own blade,
Bloodied for Odin,
Myself an offering to myself:
Bound to the tree,
That no man knows
Whither the roots of it run.

None gave me bread,
None gave me drink,
Down to the deepest depths I peered
Until I spied the Runes.
With a roaring cry I seized them up,
Then dizzy and fainting, I fell.

Well-being I won
And wisdom too.
I grew and took joy in my growth:
From a word to a word
I was led to a word,
From a deed to another deed.

-- The Poetic Edda (circa 1200 A.D.)

 

Factual Origin of the Runes

The origin of the runes has been lost to antiquity and where and for what reason their first uses occured may never be acertained. But a few things are certain.

Their earliest use seems to have been with the Alpine Germanic people, and, according to some sources, the Heruli tribe. Reason for the belief that this one tribe was origin of the runes is speculative, based on the fact that earliest title for "rune-master" or shaman amongst the early Viking tribes was the word "heruli".

The spiritual values of the runes have developed throughout the ages, primarily through the Germanic thought-world, and have a very close connection with the old Germanic religion and mythology. In fact, they are so closely tied to the old Germanic religion that the use of runes, without a basic and, perferably, advanced knowledge of the religion would be a waste of time, as most of their meaning and value would go unfathomed.

The earliest version of this runinc alphabet is know as the Elder Futhark, so named after the phonetic value of the first six runes in the series: F(heu), U(ruz), TH(urisaz), A(nsuz), R(aido), and K(enaz). There are twenty-four runes in the Elder Futhark, broken into three groups of eight knowns as aettir. The runes of each aettir have an interrelation that binds them in a common theme.