Slow Havamal: 142

[kylec]

In verse 142, we’re told that we will find runes to read, powerful runes made by the holy gods and painted or carved by Odin.

I’m trying to resist the temptation to mail it in this week, given that the verse is basically an introduction to the notion of runes. Let’s take it in parts. The fact that we’re being told we’ll find runic letters to read means that they are given to us in a form that we can understand, which is important. Odin’s sacrifice was to learn them himself, but as with the mead of Oderir, he doesn’t sequester wisdom. He shares it out to Man. We have received this gift, and at least one of the things we can do with runic letters is to read them. They could have been symbols, taken as wholes and not joined together, but here we explicitly get them as an alphabet. I may be incorrect, but I believe this is the only attested form, contrary to modern systems in which each rune as divinatory meanings on its own. In other words, we don’t read whole meanings into A, B, C, D, but we combine them to make words and sentences with meaning. They can’t stand alone. Such are runes, as far as we know.

We also learn that runes have incredible power. It would be tough to make the same claim for our ABC’s, unless that power is limited to the ability to communicate over time. When we look at it, this ability we take for granted is in fact quite impressive. When speech is your only means, you can communicate to those within earshot. Any repetition relies on the memory of one who heard, his willingness to repeat it verbatim, etc. Speech is always in the present, but there is something timeless about written words. It’ more so time-extensive than timeless, of course, because context plays a huge role in communication, but being able to essentially repeat a thought in the present over and over again by writing it down must have seemed like magic when it was new.

Yet we can’t discount the possibility that the powers inherent in runes go beyond this ability to communicate over time and distance.

Finally, we learn that runes were made by the gods, and presumably not Odin since he suffered to learn them. But it’s he who paints them and carves them. Perhaps they exist in some conceptual mode, and Odin gives them the capacity to arrive in the material world via symbols that can be left on wood and stone. At any rate, being told what we’ll encounter in advance, and having it hyped up to some degree leaves us salivating and primed for that meeting. Let’s find out what it brings.