Slow Havamal: 143

[kylec]

In verse 143, we learn that Odin carved the runes for the gods, Dain for the elves, Dvalin for the dwarves, Asvid for the giants, and the narrator also carved runs, perhaps for humans.

There are apparently multiple sets of runes. Is it a single set translated for different levels of being, or does each of these groups have a piece of a whole? We don’t know, but importantly it was Odin who learned the runes in order to share them with the gods.

From there, they were clearly shared with men, by Odin himself, or a human who received them from the gods. There is a strange first-person reference in this verse. Usually we hear Odin speaking in the first person, but in verse 143 it is clearly a human, probably the poet, who says he’s carved some runes, as well. He doesn’t say he’s the source of man’s runic knowledge. Maybe he’s just a link in a long rune-carving chain. Whoever first carved them among men probably received them from Odin, just as the very words of this poem came from the High One.

It may have been Odin’s gaining of the runes that opened the floodgates for many versions, but it’s also conceivable that some representative from each race had to earn them by his own merits. We are not unique in the world. What we work with is some version of a thing shared by others who we can’t comprehend. It’s a refreshing contrast to the notion of humans receiving some unique inheritance from on high, placing them ahead of everyone else. The blessings we receive are available to just about anyone who takes the time to listen and learn.