The origin of Runes

CovenDivine Spirits ► The origin of Runes
oldest 1 newest

The origin of Runes
By:
Post # 1
This passage is adapted from Edred Thorssons, "Futhark, A Handbook of Rune Magic."



When referring to the origins of the runes, I indeed speak more of the origin of teh runic shapes than the mysteries they represent. The mysteries themselves are timeless and came into being many ages ago. The runes are important agents in the process of creation or shaping and thus preced the arising of animate beings in the Worlds. The runic forms may be spoken of in a somewhat historical context and these shapes are ultimately born of holy signs conceived in the minds of teh Bronze Age priests and magicians (and probably even earlier) as abstract graphic expressions of the innermost content of their religious and magical teachings. They are found in great abundance on the most ancient rock carvings of Scandinavia. Rudolf John Gorsleben describes the "primal man" sitting on a mountain peak receiving conceptual flashes of inspiration which he then emotionally expresses in markings that come to be those concepts.

In the beginning these "pre runic" signs were almost hieroglyphic and when contact was made with Mediterranean cultures, the idea of phonetically representing language by symbols was slowly introduced to the Germanic territory. This is thought to have been around 2 BC when the Cimbri and Teutones invaded the Italian peninsula and came into contact with the North Etruscan and Latin alphabets where as others claim that the runes were ultimately formulated by the Goths in the first and second centuries CE, when that tribe was still on the Baltic coast. It is essential to note that when the Germanic people chose a rune (cultic sign) to represent a sound in their language, they would usually (but not always) choose a shape that in some way resembled the corresponding Etuscan, Latin or Greek character.

The internal sturcture, ordering, naming and symbolic content of these glyphs are totally unaffected by the Mediterranean cultures. Instead it is considered to be a magical deep-structure that governs these factors which was well known to the priests and magicians of teh Germanic cult who carefully formulated the runic ideology and transmitted it across tribal boundaries through preexisting cultic channels. As early as first century CE Tacitus descrives the runes being used in fully developed divinatory rites.

Mythically it was through the "God of Magic," Odhinn that the gods and men are able to receive rune wisdom. He is the first being to be fully intiated into the runic mysteries. He is also considered to be the first to have extracted the rune wisdom directly from its source and formulated it within his being in such a way that it could be communicated to others.

oldest 1 newest