Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 510
Runes
Hello Everyone
Do you love to curl up on a cold, winter’s evening with a book?
Perhaps you love reading the works of J. R. R. Tolkien?
lf you do, then you will have seen runes before.
Runes are an ancient alphabetic script. Each letter has a meaningful name as well as a unique sound. However, they never developed as a spoken language.
You will notice that they are made up of straight lines which meant that they were easy to scratch onto items and carve into stone or wood.
They were used to write inscriptions on things like personal weapons or tools and on entrances to houses.
They were used to write poetry, songs, love letters, business letters and legal documents too.
They are still found on standing stones and grave markers.
The runes are called a sacred gift from Odin. Odin was the chief of the Norse gods.
Nobody knows how old the runes are exactly; they are older than the New Testament.
About 2,000 years ago they were known across the continent of Europe as they were carried by traders, soldiers and Anglo-Saxon missionaries. The alphabet they used was called the futhark – after its first six letters.
Things with rune inscriptions have been found across Europe from Greenland to Greece.
Before runes were used in Northern Europe, Bronze Age peoples (from about 3,000 years ago) would carve pictures on rocks to record their thoughts and messages in the same way as the Ancient Egyptians used pictures as writing – but they used different pictures.
The runic alphabet was used in Northern Europe before Latin was used.
Runes were last in everyday use in lceland in the Middle Ages.
The symbols on them that act like letters (or script symbols) can be called glyphs because they are full of meaning. Because of this they were probably used as good luck charms and in spell casting.
To pre-Christian people, all of nature was alive with divine energy, so natural object like stones and trees contained God. To add human markings to stones, shells or sticks would be working in co-creation with God in order to evoke magic.
The last Rune masters, who were both men and women, lived in lceland in the 1600s; as their knowledge was passed to others verbally with no written records, their knowledge died with them.
The original interpretation of the runes has been lost in time but modern translations have been given to them that we can use.
Runes can be read in any direction – so left to right, or right to left, or vertically.
Some runes can be the same upside down and some are reversed when upside down so then have a different meaning from the right way up.
For example the rune of reassurance in movement or horse which looks like an ‘M’ will mean no progress is possible, or movement forward is advised when lain down upside down. The name for this rune is Ehwaz.
There are 24 runes with an addition of a blank rune called the Rune of the Unknowable – making 25 in total. Based on these symbols the Anglo-Saxon alphabets later expanded. There were 33 letters in Britain.
The 24 runes were divided into 3 families of 8 runes.
These 3 sub-divisions were named after Freyr, Hagal and Tyr.
The blank rune relates to events that are predestined in your life and cannot be avoided. Some people call this the path of karma.
lnscriptions in mediaeval runes have a large variety of forms; the letters ‘s’ ‘c’ and ‘z’, for example, were interchangeable. Formal spelling did not come in until printing was invented. Today, the words sister and ceiling both start with the same sound.
Tolkien first used the Anglo-Saxon runes in his writing in connection to the dwarves who had their caves of gold raided by Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit. Tolkien later invented his own rune-like alphabet. He was a scholar (student) of languages.
Of course, the alphabet that children learn today is the Latin alphabet brought here by the Romans and has 26 letters.
Norse mythology was brought forward into modern times through comics and games.
The runes nowadays are mostly thought of as a method of divination. That means seeing into the future; or telling fortunes.
But people who work with them say that although they may give indications of how situations will play out, the runes also give instructions on how to behave in any given situation. This behaviour will lead to personal and spiritual growth.
How you behave now can have an effect on how things will turn out later on.
The runes have a lot of meaning associated with them – they are not just a symbol or letter. (You can buy or borrow books that tell you more about this.)
The runes can be a tool to deepen your inner wisdom as you contemplate on them – in other words they help to develop intuition.
Some people with a question about an issue in mind might open their holy book at random with their eyes closed and put their finger down to see an inspirational phrase that resonates with them at the time of asking.
Some people call contemplation, silent prayer.
We live in a fast-paced world where we are encouraged to learn more and more to keep up with new knowledge.
When we are forced to be continually growing; we also need time to go within to ask for guidance from our inner compass for navigation in the uncharted waters of new challenges in life, and casting or selecting runes can be a point of focus whilst doing that.
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Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Do you know how Vikings send secret messages Bob?
Bob: Yes, l think they use Norse code!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Berkana = growth or new beginning
The sign for peace is the same as the rune for protection reversed
Elder Futhark means first alphabet
The first line has Freyr’s Eight (Goddess of love)
The second line has Hagal’s Eight
(God’s energy in us – sometimes depicted as a halo or an aura)
The third line has Tyr’s Eight (God of Heroic victory in battle)
Celtic cross
Vikings sailing on uncharted waters and finding new lands
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
If you want to make some runes and put them in a bag – or if you need a little storage bag for anything else, here is a really pretty pattern for you.
This bag is made with five coloured stripes and white yarn dividing them with a ridge.
You can use one colour to make the whole bag but the texture will show up more with at least two colours.
If you use five different colours to make your wide stripes, when you cut the yarn off make sure you leave enough to sew up that stripe.
Carry the white up the sides of the wide stripes.
If you use two colours, carry the yarn up the sides of the bag without cutting it.
NEWSDESK MINIMAKE
STRIPED STORAGE BAG
BASE (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 24 stitches
Knit 30 rows of stocking stitch
Cast off
SIDES (KNIT FOUR)
Using 4mm knitting needles and white dk yarn cast on 24 stitches
Knit 1 row
Knit 1 row
Change to a different colour dk yarn
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Change back to white dk yarn
Knit 1 row
Knit 1 row
Repeat the last 6 rows 4 times
Continuing in white yarn knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Using white yarn and over-sew stitching and right sides together sew the bottom of the four sides to the base
- Then sew up the four corners using the right colour to correspond with the strip you are dealing with
- Neaten all your ends
- Crochet 100 chains into a length of yarn to make a cord and weave it around the top of the bag in the channel between the garter stitch rows and tie the ends together
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Quick Quiz
Can you find the following countries on this map?
- Greenland
- lceland
- Britain
- Norway
- Sweden
- Denmark
- Finland
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A RUNE BAG
But if you want a bag with an actual rune design on it:-
BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and pink dk yarn cast on 25 stitches
Knit 8 rows of garter stitch
Knit 14 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 8 rows of garter stitch
Knit 12 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
Crochet 60 chains to make a cord to be threaded around the top of the bag using pink yarn
Embroider the rune designs on the bag before you sew it up.
Some of the runes work better than others. The ones chosen to go on this bag are:-
Clarity and success
Victory
Good fortune
Travel
TO MAKE UP
- Using over-sew stitching and with wrong sides together sew up bottom seam
- Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew up side seams
- Secure all ends and neaten
- Thread the cord around the top and tie the ends together then decorate with a bead
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- Greenland – the big country top left
- lceland – the country next to it to the south east
- Britain – the country below it to the south east
- Norway – the country marked in blue
- Sweden – the country marked in yellow
- Denmark – the country marked in red
- Finland – the country to the east of Sweden
