Runic Verse

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Nordic Verse

Runic Verse  (roon: Old English meaning mystery) is a genre of verse that originally referred to 3 poems, Old Norse, Icelandic and Anglo Saxon. It is predicated on the power and magic of words. 

Symbols of the Tuetonic alphabet are associated with Runes which are carved on swords, chalices and stones. Verse was used by the ancient cultures as memory aids, this is especially true of Runic Verse. One ancient verse is merely a list of the rune symbols and their meaning. The earliest recorded Runic Verse is the 8th century Old Norse poem in skaldic meter. The 9th century Anglo Saxon and 13th century Icelandic poems are metrically different though they all have several parallels and include allusions to Norse and Anglo paganism. The Tuetonic alphabet is intricately enveloped within the verse.

Today Runic verse is a genre that uses any chant like sonic pattern to conjure images of mystery and magic.

Os - Language of the Runes by Judi Van Gorder

   Hidden inside its great expanse
            Language
                  can claim hearts
                        destroy enemies
                               and fuck up destinies.
            A phrase, the perfect phrase, the well timed phrase
                  is the mystic quest, the Golden Fleece.

The Runes of Weyland's Sword by Rudyard Kipling A Smith makes me To betray my Man In my first fight. To gather Gold At the world's end I am sent. The Gold I gather Comes into England Out of deep Water. Like a shining Fish Then it descends Into deep Water. It is not given For goods or gear, But for The Thing. The Gold I gather A King covets For an ill use, The Gold I gather Is drawn up Out of deep Water. Like a shining Fish Then it descends Into deep Water. It is not given For goods or gear, But for The Thing.

Runic Verses by George Burrows 1913 O the force of Runic verses, O the mighty strength of song Cannot baffle all the curses Which to mortal state belong. Slaughter'd chiefs, that buried under Heaps of marble, long have lain, Song can rend your tomb asunder, Give ye life and strength again. When around his dying capture, Fierce, the serpent draws his fold, Song can make him, wild with rapture, Straight uncoil, and bite the mould. Then from keep and battled tower, Flames to heaven upward strain, Song has o'er them greater power, Than the vapours dropping rain. It can quench the conflagration Striding o'er the works of art; But nor song nor incantation Can appease love's cruel smart. O the force of Runic verses, O the mighty strength of song Cannot baffle all the curses Which to mortal state belong.

The Runes
Feoh: wealth Ur: wild ox  Thorn: thorns Os: language  Rad: riding    Cen: the torch

 

Gyfu: the gift    Wyn: joy            Haegl: hail     Nyd: need      Is: ice            Ger: the year

 

Eoh: the yew    Peorth: the hall  Eolhx: a water         Sigel: the sun Tir: a star  Beorc: the birch
                                                                           plant that bites   

Eh: the horse   Man: human being Lagu: the sea  Ing: god of fertility Ethel: native land

 

Daeg: the day Ac: the oak  Aesc: the ash  Yr: the bow  Iar: sea creature Ear: clay/death

Graphics from Runic Poems