Freyja
Runes & Seidr -
3
-
first edition March 1999
Imbloc
Ibn Fadlan
Ibn
Fadlan was an Arab chronicler. In 921 C.E., the Caliph of Baghdad sent
Ibn Fadlan with an embassy to the King of the Bulgars of the Middle
Volga. Ibn Fadlan wrote an account of his journeys with the embassy,
called a
Risala. This Risala is of great value as a
history, although it is clear in some places that inaccuracies and Ibn
Fadlan's own prejudices have slanted the account to some extent.
During the course of his journey, Ibn Fadlan met a people called the
Rus,
a group of Swedish origin, acting as traders in the Bulgar capital.
The first allusion to the Rus comes toward the close of the
description of the Bulgars. When the Rus or people of another race
came with slaves for sale, the king of the Bulgars had a right to
choose one slave in each ten for himself.
Ibn describes a funeral ceremony which he
observed at close quarters and which is generally taken to be an
accurate account. He reports that when a wealthy Norseman died, his
material wealth was divided into three. A third of his wealth went to
his family; another third went to provide a funeral drink. Ibn called
the drink nabidh and the final third to clothe the dead man himself.
The drink called nabidh was consumed during the course of the funeral
celebrations that lasted for ten days, during which there was musical
entertainment and much sexual activity. Some moaners were even
reputed to have died from excessive consumption of the nadidh.
It was the custom that the kinfolk of the deceased
would ask of his young male and female slaves: “Who among you will die
with him?” The respondent was usually a girl, whose willingness to
die for her master was final and irrevocable. This maiden of the dead
was now placed in the hands of two other young women who watched over
her and followed her everywhere. During a build up of what was to be
a sacrificial killing of the girl, it was recorded that she gave
herself up to singing, drinking and promiscuous sexual activity.
The dead chieftain’s ship was then hauled out of the
river and prepared while a couch greatly decorated in Byzantine
tapestries was also placed on the ship.
An elderly woman whom they call the Angel of Death
embalmed and laid out the dead man. The corpse was dressed and food
and weapons placed on and around it. A dog was killed, together with
two horses, two cows, a hen and a cockerel. The slave girl was led
into ten several tents or pavilions of the dead chieftain’s kinsmen
and during that time, the master of each of the tents had sexual
intercourse with her saying, “Tell your Lord I have done this out of
love for him.”
-
On the day of the funeral, a Friday the slave girl
was brought to the ship and there was lifted into the air three,
each time saying:
-
Behold I see my father and my mother
-
I see all my dead relatives seated. I see my master
in Paradise, and Paradise is beautiful and green; men and young boys
are with him. He called to me, let me go to him.
Outside the final shipboard pavilion tent, six more men
had ritual sexual intercourse with her while the rest of the assembled
men stood by beating their shields possibly to hide the girl’s cries.
While two men held the slave girl’s feet and another two held her
hands. The Angel of Death placed a rope around the slave girls neck
which was pulled on whilst a broad bladed dagger was repeated trusted
into the slave girls ribs until she was dead.
 
A Rus Viking said through an interpreter to Ibn Fadlan,
“That he thought the Arabs were fools because you take those you love
and honour most and put them in the Earth where insects and worms
devour them. We burn them in the blinking of an eyelid, so that they
enter Paradise at that very moment.” Within an hour, Viking Ship,
dead chieftain, slave girl and grave goods were totally consumed by
the fire. The Rus Vikings then built a small hill mound and set up a
great post of birch-wood on which they wrote the name of the chieftain
and the name of their King after which they went on their way.
One of the distinctive characteristics
of the Norse during the Viking Age was that they held a religious view
separate from that of the rest of Europe. While the rest of the
continent had been Christian for centuries, the Scandinavians held to
a more ancient system of beliefs. This world view was again a
reflection of their severe homeland. The Gods were seen as grim and
distant figures having their own set of priorities, who generally
found human beings beneath their notice. Petitions for intervention by
the Gods were considered chancy at best.
Even if you could get the Gods to
notice, they were just as likely to hinder as help. The Norse had a
grim fatalism about life. The powers of good and evil were seen as
locked in a constant struggle, and although good would triumph in the
final battle of Ragnarok, they would destroy themselves in the
process. In the end the best a man could do was endure. To die with a
snarl on his lips and sword in hand was to guaranty his entry into
Valholl, there to endlessly feast and fight with other chosen heroes.
There was belief in some kind of life after death, and for this reason
the dead were buried with their possessions.
This is the reality that was Odinism, so far removed
from the “Pub Moot Odinist” beer drinking binges or New Age fanciful
fluffy bunny Odinism pretension and even the Russian government are
opening up to the fact that the Russian race today have Rus Viking
origins. I believe this account of the Arab emissary Ibn Fadlan is a
true and valid piece of history of the funeral practices of Odinism in
the “Old Ways” as far as the burial of Rus Viking Chieftains is
concerned.
Bibliography: The Viking Saga, (Brent 1975,
pp143-146)
http://tinyurl.com/ordk5
Snorri Sturluson
1178–1241
 Much of the written source material about the goddesses
of the North has survived in fragments of skaldic poetry written
around 1220 Christian Era by an Icelandic Christian scholar called
Snorri Sturluson. Snorri was a
historian, born at Hvammr, CE1178; died CE1241. Snorri, who
was the son of Sturla Thortsson (d. 1182), was the most important
Icelandic historian of the middle ages. In him were united the
experienced statesman and the many-sided scholar. As a child he went
to the
school of Saemund the Wise at Oddi, of which, at that time, Saemund's
grandson Ján Loptsson was the head. On his father's side Ján was
related to the most distinguished families of Iceland, while by his
mother Thora he was connected with the royal family of Norway. Under
this skillful teacher Snorri was thoroughly trained in many branches
of knowledge, but he learned especially the old northern belief in the
gods, the saga concerning Odin, and Scandinavian history.
By a rich alliance
Snorri obtained the money to take a leading part in politics, but his
political course brought him many dangerous enemies, among whom King
Haakon of Norway was the most powerful, and he was finally murdered at
the king's instigation. Snorri's importance rests on his literary
works of which "Heimskringla" (the world) is the most important, since
it is the chief authority for the early history of Iceland and
Scandinavia. However, it does not contain reliable statements until
the history, which extends to 1177, reaches a late period, while the
descriptions of the primitive era are largely vague narrations of
sagas. The Sturlunga-Saga, which shows more of the local colouring of
Iceland,
was probably only partly the work of Snorri. On the other hand he is
probably the author of the Younger Edda called "Snorra-Edda", which
was intended as a textbook of the art of poetry. Its first part, "Gylfaginning"
relates the mythology of the North in an interesting, pictorial
manner, and is a compilation of the songs of the early scalds, the
songs of the common people, sagas, and probably his own poetic ideas.
Another historian of that period was a Dane called Saxo
Grammaticus. But unlike Snorri, Saxo lacked the fervour and passion,
which Snorri had for the Norse Gods and Goddesses, often euhemerise
the characters in the legends, presenting them as human beings who
through clever deception or the gullibility of the peasant folk around
them, immortalised themselves as divinities. Saxo also strongly
disapproved of the roles of the goddesses, debasing them and
portraying them as greedy nymphomaniacs who played a sub-servant to
that of the male gods. However it must be remembered that although Snorri
wrote his poems recording and preserving the old myths with
enthusiasm, his actual works were written over 700 years ago and at
the actual time of his recording the myths, Iceland had been a
Christian country for 200 years. In 1000 CE under political pressure
from Christian Europe, and faced with the need for trade, the All
thing accepted the religious doctrines of the Hvitikrist or
White/Pale Christ and within a few short centuries the last remnants
of Nordic Paganism, which once stretched through all of Northern
Europe were thought dead sending to gods to slumber.
Religious tolerance or rather intolerance lasted in
Iceland till about 1639 CE, some six centuries later after which
working with runes became explicitly banned by the Official laws of
Iceland. Those caught worshipping the Old Religion thereafter ran the
risk of being burnt alive at the stake as heretics. And is it not
surprising then that knowledge of much of the beliefs of the common
people has been obliterated by both time and suppression.
We must therefore also bear in mind the possibility
that Snorri may have perhaps unintentionally misled us with variants
of the truth or incorrect information. His works were the result of
piecing together fragments of half remembered folklore, some of which
may have had creative conjecture used in place of fact in order to
fill in the missing gaps. Such is the nature of legends, being based
on certain fact at conception but evolving into a totally different
ideology or myth at the end.
It must also be remembered that poets lived in Iceland
and Scandinavia long before the coming of the Hvitakrist who
composed some of the earliest of the skaldic poems. Their poems
tended to be short alliterative verses filled with mythological
illusions whose true meanings have eluded the best scholars of our
time not least because they frequently refer to works, which have not
survived. This leaves us with best guess at what is being hinted at?
Another favourite and much quoted source for the habits
and beliefs of the early Germanic peoples is Tacitus, whose
Germania
was written at the end of the first century around 98 CE.
Of the early tribes he writes:
“Augury and divination by lot
no people practiced more diligently. The use of lots is simple. A
small branch is lopped off a fruit-bearing tree and cut into small
pieces; these are distinguished by certain marks and thrown carelessly
and at random over a white cloth. In public questions the priest of
the particular people, in private ones the father of the family,
invokes the gods and with his eyes towards heaven takes up three
pieces one at a time and finds them a meaning according to the marks
previously impressed on them. If the message forbids something, no
further enquiry is made on the question that day; but if it allows
something, the further confirmation is required by the use of lots.”
Medieval Sourcebook:
Tacitus: Germania, trans.
Thomas Gordon
http://tinyurl.com/o5het
Archaeological evidence for rune-sticks:
"Small sticks of
pine seem to
have been the preferred material for carving runes on,
both at the Wharf
and in the rest of Bergen. Only three sticks of birch and one of
beech are specially mentioned in the Liestřl Archive. A
survey of the inscriptions on
artefacts other than wooden sticks can be found on page 40. Two of the
artefacts - a wooden plate, B002 without identifiable runes, and a
wooden post, B579 with the runes iiiri, are lost. The rest of the
objects are kept at
Bryggens
Museum."
Ref: On the runic material from Bergen.
http://tinyurl.com/rzmh5
It should be noted here that H. Mattingly gives as his
translation a nut bearing tree rather than a fruit-bearing tree? The
difference is wide as all nuts can be classed as fruits but not all
fruits are nuts. This opens up the possibility as to the type of
trees as to the types of trees, which could have been used to make
rune sticks? It has been suggested by the more notable rune authors
that the trees used for making rune lots were Oak for the Saxons, Ash
for the Scandinavians and Beech for the Germanic peoples.
However, there is no archaeological evidence, which
supports a belief, those wooden tabloid runes so commonly seen in used
today ever existed! This goes for the many instant divining
“Ancient Oracles” readily available out there commercially produced as
clay rune stones, crystal rune stones, ceramic rune stones or any
other type of made up fanciful New Age rune stone combinations.
Another example of a money-spinning very pretty and quaint New Age
product packaged as the “genuine article” but in reality, complete
balderdash made up by authors or companies dedicated to the
exploitation of the gullible and dishonouring a noble tradition.
Semetic Runes
The topic and even the existence of
a runic-like writing originating from Semetic areas such as
Hungary is often ignored by runologists, even when they discuss the
possible origin of the runes. When so few people are active in a
field, it cannot but show large deficiencies. For example, when a set
of shapes is found, nothing proves it represents runes, rovás, or
gothic letters, etc. The recognition comes when some archaeological
studies have been performed, the shapes are well recognized for
belonging to a given alphabet, an interpretation is given, and some
kind of coherent body of knowledge is formed about the topic.
The Székely-Hungarian Rovás Script
The scene of the inscription relic was
the House of Envoys in Istanbul. Sultan Selim the 2-nd, detained the
envoys of King Ulászló for seven years in Istanbul, and one member of
the envoy, Tamás Székely, incised with Rovás writing, on the outer
wall of the stable of the House of Envoys, the message about their
fate. The House of Envoys burnt down in year 1865, at that occasion
the inscription was destroyed too, but luckily already in year 1553,
here walked János Dernschwam, and he copied, and salvaged the text
from perishing.
The Inscription from Constantinople
Ezer ötczáz tizenöt
esztendőben írták eszt. László király öt követét váratták itt. Bilaji
Barlabás ketö esztendejik it valt. Nem tön császár. Keteli Székel
Tamás írta inet Szelimb török császár itet bé száz lóval
The English
translation is: They wrote this in year Thousand Five Hundred Fifteen.
They delayed here five deputies of King László. Bilaji Barlabás was
here for two years. Emperor Nem tön. Keteli Székel Tamás wrote, he was
locked in by Selimb Turkish Emperor with Hundred horses The above
figure is the first part of the inscription.
Ref:
http://tinyurl.com/g4sre
Everything You
Always Wanted to Know about Tocharian*
by Mark Dickens
Tocharian is an
extinct Indo-European language which stands by itself as one of the
eleven major groups in the IE
1
language
family. It was not discovered until the turn of this century, as a
result of archaeological expeditions to Chinese Turkestan.
Since the characters
from the 1st to the 6th spell out futhark, this word is used to
denote the runic script. However, some characters are cut slightly
different on the stone than what is shown within the text above:
An identical form of the futhark
character shown under #23 is also found in the Tonyukuk inscription.
Chinese Turkestan,
today known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's
Republic of China, was the goal of numerous archaeological expeditions
in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The area
consists primarily of a vast arid expanse known as the Tarim Basin,
bounded by mountains on three sides which separate it from the
adjacent areas of Tibet, India, Afghanistan, and what is today Soviet
Central Asia. The Taklamakan desert covers most of the basin, and
settlements have sprung up around the oases that are scattered
throughout the area. Over the centuries, a number of sophisticated
urban civilizations have sprung up in the area. The inhabitants were
originally animistic and shamanistic. Later on, Buddhism and Nestorian
Christianity penetrated the area. Starting with the Arab invasions of
Central Asia in the eighth century, the population gradually converted
to Islam, which remains today as the dominant religion in the area.
Although the vast majority of the indigenous inhabitants today are
Turkic, there were significant numbers of Indo-European peoples in the
area prior to the second millennium of our era
Ref:
http://www.oxuscom.com/eyawtkat.htm#intro
Freyja riding on the back of a Siberian snow tiger
Sabine Morrison, a modern day practising Wolva from
Germany who has been practising runes in the “Old Ways” for the best
part of 27 years suggested to me the following ideas as a possibility
that will be the topic of more in depth explanations at later reviews.
-
Elder
Fuţark
at is simplest level
is actually a storyline script
-
Rune Dance
was a way to preserve or recall the rune traditions through the
centuries
-
Power rune
songs
(galdrors) were used in ancient times as a means of timing for
measuring out ancient medicines or herbs for healing
-
Rune Stones
may have existed as a possibility from a point of necessity. Our
Viking ancestors in Iceland may have used small pieces of magma to
do make shift runes due to the scarceness of trees in Iceland.
In the last instance, she argued that it would make
sense for the runic diviner to scratch on to the surface of the magma
pieces and afterwards draw the runes to divine rather then cast them.
If you cast them, she argued they would smash. Also being from the
bowels of the Earth, they would have seen magma to possess some
magical ambience in their very nature.
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