NAVIGATION

It is my personal belief that wood was the main organic ingredient next the maker’s own blood that was used to create rune sticks for the following reasons.  In the Poetic Edda’s Voluspa, The Wise Woman’s Prophesy verse 19 “An Ash I know, Yggdrasil it’s name” suggest to us that the Cosmic World Tree in which Odin discovered the runes through magical inspiration was actually an Ash tree.  Note also that the etymology of the word rune and that of the word rowan are very similar according to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary).

I therefore suggest that the wood of the Rowan tree was that used by the ancient Germanic peoples to make runes for casting.  Apart from it’s well known folklore beliefs connected with warding and protection, the rowan also carries a red berry or fruit and is commonly known as the Mountain Ash. Because of its association with the World Ash Tree Yggdrasil Ash tends to be the favoured wood used by modern rune occultists.  Ygg is also another of Odin’s names meaning awful, and drasil means steed.  So what of the Awful Steed/Horse?  Another translation suggests that Yggdrasil means “the gallows of the terrible one”.  Of necessity, we need to take a look at the nineteenth rune of both the Elder Futhark and Anglo-Saxon Futhorc:

e

GMC EHWAZ

AS EOH

The e (Ehwaz) rune is given the name according to the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc of “eoh” while the Elder Futhark calls it “ehwaz”.  Both rune systems suggest it’s meaning as “horse”.  A change of pronunciation to “ehwo” changes it’s meaning to “two-horses”.   There is an Old Norse riddle that goes something like this:  “What has ten legs, two arms, three eyes and a tail?”  The answer of course is Odin riding Sleipnir.  Controversy over whether Sleipnir is at all associated with the Anglo-Saxon Woden was stirred up by the vicar of St Bartholomew’s Church in Wednesbury in the county of the West Midlands in England over the recently created statue of the beast.

This area of speculation is covered in more detail in my forthcoming book on runes.  Briefly I suggested that the site of St. Bartholomew’s Church in Wednesbury might have possibly stood during the 6^th Century a Woden shrine set up by the last of the Woden worshipping kings of England, Penda.

Penda, King of Mercia
(Died AD 655)

The Flag of Mercia is a gold cross (from corner to corner) on a blue background. This flag flies from Tamworth Castle, and bares no resemblance to the proposed flag. Tamworth is the Capital of Mercia. Local historians here in Tamworth seem to think that this flag is or was the flag of the Kingdom of Mercia, and fly it as often as possible on along with other flags of the region.

No-one had heard of Mercia until Penda came to the throne. It is not quite clear exactly when he seized the throne from his cousin, King Ceorl of Mercia, but a date of around AD 626 is generally accepted. In his Historia Brittonum, Nennius writes that Penda quickly declared Mercia's independence from a Northumbrian overlordship. He certainly seems to have entered into a defensive pact with the joint-Kings of Wessex, Cynegils and Cwichelm, against the growing power of Northumbria; and it was sealed by the marriage of his sister to Cynegils' younger son, Cenwalh. However, when Cwichhelm went on the offensive, by trying to assassinate Edwin of Deira, Penda may have felt it best to annul the alliance. Indeed, after the Wessex armies were crushed by the vengeful Northumbrians, the Mercian King seized the advantage and invaded the kingdom of his one time allies. At the Battle of Cirencester in AD 628, Penda defeated the men of Wessex and took control of the territory of the Hwicce (roughly Gloucestershire). This area had nominally belonged to Wessex since AD 577 but consisted largely of a British population. And so began King Penda's infamous career of aggressive warfare on all frontiers.

http://tinyurl.com/o4dlr

According to the sagas, Sleipnir is a mythical eight-legged magical steed given to Odin by Loki.  Because of the vague archaeological evidence seen in rock carvings, which appear to depict Sleipnir, historians have suggested several possibilities for a horse to be shown to possess eight legs such as an ancient form of animation to suggest fast movement?

However, the answer could have been much simpler.  It could have simply have been a ceremonial wooden horse supported with four inverted v-shaped stands which provide an illusion of it having eight legs, possibly used in ancient ritual ceremony?  At first sight this appears to be a strange idea but if we consider that according to Germanic Cosmology, the purpose of Sleipnir was to transport Odin across the Nine Worlds essentially on shamanic journeys, it appears then that there is no need for the horse, or indeed Odin to physically go anywhere at all.   The horse merely becomes the agent by which the spirit is sent on a journey, which is spiritual, rather than physical in which case the symbolic representation of the horse serves the purpose perfectly.

Viking horses were brought to Iceland from Norway around 900 CE. These horses have been maintained as a pure breed in Iceland. These unique sturdy horses have two unusual extra gaits in addition to Walk, Trot and Canter. Tölt, a 4-beat lateral gait, also known as running walk, can be performed at any speed and is smooth and comfortable for the rider. In Flying Pace, a 2-beat lateral gait used for racing, the horse can reach speeds of 30 mph. An Icelandic horse in action looks like it does have eight legs and this is the most likely reason for portrayals of Sleipnir with 8 legs?

Russian Sleipnir

We should also consider that the concept of the e (Ehwaz) rune “ehwo” equates to two horses and can be seen to have eight legs between them especially when mating.  This particular rune is used in modern Seidr reconstruction rituals, being seen as the rune, which allows the gods to “ride” the willing horse that is the trance medium or seiďkona. The horse is also strongly connected with fertility magic, and particularly with the Norse God Frey.  I am sure we are all familiar with the saying, “He is hung like a horse!”  A greatly exaggerated phallus is a common theme in depictions by ancient peoples of their fertility gods and represents both their sexuality and their fertility.

Scandinavian figurine with erection often described as being of Frey            (11 century Sweden)

Up until the abolition of hanging in Britain, gallows were usually constructed of two upright posts with a crossbeam at the top.  Depictions of such gallows can be found in sources ranging from Anglo-Saxon manuscripts to early 19^th Century engravings of public executions.  Could it be from an observer’s point of view that when the victim of the gallows was duly installed and executed, just maybe the crossbeam might have been imagined with the two upright posts to take on the familiar shape of the e rune? An alternative form of the eihwaz e rune is П.

Is it not possible then just as the Cosmic World Tree, Yggdrasil was sacred as the giver and taker of life, that the gallows should not be acknowledge with the same reverence? It can certainly be said in days when death by hanging inevitably meant death by slow strangulation, that the dying person “rode” the gallows.  I further suggest that as trees were used to hang sacrificial victims, they too like the gallows proper became synonymous with the horse, being seen as vessels for transporting mortal souls from this life to the next.  Hence the term, “gallows-tree” developed.

In ancient Germanic cultures, the horse is seen as a sacred and magical animal.  Pagan reverence of the horse, including the phallus, so outraged the Church that a complete ban was imposed in Northern and Western Europe against religious recognition or veneration of the horse in any form.  The Runemaster and skald Egill Skallagrimsson was supposed to have set up a Niðstong or Nithing Post against his enemies King Erik Bloodaxe and his Queen Gunhild.  This scorn post was about nine feet long with one end buried in the ground and a horse’s skull on the top.  Insults against the target of this “Death Horse” would have been carved along the length of the pole and the horse’s skull would have been pointed in the direction of the home of the person whom it’s negative charged Earth energy was intended.  It was believed that the Niðtong Pole of Insult had the power to enrage the Landvaettir or Land Wights living on the ground of the accursed.

Returning to Tacitus for a moment, we should point out that his references to the markings being used for divination is in practice quite vague and can easily give a false impression that he had definitely witnessed rune castings by the ancient Germanic peoples at close hand.  This is at best a reasonable assumption on the part of historians for lack of any evidence to the contrary.  We should bear in mind that he might have witnessed something completely different.

Tacitus’ words “in private the father of the family” can lead one to a natural conclusion of the male head of the household.  But consider this.  Is it just possible that the term ‘father’ is an ambiguous mistranslation or even a sexist Roman remark?  “Father” could also be a phrase to suggest the head of a family.  Within ancient Germanic tribes this role has always been ascribed to the Lady of the house or the Husfreyja.  Northern women played a leading role as head of the home and were revered by their men folk.  Sadly this is not the case in today’s modern cultures based on Judeo-Christian values.

Divination on matters of state would however usually have been the remit of a male chieftain-priest or goði.  The chieftain of ancient Germanic tribes would have also been priest playing out a double role, that is to say a tribal and religious leader.  His female counterpart was called a Gyðja or Hof Gyðja.  She was the temple priestess and was entrusted with the collection of money or dues as well as looking after the temple itself.  There is little evidence historical or otherwise to suggest that priestesses took an active role in affairs of state as depicted by accounts given in Vapffirðinga saga seem to suggest.

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