This is the first known appearance of an alphabet eventually evolving into the 22 Phoenician letters that became early Hebrew. There is another story that Moses c. Important to our own alphabet story, which begins with the cow's head of letter 'A', the turquoise 22 mine at Serabit el-Khadim had a temple to the cow goddess, Hathor.
Like Orion, she has multiple names. The only Sinaitic word that has been translated is her Semitic name 'Balaat' Lady. Greek myth attributed Egypt's alphabet to a gift of a Cow. Reminding the reader of the frequent association of star cows and sky bulls with the origins of writing, the cow as the goddess Hathor is also known as Isis. As a far-wandering cow goddess, she is associated with the stars of Sirius, Orion and the Milky Way. Her descendant Cadmus carried the Phoenician alphabet to Greece. As sky goddess, her temple may have possessed a ritual calendar originally transmitted as oral tradition.
Her later temple at Dendera is famous for its zodiac relief.
For unknown reasons, the script from the Sinai simmered underground unused until its descendent, stolen from the White Cow, appeared years later. Egypt measured her hour day by choosing 36 Decan Stars. Each of these 36 Righteous Ones ruled for one hour of Abraham studied the mysteries with Enoch, ancestor of Noah who saved the arcana in his ark. I have also seen he studied with Shem, son of Noah. These were needed to make a calendar of days, closer to the actual sun's cycle of The attributes of these five gods fit those of our first five alphabet letters. Myth following the reality of a calendar regulated by the changing sky and seasons on earth, Sky Nut and Earth Geb gave birth to these gods.
Egypt's sky, usually depicted as a woman arching over her Earth, was also depicted as a Cow. Her consort sometimes appears as a serpent, an ancient form of the Earth Gods. To allow the creation of the world, they were separated by their offspring, the young Air. Because there are multiple spellings for Phoenician letters, I am technically incorrectly using Hebrew and Greek names for letters in the text as most accessible to the reader.
Of all currently existing alphabets, Hebrew alone retains the magical luminous qualities of the early symbols; it never forgot the Mystery inherent in each of its 22 letters. Wick Used for Torches H 1. Belly of Animal and 2. I or Reed Y Teats H 3. Arm Cubit L Folded Cloth S Seat or Throne P Basket with Handles X 7. Cerastes Serpent F Stand for Jugs G 8. Raised Bread T 9. Hobble for Cattle T Resting serpent Dj T Egypt's Temple of Hierakonopolis c. Phoenicians continued to trade their Cedars of Lebanon to the treeless Egyptians during the next years.
A thriving city since BCE, Hierakonopolis, contains the first known painted tomb. These wedge-forms were engraved in wet clay and dried. When writing appeared in Egypt c. It is possible the idea of writing arrived from the east and was translated into a uniquely Egyptian format of sacred script. Known as hieroglyphs, they represented a "nearly complete panoply of alphabetic and multi-consonantal signs" along with numerous other shapes 26 and images determining the meaning.
It is likely the concept of writing arrived along with trade goods from the Near East. Since many myths attribute the appearance of writing, though not its creation, to the serpent-bull worshipping Phoenicians, they may have transmitted the concept along with trade goods on their frequent trading voyages to Egypt. Egypt began writing with hieroglyphs around BCE. The hundreds, eventually thousands, of complicated hieroglyphs could represent pictographs, sounds, modifiers, etc. At some point in history someone ordered 24 out of hundreds of possible hieroglyphs into a phonetic mono consonantal alphabet.
This became known as the 'hieroglyphic alphabet'. Traditionally provided in order, each symbol naming an object, I can thus compare it to other ordered alphabets including Phoenician. Although the hieroglyphs used for this 'alphabet' are among the earliest, I have been unable to find a date for the first appearance of the order as it appears in scholarly books.
The date is relevant. If the order occurred in ancient Egypt, it represents the unfolding story of death and resurrection appearing years later in the Phoenician alphabet. Because it was seldom used, Egyptians continuing to write with the complex hieroglyph system, it may also reflect a foreign ordering of existing hieroglyphs. If ordered by a later scholar, someone aware of hermetic alphabet Mysteries placed them into a mythic order. As I discuss below, the ordering of the 24 letters is extremely unlikely to be a random choice.
Despite the development of this simple script 24 phonetic letters rather than hundreds to write speech, it was not commonly used. Egypt continued to use the more elaborate hieroglyphic script for their tombs, temples, and descriptions of gods. Eventually, rather than using the existing 'alphabet', slightly simpler scripts developed, Known as Demotic and Hieratic they were used for non-sacred writing but were still complex and difficult to write or read.
Ignoring the democratic simplicity of being able to write with a few phonetic hieroglyph letters, the 27 'alphabet' was used mostly to write foreign names. This suggests a foreign, rejected gift. It is probable a later group referencing their own hermetic tradition ordered the 24 available mono consonant hieroglyphs into the 'alphabet'. A serpent sleeps at its base as last letter. Described above, the circular patterns we explore promise a return into life. The use of a Vulture as first letter, a Serpent as last, makes it impossible to suppose the choice of symbols random.
The association of Bird Goddesses with emerging Serpents has a long and widespread history. The serpent, usually sounding Dj, can also sound 'T'. It is pronounced DjT 29 and can be spelled out with a T sign, and maybe another determinative sign showing a cobra. As mother, she was chosen to sound "A' as first hieroglyph. The sound of 'A' as first Phoenician letter will mother the letters of all later alphabets. The color of this particular vulture is black and 32 white and she was considered to be androgynous.
Later I will elaborate on hermaphroditic black and white symbols appearing in the first position. Egypt preferred to preserve their dead but Canaanites, like the peoples of Asia Minor, were no strangers to vulture rituals. Excavations of a site c. They may also have been places to feed vultures as well as offering homes for rock dwelling serpents. Archeologist "Rami Arav argues that Rogem Hiri was a It was widely practiced in cultures and civilizations that for one reason or 33 another were interested in saving the bones of the deceased and not their flesh.
Associated with the goddess Mwt mother , her worship arrived in Egypt with the Hyksos. She merged with the older vulture goddess to become the sister of the Cobra. Between them, the two sisters encircled the crown of the Pharaoh. I can't find if this is his own gloss or from an earlier source. Most sources simply use 'A'. In time, that seed, her serpent-sun-fish-fetus, will rise again from her watery 34 womb. The large serpent as final hieroglyph is one of the aspects worn by ancient earth gods. Last 35 Hyksos ruler of Egypt, the Semitic foreign king, was named after the Apophis serpent.
The Apophis, also known as Apep, ultimately became an evil serpent-dragon in Egyptian mythology. More to the point of a possible Semitic influence on the ordering of the 'alphabet' hieroglyphs: His consort Balaat is a cow goddess. They imply rituals of a Great Round of 39 regeneration. I have often seen the hieroglyphic script pulled out of its original order to 40 follow the sounds of our alphabet.
This destroys the pattern, obscuring the story. Three thousand years later, the Black Mother and her serpent were still associated with letter magic. In India, the resting serpent is awakened to ascend the 24 vertebrae of the spine to emerge, enlightened, through the crown of the head. She encounters alphabet letters on her journey see India chapter. Germanic tribes were another group finding magic among their 24 letters. In the Norse saga of Bosla c. From this egg emerged a serpent.
Ancient symbols derive from close observation of nature. Serpents are not above feeding upon Vulture eggs. The Apohis as foreign Pharaoh was presumable a powerful, not yet evil, dragon-ruler. One of the very early Egyptian Pharaohs also used the resting serpent as his name. Apep arrived in Egypt with the Hysksos, as did the red storm god Set. Also Diringer, Alphabet , p. Aleph - Ox, Bull 2. Beth - House 3.
Giml - Camel or Rope 4. Dalt - Door Hey - Window 6. Wau - Nail 7. Kaf - Palm of Hand Mem - Water Nun - Serpent or Fish Samekh - Prop or Fish Ain - Eye Pe - Mouth or Commandment Tsade - Hunt or Fishhook Ros - Head Despite tales that Phoenicians carried an alphabet to all their ports built around the Mediterranean, they left few writings beyond accounts of trade items and storehouse records. This secretive, cosmopolitan people began a lucrative trade with Egypt as 41 early as BCE.
Ultimate source of all Western alphabets including Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic, it also influenced later syllabaries consonant and vowel including India's sacred scripts of Sanskrit and Brahmi c. Its brilliance is that each letter represents a simple sound. Other writing systems used hundreds if not thousands of symbols to write language, limiting its use to elite scholars. Democratic Phoenician could write any language with only a few simply drawn letters. Written with less than 30 symbols, it could be quickly learned. Traveling along the trade routes, it was rapidly adapted for use by numerous unrelated languages.
According to the Greeks, Cadmus "a man from the east" Kdm carried Phoenicia's alphabet to Greece and established his city after following a cow. He was not the inventor, having stolen the letters from his grandmother, the White Cow Io. While myth is a vastly underutilized source of linear history, it is not clear on the ultimate source of the Phoenician spell. This hints at the Phoenician connection with Egypt.
His heredity may refer to the script that appeared c. Then again, perhaps a wandering Phoenician bequeathed an older order from Anatolia to 24 early hieroglyphs. When including the Greek letter-attributes, I place them in the order of their Phoenician ancestor. Like many earth goddesses, she owned a necklace of stars. In a fusion of alphabets, cows, bulls, and serpents, Cadmus and Harmonia, like the last of 24 hieroglyphs, become serpents at the end of their days. Cadmus and Harmonia as serpents. Cadmus' sister was the cow goddess, Europa.
Dropping alphabet letters along her path, she was carried to Crete by a great Bull. The earliest Cretan script, Linear A, is not yet deciphered, its language unknown. I don't have an order for the pictographs so can't include the symbols. Few archeological dates are truly firm. He states they destroyed all documents each time they were forced to abandon their cities 42 Robert Calasso, Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Knopf, , p.
Mycenaean Greeks conquered Crete c. Phoenician begins with a simple picture of the bull 'Aleph' representing sound 'A' and finishes with Tau's cross. Each letter, named for an object, appears in an unvarying order. It also includes a number magic inherited by its descendants. We no longer have an intimate knowledge of the sky, but if we are to understand ancient traditions, we must learn some of their astronomical knowledge. The myths are not simply star myths, but events in the sky cannot be ignored when studying ancient traditions.
Linear history, like our own Camelot, often conforms to mythic templates. The constellation Taurus, as well as giant Orion, are both Bulls of Heaven. With the Precession, Taurus replaced Orion as ruler of spring, eventually moving into a May Day rising. May Day was when cattle arrived in Ireland, 45 owners of a later script promising resurrection. That is, the Last shall be First.
This later Aleph c. The line, 6th Hebrew letter Vav 'nail' linking heaven and earth, first appears in the Torah as its 22nd letter when God created heaven and vav earth. Weakened by earthquakes, they left, returning back to Canaan when the Mycenaean Greeks arrived. Historically, domesticated cattle arrived c. This alphabet, which was known to the Pythagorians, is composed of absolute ideas attached to signs 46 and numbers.
During Europe's Inquisition, hiding the Mysteries became a matter of preserving one's life. Modern scholars attempting to interpret ancient practices are often handicapped by their ignorance of Astrology and Number Magic. Shortly before the Common Era, Hebrew scholars adopted new shapes for their letters. I believe the new shapes were designed to emphasize attributes inherent in the original Spell. I will elaborate on the new shapes when I discuss alphabet letters in the second part of the book.
Known as square Hebrew, it follows the extensive tradition of meditation and magic using the 22 letters. The Patriarch Abraham c. Born in Ur of the starwatching Chaldeans, he traveled north toward Anatolia and eventually to Egypt following the commands of his One God. The first known book of the Kabbalah, Sefer Yitzerah, is attributed to Abraham and since "Abraham was the greatest mystic and astrologer of his age, it is natural to assume that he was familiar with all the mysteries 47 of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Transmitted orally for generations, this book on alphabet mysteries appeared in written form early in the Common Era. Further elaborations and commentaries on the Kabbalah appeared in Spain after the th Centuries. Spain during this time blossomed with the Golden Age of learning under the Arabs. Keeping with my insight that it is numerical placement in an order, its proper 'spelling' that empowers each symbol, Sefer includes the meaning of counted 'order' as does the term for a scribe Sofer properly transcribing the letters in a Torah scroll.
The tree is manifest in body of the Primal Man, Adam Kadman. Kadman is the Phoenician name for Cadmus Greek name. The Semitic root 'kdm' means east, but east 50 implies 'orient', a guide as well as the luster of a Pearl of Wisdom. There is a prayer, the Akdamus also, Akdamut, c. Waite, trans, , p. Another tradition has him studying with Shem, son of Noah. Dragons are associated with the fifth charm belonging to virtuous priest-kings transmitting Law See Letter Five. Each verse ends with T-A.
That is, as soon as the letters finish T as last letter , they circle back to A. I think it outside of chance the similarity of names is accidental. Isaac Myer, Qabbalah, Given his lineage, which included shining cow goddesses, clouds, rivers, and sacred serpents, I suspect, like Adam Kadman, Cadmus originated from a far more celestial source. Again, I wish to emphasize that I am not implying the extensive traditions of Jewish mystics, alchemists, ancient musicians, mathematicians from Anatolia, Druids, Viking warriors, Taoist scholars or Hindu saints seek the same goals through the magic contained in our letters.
I am merely unraveling threads from an ancient pattern to demonstrate such a pattern exists and that the pattern included a return into the circle. Playing cards, they were also used for divination. Like Orion, whose Hebrew name is Kis'l Fool , Zero now wanders outside the circle; but the appearance of the Fool still promises his Mother's material wealth. Each time he returns, he brings a tenfold increase As hidden cipher zero 52 remembered for his measurements, one of Orion's names is Algebra.
Names of the cards are included in the Alphabet Guide. The illustrations I include in the book are from a set designed at the end of the 19th century. Waite and illustrator Pamela Colman Smith had connections with mystery cults whose symbolism reflected by the cards Rider Waite deck. The Tarot is attributed multiple origins, including the secrets of Jewish magicians, Arabs, and Egyptians.
My own investigation indicates a mystery pattern so wide spread and so ancient, all of the above are possible. Packs of cards began appearing in Europe in the late 's, shortly after the destruction of the Knights Templar CE. While I am not attempting to write a linear history, that history "leads us to the underside of Christianity Located above a possible site of the Temple of Solomon, they may have discovered his secrets. Accused of heresy by later popes, tortured and executed, their riches seized by the Church, their secrets disappeared underground.
Futhorc: The Anglo-Saxon Runes & Runology
I am not aiming for literal history. Only following myth to uncover trails left by a Mystery. Templars like Masons and witches were heirs to the measurements of ancient magic. Symbolic carvings in the Templar preceptories He was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer and student of Pythagoras, teacher in another 55 mystery school. Like the Creation myth of Genesis and later rune magic, the cryptic keys follow the symbolism present among our ABC's.
The name gives BLN as the order. All known written scripts use BLF. Diphthongs were a later addition to original 20 letters B-I. Ogham undoubtedly existed as an oral tradition long before physically appearing in Ireland around CE. A secretive code script, it was not used for general writing. Rather, it appears primarily on tombstones and boundary markers suggesting the scribes remembered the alphabet's ancient promise of resurrection and travel between the worlds.
The letters are composed of groups of 5's arranged in a vertical line intersected by cross lines at various angles, the shapes give no clue to their meaning. However, each ogham represents an object and has a set order to the script. Thus I can look at the myths associated with each ogham and compare them to other ordered traditions.
Comparing myths of objects naming each ogham to other patterns, I found either the first or second letter must be skipped to keep the pattern consistent. I chose to skip the second. My reason will become clearer as we explore each letter in the second part of this book. Among them is a script from Spain Iberian that drops letters, 2nd and 15th, from the 22 in the Phoenician script.
Using this as template, I also skip the second and fifteenth when describing the ogham symbols. This keeps Ogham's myths congruent with symbols from other traditions. Known popularly as the Celtic Tree Oracle, the earliest oghams were named after trees. Stories associated with each tree fit the story unfolding through other alphabet symbols. That is, qualities associated with the 20 oghams mimic qualities associated with objects chosen for the same position in other alphabet patterns.
There is some disagreement about the original trees, but all the choices seem to relate properly to the unfolding Creation myth of the original template. After the Tree alphabet, a number of later ogham series developed. These later oghams seem simple mnemonics, not containing the richer qualities inherent in the original tree symbols. The full ogham script is given in the charts attached to this chapter. All collections begin with symbols whose names start with a B, L and end 20 letters later with a word starting with I. Oghams often refer to events around the Black Sea, an area of early scripts.
This was the location of Troy, Militus settled by people from Crete , and the tale of the Golden Fleece. First Bird Ogham, for instance, is Besan, 'pheasant'. A bird from the Black Sea area: Colchis hosted the adventures of the Golden Fleece, another story associated with golden mysteries, metallurgy, great goddesses, and astrological serpent-trees.
Ancient Iberia, in addition to Spanish Iberia, named a kingdom located next to Colchis. Oghams constantly hint at shared mysteries and measurements. They were brought from Egypt by Phoenicians to build the Temple of Solomon. Their initials were inscribed on the Temple's pillars flanking the door into its mysteries.
Known for both his knowledge and 56 material wealth, "Solomon obtained in Babel's Tower all the sciences of Asia's land. All written oghams, however, use Beth, Luis, Fearn alder. Some point in time before Ogham became a written script, the Ash tree traded places with Alder. Robert Graves, in his book The White Goddess, discusses this 'Battle of the Trees' and their fight for the coveted position. I will offer reasons for the Battle when I discuss the fourth and sixth letters. Cadiz was one of the many trade 57 cities established c.
Their temples are long gone but two rocks marking the passage from the sheltered Mediterranean into the wide Atlantic still bear his name. A variant tradition about the creation of Ogham attributes the script to Scythians, warriors 58 traveling between the Black Sea, India and China.
According to medieval texts "Ogham was first invented soon after the fall of the Tower of Babel Fenius also written as Phoeniusa, hints at his connection with the Phoenicians. His wife, Belait, recalls Baalat, feminine form of Phoenicia's Baal. His stepson was Hercules. Nimrod's legends include knowledge of astrology, measurements, and building the Tower of Babel. This ties him to legends of Masonry, another group inheriting the hidden secrets of measurement: Numeral 72 as described above, is the rate 1 degree every 72 years of the Precession of the Equinoxes.
This precession eventually caused star- gazing towers and pyramids aligned to a fixed star to fail and fall out of sync with Heaven's calendar. Knowledge of astronomy was an important part of the training of the secretive Celtic druids. He saw the temple's two pillars. One was made of gold; the second was a green emerald. The Pillars of Hercules in Cadiz were bronze. Also, see Graves, White Goddess, , pp. Myth claiming relationship, homeland of the wandering Scythians was north of the Black Sea extending toward China, another source of mythic patterns bequeathed by bull-headed serpent gods see China chapter.
In addition to these mythic ancestors the Irish claim descent from Scotia, an Egyptian pharaoh's daughter, and the sons of Mil. Milesians came from the city of Miletus settled by people from Crete located south of the Black Sea near Troy. After arriving in Spain Iberia , they sailed to Ireland to conquer the Fairy race. Discussed at the tenth charm, Celts also claim descent from Israelites, the Kabbalah tradition linking alphabets, number magic and other mysteries coming 63 into open fashion in Spain about the time of Ogham's appearance.
One final note about Ogham's script hinting at a return after death: When a person dies, his soul remains. The more I research ancient patterns, the more sympathy I have for those who believe Earth spoke a common language before the Fall of Babel's Tower. Below is an ancient image of Alpha's Cow Head. This is equally the shape of a woman's womb and a shape used for ancient graves see Letter One. Next to it are the prints of the Prince who has left his sole behind as he stepped off the earth. Last returning as first determines the choice of Islay as final Fort Ogham all letters naming a fort rather than a tree.
Islay is a small western island northeast of Ireland. A ceremony "took place on the Council Island when appointing a Lord of the Isles. There is a large rock with a depression shaped like a human foot, into which the elected chief placed his foot, denoting that he should walk in the 65 footsteps The Kabbalah was expanded in Spain and Gaul. Algiz - Elk, A Horned 1. Uruz, Ur - Aurochs, Ore or Rain Sowilo, Sol - Sun 3.
Thurisaz, Thurs - Thorn Ansus, Oss - High God or Mouth Raido, Reidh - Wheel or Ride also related to a word for 'fairies' Ehwaz - Horse Mannaz - Man 6. Kenaz, Kaun - Torch or Ulcer, Cancre Laguz, Logr - Lake or 7. Gyfu - Gift leek 8. Wunjo, Wynn - Joy Ingwaz - an Earth god also Ingvi-Frey. Hagalaz - Hail, Hel, symbol is used in alchemy to Heal represent lead. Like Saturn lead , Ingvi was responsible for fertility. Naudiz, Nyd - Need.
Dagaz - Day This is sometimes placed last Isaz - Ice Othala - Homeland or Jera, Ger - Harvest or Inheritance Year Ihwaz - Yew Tree In that city was a chief called Odin. Asia in the ancient world included Anatolia and the Near East. The Germanic script known as runes or Futhark began appearing around early in the Common Era. It provides further clues uncovering the secrets of our alphabet. Among the definitions of 'rune' is 'mystery'. Odin, a warrior aspect of Mercury, learned these mysteries from a dead god while hanging on a tree by a well near the Black Sea.
As Hermann, he is patron of both war and trade. Thousands of years after the vulture goddesses of ancient Anatolia carried their dead to heaven, Odin's bands of bird women, the Valkyries, performed the deed. Arriving as swans, ravens, or riding on flying horses, they carried away warriors slain in battle. Odin did not acquire a Mason's skill along with the runes. He hired a giant to build the great walls of his city, Cyclopean geometry being one of the skills of older earth giants cyclops.
After learning the runes, and after killing his mason to avoid paying him, Odin traveled north from Anatolia with the Vanir Wagons , captured earth gods including Frey and his sister Freya. Like many ancient goddesses, Freya owned a necklace of stars. Known as the Brisingamen jewel of flame , it was forged by 4 dwarves, the number of the corners of the year solstices and equinoxes. A goddess from a much earthier era, she slept with each of the dwarves as payment.
The Elder Futhark of 24 letters appeared about CE. These later traditions have varying number of letters and shapes. Like other alphabets, each rune represents the initial sound of an object: The various users Norwegian, Icelandic, etc. Because I am only interested in uncovering the attributes underlying each letter, I do not emphasize the source of various rune names.
Although the stories unfolding through runes follow closely those of Phoenician, the shapes and sounds of most runes derive from Germanic sources. Each peoples adapted the pattern to suit their own culture. Repeating the important caveat, when comparing mythic alphabets, one must consider the story, NOT the shape or sound of each letter. Like all circular scripts, first and last symbols reflect a promise of Return.
Last of 24 runes is cow- shaped Othala earth, inheritance, homeland. They begin with Earth's wealth of Cattle Fehu. Like Ogham and Hieroglyphs, Runes were not used for general writing; rather they were primarily inscribed on boundary markers, tombstones another boundary or to work magic. But like other ancient alphabets, runes if properly spelled include the promise of resurrection, the power to return the dead to life.
The 24 Runes are arranged in 3 families of 8 Aettir, a word meaning both 'eight' and 'compass direction'. This division seems to reflect the creator of runes having the same feeling I did: There were at least three separate additions to the ancestor of Phoenician. The first eight symbols reflect a cycle of fertility, growth and harvest, and then a Rising Up into a new Light. In the North these powers belong to Frey. Under his golden reign earth knew peace and good harvests. Second family begins with Hel, goddess of the Underworld. Her eight runes, as well as the letters of other alphabets, describe a soul-journey after death and emergence once more into the light of day sun, 16th rune; eye, 16th letter.
Hebrew begins Hel's family with ninth letter Teth 'coil' , signifying an entrance into the Underworld of Tethys, see 9th Letter for Labyrinth myths. Last rune family begins with the sky god Tir as 17th rune. Associated with the command of stars spinning around the North Star, Tir's family seems to include astronomical data but not a coherent story. Like the alphabet, each rune has a set place in the order.
Around the 8th and 9th centuries a further expansion of the Futhorc occurred in Northumbria so that there were now 33 runes in total. Also with a change of the 4th and 6th runes in name, shape, and phonetic expression, the Elder Futhark became in time the Anglo-Saxon or Old English Futhorc. Over this same period the Anglo-Saxon language developed and adopted the Roman script to become Old English. Although the runes have phonetic values that could be used for writing, this did not generally occur, except as inscriptions.
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This may be due to the fact that the runes always had a magical component, so were increasingly and more exclusively used in this way; whereas the Roman script under Christianisation, lacking this dimension, became more suitable and available for everyday usage. This more magical association of the runes is detected in the later runes of the completed Futhorc.
It is also apparent in the Viking era between CE and CE when, in Northern Germany and Scandinavia, the rune row of the Elder Futhark underwent a reduction to 16 runes and being subsequently known as the Younger Futhark. This may have been an attempt to re-establish the more magical use of the runes in the face of the progressive Christianisation that was occurring during this period.
With the completion of Christianisation in Scandinavia the Viking era came to a close around CE. In Britain, Christianisation had been a lot earlier, properly beginning in the 7th century, although present before then. Christianity provided a significant cultural influence, but seemingly ignored the runes perhaps due to denial, repression, exorcism, or all of those things , with the exception of the Northumbrian input. Influences from the Celtic era may be seen in the 4 to 5 runes that developed immediately after colonisation, as trees are strongly present.
It is thought that the Celts and their priesthood, the Druids, used a magical system called Ogham that was based on trees. After the close of the Viking era, runes and the various Futharks a collective term comprising all three rune rows disappeared from public view. Obviously the runes never completely died out, making occasional appearances, until the increasing interest and re-emergence over the last few centuries. We know of the runes through archaeological finds.
These are on ornaments, coins, stones, and in manuscripts. They were probably more commonly and magically used on materials that could be sacrificed and would not have survived anyway, such as wood. Collectively these give us the rough outlines that have fleshed out all of the Futharks. There also are some inscriptions suggesting a medieval belief in the magical significance of runes, such as the Franks Casket AD panel.
Much speculation and study has been produced on the potential meaning of these inscriptions. Rhyming groups appear on some early bracteates that also may be magical in purpose, such as salusalu and luwatuwa. Further, an inscription on the Gummarp Runestone — AD gives a cryptic inscription describing the use of three runic letters followed by the Elder Futhark f-rune written three times in succession.
Rune KAUNAZ, Argent
Nevertheless, it has proven difficult to find unambiguous traces of runic "oracles": There are at least three sources on divination with rather vague descriptions that may, or may not, refer to runes: The first source, Tacitus's Germania , describes "signs" chosen in groups of three and cut from "a nut-bearing tree", although the runes do not seem to have been in use at the time of Tacitus' writings. The third source is Rimbert's Vita Ansgari , where there are three accounts of what some believe to be the use of runes for divination, but Rimbert calls it "drawing lots".
One of these accounts is the description of how a renegade Swedish king, Anund Uppsale , first brings a Danish fleet to Birka , but then changes his mind and asks the Danes to "draw lots". According to the story, this "drawing of lots" was quite informative, telling them that attacking Birka would bring bad luck and that they should attack a Slavic town instead. The lack of extensive knowledge on historical use of the runes has not stopped modern authors from extrapolating entire systems of divination from what few specifics exist, usually loosely based on the reconstructed names of the runes and additional outside influence.
As Proto-Germanic evolved into its later language groups, the words assigned to the runes and the sounds represented by the runes themselves began to diverge somewhat and each culture would create new runes, rename or rearrange its rune names slightly, or stop using obsolete runes completely, to accommodate these changes.
Two-letter disambiguation pages
Thus, the Anglo-Saxon futhorc has several runes peculiar to itself to represent diphthongs unique to or at least prevalent in the Anglo-Saxon dialect. Nevertheless, that the Younger Futhark has 16 runes, while the Elder Futhark has 24, is not fully explained by the some years of sound changes that had occurred in the North Germanic language group.
For example, voiced and unvoiced consonants merged in script, and so did many vowels, while the number of vowels in the spoken language increased. Some later runic finds are on monuments runestones , which often contain solemn inscriptions about people who died or performed great deeds. For a long time it was presumed that this kind of grand inscription was the primary use of runes, and that their use was associated with a certain societal class of rune carvers.
In the mids, however, approximately inscriptions, known as the Bryggen inscriptions , were found in Bergen. Following this find, it is nowadays commonly presumed that, at least in late use, Runic was a widespread and common writing system. In the later Middle Ages, runes also were used in the clog almanacs sometimes called Runic staff , Prim , or Scandinavian calendar of Sweden and Estonia.
The authenticity of some monuments bearing Runic inscriptions found in Northern America is disputed; most of them have been dated to modern times. In Norse mythology , the runic alphabet is attested to a divine origin Old Norse: This is attested as early as on the Noleby Runestone from c. That is now proved, what you asked of the runes, of the potent famous ones, which the great gods made, and the mighty sage stained, that it is best for him if he stays silent.
Stanza describes how Odin received the runes through self-sacrifice:. I know that I hung on a windy tree nine long nights, wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run. No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn , downwards I peered; I took up the runes, screaming I took them, then I fell back from there.
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This passage has been interpreted as a mythical representation of shamanic initial rituals in which the initiate must undergo a physical trial in order to receive mystic wisdom. These sons became the ancestors of the three classes of humans indicated by their names. In , the exiled Swedish archbishop Olaus Magnus recorded a tradition that a man named Kettil Runske had stolen three rune staffs from Odin and learned the runes and their magic. The earliest known sequential listing of the full set of 24 runes dates to approximately AD and is found on the Kylver Stone in Gotland , Sweden.
Most probably each rune had a name, chosen to represent the sound of the rune itself. The names are, however, not directly attested for the Elder Futhark themselves. Reconstructed names in Proto-Germanic have been produced, [ by whom? An asterisk before the rune names means that they are unattested reconstructions. The 24 Elder Futhark runes are: It was probably used from the 5th century onwards. There are competing theories as to the origins of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. One theory proposes that it was developed in Frisia and later spread to England , [ citation needed ] while another holds that Scandinavians introduced runes to England, where the futhorc was modified and exported to Frisia.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem gives the following characters and names: Some of these additional letters have only been found in manuscripts. Gyfu and wynn stood for the letters yogh and wynn , which became [g] and [w] in Middle English. A runic alphabet consisting of a mixture of Elder Futhark with Anglo-Saxon futhorc is recorded in a treatise called De Inventione Litterarum , ascribed to Hrabanus Maurus and preserved in 8th- and 9th-century manuscripts mainly from the southern part of the Carolingian Empire Alemannia , Bavaria.
The manuscript text attributes the runes to the Marcomanni, quos nos Nordmannos vocamus , and hence traditionally, the alphabet is called "Marcomannic runes", but it has no connection with the Marcomanni , and rather is an attempt of Carolingian scholars to represent all letters of the Latin alphabets with runic equivalents. Wilhelm Grimm discussed these runes in The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian Futhark, is a reduced form of the Elder Futhark , consisting of only 16 characters. The reduction correlates with phonetic changes when Proto-Norse evolved into Old Norse.
They are found in Scandinavia and Viking Age settlements abroad, probably in use from the 9th century onward. They are divided into long-branch Danish and short-twig Swedish and Norwegian runes. The difference between the two versions is a matter of controversy. A general opinion is that the difference between them was functional viz.
In the Middle Ages, the Younger Futhark in Scandinavia was expanded, so that it once more contained one sign for each phoneme of the Old Norse language. Dotted variants of voiceless signs were introduced to denote the corresponding voiced consonants, or vice versa, voiceless variants of voiced consonants, and several new runes also appeared for vowel sounds. Inscriptions in medieval Scandinavian runes show a large number of variant rune forms, and some letters, such as s , c , and z often were used interchangeably.
Medieval runes were in use until the 15th century. Of the total number of Norwegian runic inscriptions preserved today, most are medieval runes. Notably, more than inscriptions using these runes have been discovered in Bergen since the s, mostly on wooden sticks the so-called Bryggen inscriptions. This indicates that runes were in common use side by side with the Latin alphabet for several centuries.
Indeed, some of the medieval runic inscriptions are written in Latin. The character inventory was used mainly for transcribing Elfdalian. The modern study of runes was initiated during the Renaissance, by Johannes Bureus — Bureus viewed runes as holy or magical in a kabbalistic sense. The study of runes was continued by Olof Rudbeck Sr — and presented in his collection Atlantica.
Anders Celsius — further extended the science of runes and travelled around the whole of Sweden to examine the runstenar runestones. From the "golden age of philology " in the 19th century, runology formed a specialized branch of Germanic linguistics. The largest concentration of runic inscriptions are the Bryggen inscriptions found in Bergen , more than in total. Elder Futhark inscriptions number around , about of which are from Scandinavia, of which about half are on bracteates. Anglo-Saxon futhorc inscriptions number around items.