Translation and commentary

The most prominent source to mythological knowledge of Runes and where they originate from is an edda poem called Hávamál, or translated into English “the speech of the tall one”. The people who created these types of poems were skilled poets and very fond of showing their vast knowledge about the word by creating alternative terms. This is one of the less complicated instances where this is only one. The tall one is another name for Óðinn who is described in various other sources as being tall, one eyed, wearing a hat and a large black or dark blue cloak.

Hávamál is for the most part narrated by Óðinn himself and a small part of it speaks of when he discovered the runes.
In order to properly speak about this piece of the poem I will bring my own translation of the part in question here, starting with the two first verses and the two following in the next chapter

I know that I hung in a windblown tree
For nine entire nights
Wounded by spear and given to Óðinn
My self from myself to myself
In that tree, of whom no one knows
Where his root stems

They did not gift me with bread, nor with any horn
I searched below
I took up the runes, screaming I took them
After that I fell down

The windblown tree is another name for Yggdrasil, the tree that is the center of the Nordic cosmos, standing in the middle of the home of the God’s, which again is situated as the center of the world with the world of humans in a ring around it and the world of the giants in a circle around that again.

The number nine is significant because to the people who originally created and listened to this nine signified completeness. The fact that Óðinn hung on the tree for nine nights means that he completed the transformation. Also it is noteworthy that time is counted in nights rather than days, which is typical of this people. They also counted winters rather than summers. Presumably because these times were border-areas with a danger to them that did not exist at their lighter counterparts.

The fact that Óðinn is wounded by a spear and then in the paragraph directly after said to be given by himself to himself is also interesting and stems from the notion that the spear was Óðinn’s special weapon just as the hammer was Thor’s. Hanging is also associated with Óðinn, because he is said to sit under hanging trees to learn secrets from the dead hanging above.

The tree that is mentioned in the next line is again Yggdrasil and refers to the vertical axis it also represents. As it was mentioned before Yggdrasil is the center of the world on a horizontal axis, but this is also true for the vertical axis where it starts in the underworld where the dead are and reach up through the world of the giants, humans and gods and into the sky. The underworld is a mysterious place and so no one knows there Yggdrasil has it’s roots.

The horn mentioned in the second verse is a drinking horn and the customary way of drinking at the time. So it means nothing more or less than that in the time he hung upon the tree he starved and thirsted.

It is significant that the runes come from below and not from above as might have been expected of something that brings enlightenment, but given a little more thought it makes perfect sense. In Nordic mythology the underworld is a place that is shrouded in mystery and most of the time a place where people do not return from, but when they do they possess an added knowledge that is extraordinary and only attainable through death. The nine days and the completeness then comes to tell us that Óðinn did indeed complete his cycle from life to death and did indeed die upon the tree.

It is no small feat to take the runes up and return to life and this is represented in the outcry he gives, but then it is completed and he falls down from the tree, entering again the normal sphere.

Translation and commentary

After the acquisition of the runes, the poem explains what is gained by having these, because obviously having given such a sacrifice; the mightiest of all the gods, literally the greatest possible sacrifice, something important and grand must have been gained.

Again this is my own translation of the original text and other versions may be found elsewhere with different word-choices and indeed different meanings. This is because a translation is always in essence an interpretation. Most words have more than one meaning and in poetry this is amplified in the extreme. So bear in mind that this is an interpretation, albeit one that, to the best of my knowledge, is accurate in representing the meaning behind the verse.

Nine mighty songs I learned from the renowned son
Of Bölþór, Bestla’s father
And I enjoyed a drink of the valuable mead
From Óðreri

Then I took up being fertile and be wise
And grow and thrive well
Word led from word to other words
Deed led from deed to other deeds

Again nine is mentioned, a sacred number that signifies completeness and signifies that Óðinn learned the complete number of mighty songs. Now one may wonder what a mighty song is, but it probably leads to the magic of the norse religion. Here a lot of magic was carried out as song in something called galdr and it looks as if a certain kind of singing has been involved in seiðr also. Both will be spoken of in greater detail later. What is important however is that Óðinn knows them fully, for to be able to function it is necessary for him to always gain more knowledge and a lot of the magic has to do with that exactly: Gaining knowledge.

Bestla is Óðinn’s mother, and so Bölþór is Óðinn’s grandfather. Bölþór’s renowned son must therefore be Óðinn’s uncle, but who this character is, is unknown as no one is ever mentioned.
Óðreri is the name of a vessel holding mead made from Kvasir’s blood, a myth told in the prose edda. The short version is that in one of his never-ending quests for more knowledge Óðinn went in search of the mead made of the blood of Kvasir, a very wise being, and Óðinn brought it home to the realm of the gods. Whoever drinks of it receives skills as a poet, which at that time was rather the same as being wise. The mead therefore represents wisdom and the ability to create poetry which was a highly appreciated art. These vessels containing the mead were named and Óðreri means “The one who stirs the mind”

When the word fertile is used it is not in the sense that a plant will now start growing out of him or that he will be able to have many children, but in the sense that he is able to create much, but on an intellectual level. It is by words and symbols that he creates. The runes apparently makes him more so as well as wiser than he already is; quite a feat as Óðinn is already described as the wisest of all.

What is started with the acquisition of the runes is also not something that stops creating more knowledge, for as one word springs from him it inspires another one, which again inspires another. The same with deeds. This must naturally be understood as magical where both the words spoken and the deeds done have another meaning than their face-value.