The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

19:55 Apr 03 2019
Times Read: 519



Mythically, it is through the "God of magic," Odhinn, that the gods and men are able to receive runic wisdom. Odhinn is the first being to be fully initiated into the runic mysteries; he first extracted the run wisdom directly from its source and formulated it within his being in such a way that it could be communicated to other beings. This iniatory myth is represented in the Elder, or Poetic Edda, in the song called Havamal:

I know, that I hung
On the windy tree
All of the nights nine,
Wounded by spear
And given to Odhinn;
Myself to myself
On that tree,
Which no man knows,
From what root it rises,
They dealt me no bread
Nor drinking horn,
I looked down,
I took up the runes
I took them up screaming,
I fell back from there.

This describes an iniatory process of a shamanistic type, in which the initiate passes through the Nine Worlds of the World-Tree to the realm of Hel(Death) and momentarily enters her sphere. At that moment the initiate receives the entire body of runic wisdom, and it is etched into his being. In the next instant, the initiate returns to Midhgardhr with the run wisdom permanently encoded and ready for use and communication.
-From the book above