Intro. to Runes
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- The basic facts about the runes, incl. different runic alphabets (the Futharks), possibilities about their origin, and their uses and changes over time.
Dr. Jackson Crawford is Instructor of Nordic Studies and Nordic Program Coordinator at the University of Colorado Boulder (formerly UC Berkeley and UCLA). He is a historical linguist and an experienced teacher of Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, and Norwegian. Visit www.JacksonWCrawford.com
Music © I See Hawks in L.A., courtesy of the artist. Visit www.iseehawks.com/
Logo by Elizabeth Porter (snowbringer at gmail).
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Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Poetic Edda: www.amazon.com...
Jackson Crawford’s translation of The Saga of the Volsungs with The Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok: www.amazon.com...
Jackson Crawford’s Patreon page: / norsebysw
The more I strive to learn to "use runes properly/accurately", the more I realize that the less I know. lol. You're videos are fascinating and THE authoritative source as far as I'm concerned. [begin binge-watching now]
Man I love Dr. Crawford's videos. Also, that's a mighty impressive barn.
Thanks for providing this. As someone who has both formal education in Nordic Studies and has been involved in religious/magical sides of runes (ages ago now), I feel it's especially important to understand what we actually know about runes from historical and archaeological evidence and what is inferred or alluded to (or taken from later or outside sources) about the symbology and magical meanings and uses of the runes. A lot of "runic magic practitioners" have non-supported assumptions about runes, which is fine IMO from a spiritual/magical perspective, but those assumptions should be acknowledged and be open to new evidence when it's presented.
Benjamin Johnson As a current student of rune magick, I’m so far enjoying these videos about the Runes on the academic side, as I personally feel that the more I understand the history of the runes, the better I can be at interpreting them in a better, more educated context.
SYMBOLOGY
“Symbology? Now that Duffy's relinquished his "King Bonehead" crown, I see we have an heir to the throne. I'm sure the word you were looking for was "symbolism". What is the ssssymbolism there?”- Boondock Saints
Thank you so much for always providing this information free of charge. I've bought (and read!) your translation of the Poetic Edda, which was excellent, and you've inspired my own studies into Old Norse, which I've been working on for some time. þǫkk!
Tell us what you're working on..
I do love the way you express yourself, and the way you present us Runes. Thanks! From Finland with much respect!
Wow! An american that actually pronounces the letter "å" correctly! :) I as a swede really appreciate your videos on runes. It's just sad that we have to turn to english speaking channels for this kind of subjects, as they are practically non existent in our own languages.
really? i thought the native scandanavians would be rich with that knowledge
Hi! I'm from Finland, I love history, love your channel, and just wanted to tell you this: there is a completely usual and mundane modern Finnish word "harja". Guess what it means? "Brush". Yes, as in "hairbrush". (Also "broom", "mane", "cockscomb", and "ridge".)
The derived verb "harjata" means "to brush" - usually hair.
Of course, Finnish is not a Germanic (or even an Indo-European) language, but it could easily have been a loanword, right? The word for a comb is "kampa", which pretty much sounds like a loanword too :)
I don't know if it is scientific at all to infer the meaning of the Vimose comb inscription from this, but I just can't think of them as not connected! To me the Vimose comb is the coolest artifact ever - an ancient comb with a modern word for a hairbrush written on it in Elder Futhark. Love it :)
PS. Thank you so much for your videos! You are super!
I really enjoy that you are clearly not reading off of a script. You are very knowledgeable in this field and I thank you for sharing your knowledge with the internet! I also enjoy how you do touch on magic in some sense, though purely academic. The inherent power the runes hold are obvious to most. The mystery surrounding the early Germanic cultures helps aid in this I think as well.
Etch "Feoh" to pay respects
ᚠ
ᚠ
ᚠ
ᚠ
ᚠ
in a farm talking about runes, this is awesome
woah good work animating those visuals!
You were blessed with an excellent speaking voice! And we, the listeners, are blessed for hearing it 😉
Wow I am so glad I found your channel! Ready to dive into this series about runes!
11:20 I love the poems that people in the past used to memorize letters!
This one reminded me of another amazing poem in that regard, the japanese Irowa, which was so influential it was used for centuries to order vocabulary entries, learn the japanese syllabary etc. (and also is a banger poem on itself imo, which is very impressive to me considering the fact that, because of its purpose, it follows a very strict "every character can only appear once" rule)
Awesome can't wait to watch the video Dr. Jackson Crawford, keep up the good work sir.
Thank you Mr. Crawford.
Very first video seen from you and definitelly going to continue! This is so interesting!
Great video, helps better my understanding since I’ve been readin quite a lot about runes lately it started out a little confusing! It was a great surprise to see this video up!
fé and feoh are interesting.
There is a common Dutch non-countable word for 'farm animals' and that is 'vee'. It comes close to 'cattle', but it's not a direct translation. See it as the non-countable animal equivalent of 'crop'. Your vee is anything that grazes your lands. A farmer (boer) that specialises in animals rather than crops is called a 'veeboer'.
ᚠ is still alive and well.
In Danish (before we went all frenchy in the common speak), "fæ" meant cow. But then again Dutch and Danish are basicly the same if you go back 200 years
Same in Swedish. Fä means cattle and fjäderfä means domestic birds like hens.
Not that fä is used very much in every day talking. It is more common as a part in words like fjäderfä and färist (cattle grid).
Farmed chickens, be it for eggs or meat, are called 'pluimvee' here, meaning basically the same as fjäderfä.
What sounds like the Proto-Germanic counterpart "fehu" is present in oral Norwegian today to mean "dimwit". Although rarely written, it's most commonly spelled "fehue", which quite literally translates to "cattle-head". Using names of animals to represent bad qualities is nothing new, but the actual pronunciation and associated spelling is so particular that the old word may have been absorbed into the maturing language. Alternative words that were never adopted, but which would've invoked a stronger emotional response, are "kutryne" (lit. "cow-snout"), "feskalle" (lit. "cattle-skull", sim. "tomskalle" (lit. "empty-skull")), "kukjeft" (no direct translation, very negative connotation), leading me to believe that "fehue" is indeed a misinterpretation or somehow stems from the old word.
He pronounces his "h's" (specifically, the ones after "w's"), and puts the period after the abbreviated word, "intro."
So satisfying....
Cool hwip
Dr. Crawford I just listened to your audiobook for the The Poetic Edda. Thank you very much for making it available I thoroughly enjoyed it!
I really appreciate these videos, I am half Norwegian and pagan. I homeschool my son and we are studying Norse Mythology and the Old Norse religion, your videos have been extremely helpful for my own personal use as well as homeschooling him. We utilize the runes here in our home as well.
Thank you kindly for the very informative video. =)
Very nice. Love the topic. And thank you for all your work and info. I don't always leave a comment but always watch and like
Translation: stop asking about W.O.W, Shadowhunters, Skyrim, and any new age website you find on the Internet. All jokes aside another great video.
thank you so much for making this
backdrop is so wild west.
Love your work.
Interesting, I am also start to study Rune Alphabet.
Thank you for this!
Fun fact about the comb: ”HARJA” in finish means brush or ”to brush”. Finish has alot of proto german loan words
you are cool! i'm stoked i found your channel
Where did you get that shirt??! Great discussion, I will search out more of your material...
Wait, law code and song with music notation is relatively uninteresting?!
LoL :) :) :)
I would love to attend your class!!!!!!!!!!!!
great Jackson
Great vid, thanks for teaching me so much
Funny that "harja" is a brush in Finnish :)
That is intresting, it seems Finnish has preserved some archaic germanic words
Or vice versa ;) I don't know did "harja" mean the same thing in Finnish back then than what it means today.
I don't think so, because "harja" means so many different things in Finnish other than brush. Also hair in Finnish "hiukset" is completetly different than Swedish counterpart.
Like many other words in Finnish, it likely comes from Swedish (where "hår" means "hair", and "harv" means "harrow" -- the agricultural equipment that "combs" the soil). After all, the bristles of brushes ARE hair (or often these days plastic).
Finnish harja comes from Baltic languages, not Germanic. But both words have the same Indo-European root.
So cool
I find it interesting that the further removed people have historically become from runes, the more they became associated with magic rather than mundane writing. I still have to explain to people that writing curses or whatever with runes does not mean that they were believed to be themselves magical back in the Viking age. There are plenty of Roman curse tablets which use our alphabet but that doesn't make it magical in and of itself. In any case thank you for this video.
Exactly, that's what I was trying to get at.
The same could be said of latin, which became very popular in Western Esotericism and the Occult long after it died as a regular language.
I think the idea of sending words silently across long distances using only scratches on wood seems like a pretty big magic.
I know its a bit of a feat but I'd love for this video to have accurate CC.
The auto translate is butchering so many words :(
Otherwise, I'm thrilled to have found this channel!
Wow. Thank you. My ancestors have led me to do my research and start using tunes in my tarot readings. I felt a connection to you spiritually and I am definitely enjoying the wisdom you share with us! Thank you.
Man I miss Colorado 🖤
Thank you 😀
Please do a video on all the ditties.
Does anyone know where to buy an ebook version of Runes: A Handbook?
Is there a reliable info graphic that can provide the names, meaning, and associations of the runes? Be they in the Elder, younger, or other arrangements? There are many online but I lack the knowledge to vet properly, their validity.
Also, Is Dr. Crawford still providing translations in return for cash?
Jackson, please point out a scholar on your level (both heuristically and in terms of social media) that works on Ogham. I have an interest in both and would love a good name drop from you!
Aware this is a four year old comment but if you’re still searching I recommend Katherine Forsyth and Nora White
Also- Dr. Crawford, could you point me in the direction of the reference for the FUThARK ordering possibly being a code?
Extremely interesting
Interesting. When I first read the Eddas I understood the part of the Havamal where Odinn hung himself to mean that he was searching for the deeper meaning to the Runes and not the Runes themselves. My assumption was that they had the Runes as a writing tool and he knew that certain words could be magical and wanted to learn how written words could be magical. This I based on the verses 146 - 163 whichis a list of spells that Odinn learnt. Of course there is no way to know if the two events of the gaining of the Runes and learning the spells are related but that was my initial reading.
colin Paterson I never thought about that, that is an interesting interpretation. I took it to mean, "the gift of the magic of writing" (writing itself is pretty magical)... as well as magical uses (so, I took it as the initial gift of the runes themselves, as well as uses of them)... but I think you have an interesting idea.
Kelly It strikes me, reading the stories, that Odinn's search for knowledge was for more deeper knowledge than run of the mill stuff, hence the great price he was willing to pay.
I thought it was old secrets he was hanging for. For my peonlike understanding, runes are both letters as well as secrets. Happy to be corrected.
Beyond The Gates We read in the Havamal that Odinn is looking for the secrets (meanings) of the runes or to put it another way the magic of the runes so you are right in what you are saying. When it says he learned how to carve them it has a deeper meaning to carve the shape.
You should write a book about runes.
What's with the Galdrastafur on that banner in the barn window? pretty cool anyway 14:50 .
the 160 AD provenance, as you note, doesn't mean that the runes were not much older already by then.....
what strikes me about runes is their also-similarity to Punic.....and somewhere else on YT another legit history video (not a whacked one) maintains that Punic/Carthaginian trade with Cornwall and points beyond, and the similarity of Phoenician/Carthaginian ship design was maintained in that video to be linked to the emergence of Norse/Gerrmanic ship design.
So.... it's not just Greek in origin, just as Greek alphabets are evolution from Punic. But consider - at Delos there were Hyperborean attendants to the god, particularly during the Delia, and that wasn't the only sacred festival/site that had celebrants from the North....
so how did they get there? Well, by water..... via the water routes that became the demesne of the Rus, linking the Baltic and the Black Seas....conceivably overland but that seems unlikely due to the Scythian control of the steppe north of trhe Black Sea until the Ostrogoths took over ... until the Huns came. Ships could slip down rivers unseen or un-attackable by the horse-born Scythians....sure they could have come via Gibraltar but ...?
Point is that pre-Norse-era Germanic contact with Greece was well-established by the Classical Era in the 300+ BC era....so it's only natural that a writing system would be adapted from Greek.
About that couplet from the Rune Song you like so much... I re-discovered that rune-song many years ago during some readings after reading about Zen... all couplets in that rune-song strike me was koans, mystical riddles, or philosophical statements.....
One other of too many questions - I look forward to your thoughts on the Heavener Runestone, said to be 400 AD from what I remember about it, and the infamous Kensington Runestone...though that one I think now has been conclusively validated as genuine despite all the attempts to claim it was a home-made fake. There are other rune finds around North America (NONE at L''Anse-aux-Meadows, interestingly...) and also claims of ogham .... I'm sure you will debunk those (maybe) and the Heavener.... there's also a story about runes in *Alaska* .... spelling "tir and "otinn"......and the curiosity of the Payne River Cairns and the Pamiok Island stonehouse...again, no runes despite an evidently Norse skull and offspring skulls.
I have lots to discuss with you so will find your email at U.Colorado Boulder and write you privately....
Very interesting.
Hello, I hope I'm in the right crowd with this one but here goes... I'm working a on a series of short stories set in the migration period, although it is fiction and I'm throwing in horror elements, I'm a history enthusiast and want to get my facts straight. When the Ingvaeonic peoples started landing in Britain, were they using elder futhark or had Futhorc already developed? Also when did Elder Futhark split into futhorc and younger futhark?
Would the Northern Germanic tribes like the Longobards for example have used the Elder Futhark until replaced by latin alphabet? Like was the Younger Futhark only used in Scandinavia or was it spread throughout the Germanic world?
So I am curious- I get why you say the Elder Futhark must have existed before 160 but why? I have to imagine it is quite possible that could be the oldest written runic inscriptions given that ancient Scandanavian culture was an oral tradition (so there might not have been as many people who could write), the population would have been much smaller than today and then there could be local dialectic variances that could have skewed them.
I guess my point is that it would seem to me that it is logical to assume there would have been many different versions of the Elder Futhark based on that which was used by the various clans or tribes/ localities, etc. Perhaps what we are seeing in the Elder Futhark from 160 is one variation of it rather than one uniform runic system used across Scandanavia.
Hello Dr. Crawford,
Where is this barn? :)
I love your shirt. That's all.
I've heard that the divinatory meanings come from our time, but the old Norse did use runes for divination. Is there anywhere I can go to find out how these runes were actually used in divination?
Can you provide a link to what that madr (ᛉ) poem you mentioned looks like in Rune?
When writing with the runes for words with double letters - like tree and sorrow, do you write it with the doubled letter ? I remember seeing somewhere that you don’t - because the letter “E” already says E
Is there any good books for learning to read and write in runes that you would recommend?
I'm curious about what theories there are about why the futhark was ultimately completely replaced by the alphabet. Especially with runes like ing and thorn.
So are the runes similar to Chinese characters where they have a meaning and also a sound? For example, during the Chinese new year people put 福 (pronounced 'fu') on their doors to symbolize luck and wealth. This character is also used in 福建 which means the city of Fujian. So in the second example it is just kind of like a letter or spelling. Are runes used in the same way? Thanks for the videos.
*It’s a paradox! If you write English in Runes, you’re using Runes to effectively change it completely, yet without changing it at all. Also, Alchemy is sweet! I’ve recently found out I’m over 1/3 Scandinavian, so I’ve been delving into my ancestral studies! Scandi/Norse 37%, Irish 32%, and Scottish 31%... Thank you for your expertise and explanation, and time/energy to create this introduction! I wholly appreciate it*
I think living with one eye would be an easier route to learning runes
You like CO over CA?
Arapaho in Runes😊
I wonder if there was writing during the Nordic Bronze age that disappeared, or if they adopted it from the Greeks/Phonecians towards the end.
Interesting, we still say fee to cattle in Switzerland to this day.
Yes, the "All roads lead to Rome" outlook isn't helpful here. Greek was the Lingua Franka of the ancient world when Rome was a lot of dudes looking bored and frustrated. It's a great thing to think on, where the Runes came from if you like your history. A real head scratcher.
Hello Jackson, is there anyway I can get a hold of you through email? I need a quick favor please.
To me it's funny that the Elder, Younger and Anglo Frisian Fuþark all have parts of the modern k. Elder has the rightmost part, younger has the stem and the upper part, and Anglo Frisian has the stem and the lower part. Isn't that curious?
I like that shirt
I'd say that the language is the beverage, and the alphabet is the *straw*, aka the means of delivery of the language "beverage"
"hw-" love to see it
Is there a reason you call it the "Roman alphabet" and not just Latin?
if yall commenters know runes what is this "ᛋᛏᛁᛅᚱᚾᛅ ᛋᛏᚱᛁᚦᛅ" (hint it is the title of a great saga)
Scoutdog$$ i dont know
stiarna striþa (It’s Star Wars, isn’t it?)
I forgot this comment was here
I suggest you put a "dead cat" on your mic to eliminate wind noise.
But how else would we know if Odin is around???!!
They resemble Etruscan letters as well, at least superficially.
Nice hair
Beaut shirt
👍
Rather Swedish painting of that barn
isn't it interesting that Madr sounds like mother and was used to mean human just as if that is exactly what mothers are creating.
Swedish colour scheme on the barn.
raskolnikov Red is the traditional color for barns here in North America. I don't think I've ever seen a painted barn that wasn't red.
Red was supposed to symbolize fertility. That's why barns were painted red, so livestock would multiply. Can't recall where I heard that.
I think that red was a cheap paint colour, and that it prevented the wood from degrading. And yes, that red barn with white corners are as Swedish looking as anything. Falu Rödfärg made this country look like it does.
It's probably down to tradition anymore with more painting options out now. Rural folk are more likely to be conservative in all aspects. Even if the color had symbolism, it is long forgotten... it's just the way it's supposed to look.
I agree with the other user who mentioned that red was the cheapest paint color, which is why barns were originally painted red, now red barns are just traditional and hence unchanged.
I wish you would monetize these, so those of is in the cheap seats could help you make a few $
Would you ever consider translating your versions of the two books you've had published into Audiobooks in the Nordic tongue? Hearing it read in its own language would be beautiful, good sir.
So we know of a runic letters, however is there anything on the numerical family that was and or was used by Scandinavian peoples?
I’m just a runestone cowboy
Where can I purchase a copy of your interpretation of Norse Mythology? I have Gaiman's version, but I'd love to read your version as well, along with any other books you recommend. This is my ancestry and I wish to learn all I can.
What about the last stronghold of runes: the Dalecarlian runes?
At 6:53 the god þor has live commented to that video.
So I was discussing with my friends about the letter V in elder futhark runes
For known reasons it doesn't have a match, so it leaves us with the necessity of assigning an equivalent sound rune.
As far as I get I found four possible candidates for the job but I can't state which one was the most probably used:
Some say it's ᚹ rune
Some say it's ᚢ rune (wikipedia says there is a wide agreement about that)
Some say it's phonetically close to ᚠ rune
Some say it's phonetically close to ᛒ rune
Anyone has any insight on that?
I've always been partial to the hypothesis that early Southern Germanic tribes were exposed to the Phonetic alphabet through the Raeti and the Elder Futhark sort of took form and developed as it traveled further nortih.
As far as the Runes as a "magical script" thing goes as far as I've been able to determine from my own research is that Elder Germanic and later Norse folk didn't see the runic symbols as inherently magical on their own, however, they could be used for magical purposes in the hands of someone who knew how through either vocally through Galdr or through inscription.
The Poetic Edda has a few examples of this such as runes being written on bone to curse or the Troll Runes from the saga of how Frey wins Gerd, but it's always Runes plural and not singular which would imply that they need to be assembled into a kind of "spell" if you will.
The only example of divination I've ever seen is from Tacitus' Germania and even then whether or not the staves being used were Runes or, really whatever they were, is completely vague.
Hello (=
Hei,igjen🌟🤗
Hello👋☺
HiYa
I wonder how much more we would know, instead of guess or imagine, if the Scandinavians wrote books/codexes, etc..
Whoelse is here after watching the cicada episodes? 😂