About Rune Poems
My first set of runes came when I was eighteen. Twenty-five small blocks of sanded oak, a sign burned into each. It is still with me.
Back then I simply used the runes. Much later I began asking a different question: where did all these meanings come from in the first place?
Why does Fehu mean wealth? Why does Isa mean a standstill? Where did reversed runes, birth runes, three runes for past, present and future come from? What here is really old — and what did we add much later?
Rune Poems grew out of the wish to find out.
That is why everything begins with the poems
No ancient book called «The Meanings of the 24 Runes» has come down to us. But three rune poems remain. Old English. Norwegian. Icelandic. They walk the rune row sign by sign and leave us the images tied to their names.
- Fehu — wealth.
- Isa — ice.
- Sowilo — the sun.
- Raidho — the road.
Sometimes the poems agree with one another. Sometimes they see one rune in completely different ways. That is where this site begins. Not with a modern list of keywords. With what remained.
Source first. Then interpretation.
This is the simple rule of all of Rune Poems. If an old text says something — we show it. If the sources disagree — we do not hide it. If we do not know something — we say so.
And if a meaning, a ritual or a way of reading appeared much later, that does not make it «unreal». We simply call it modern.
A symbol does not need borrowed antiquity to stay strong. That is why you can read about rune magic, the Vegvísir, reversed runes or the birth rune together — and see where the old source ends and our own tradition begins.
How we know this
The site rests on four early texts.
Abecedarium Nordmannicum
One of the earliest records of the runic row. It shows the order of the runes but says almost nothing about their meanings.
The Old English Rune Poem
The longest of the three poems and especially important for working with the Elder Futhark.
The Norwegian Rune Poem
Sixteen short couplets — sometimes clear, sometimes almost enigmatic.
The Icelandic Rune Poem
Sixteen runes, each unfolded into several images.
The texts are checked against the scholarly editions of Bruce Dickins and Maureen Halsall. But the site itself is not written for academics.
The sources have to be accurate. Reading them has to be easy.
And the modern reading?
It is here too. Because the runes did not stay in the manuscripts. People still draw them, carve them, wear them on their skin, bind them into joined signs and come to them with questions. I find that no less interesting than the history. It is only that the two layers should not be mixed.
That is why on a rune’s page you can see the old image first — and then, separately, «For you». On the pages about reading — what is attested in the sources and what became part of modern practice. And on the Questions pages — answers to the odd questions that come up once you start digging a little deeper.
The old does not need to be quietly modernised. The modern does not need to be passed off as ancient. There is enough that is interesting between them as it is.
And then came Runa
At some point the site alone was not enough. I wanted not only to read about the runes. I wanted to meet them. That is how Runa came about — the app I myself was missing.
Not an endless oracle. Not one more feed of predictions. But a small ritual: ask a question, draw one rune, see its old image, read «For you», stay with the question, and if you like — write down your answer.
Rune Poems takes apart where the runes came from. Runa leaves room for what will happen between the rune and you now.
In short
This site does not try to prove that runes are magical. Nor does it try to prove that they are not. I am more interested in something else: what we really know, what we have lost — and why these old signs still make people ask questions.
If you are curious too — start with any rune.