The sources
The Icelandic Rune Poem
Four manuscripts carry this poem, all of them in the Arnamagnaean Library at Copenhagen. AM 687 4to is fifteenth-century parchment and has the runes without their names. AM 461 12mo is sixteenth-century parchment and has the names without the runes. AM 749 4to is seventeenth-century paper and gives names and letters in alphabetical order, followed by the dotted runes. AM 413 folio is an eighteenth-century copy of sixteenth-century parchments, made for Jón Ólafsson of Grunnavík.
The oldest of them has the runes without their names and a later one has the names without the runes. That is not an argument about whether the names belong to the text. It is a photograph of them being separate, and it stands beside Hickes putting two names on the wrong runes.
Sixteen stanzas of three kennings each. The first and second lines are joined by alliteration and the third carries two alliterating syllables of its own. Every stanza also ends with two words the poem does not need. One is a Latin equivalent of the rune name, the other an Old Norse word for king beginning with the same letter. So the manuscript runs a glossary and an alphabetical king-list straight through the poem.
By the fifteenth century the Icelandic runic alphabet had more than sixteen letters, and the poem still treats only sixteen. Dickins calls that perhaps natural if the poem is derived from a much earlier original. The newer dotted letters had no names of their own either. They were simply stunginn Íss and stunginn Týr, dotted Is and dotted Tyr. It is the cleanest evidence on this site that a name is not something a letter automatically has.
The poem, complete
16 stanzas, in the order of the manuscript.
Fé er frænda róg
ok flæðar viti
ok grafseiðs gata.
gloss aurum fylkir
Wealth: discord among kinsmen,
beacon of the flood-tide,
path of the serpent.
Úr er skýja grátr
ok skára þverrir
ok hirðis hatr.
gloss umbre vísi
Rain: weeping of the clouds,
ruin of the hay,
hatred of the shepherd.
Þurs er kvenna kvöl
ok kletta búi
ok varðrúnar verr.
gloss Saturnus þengill
The giant: torment of women,
dweller in the cliffs,
husband of a giantess.
Óss er aldingautr
ok ásgarðs jǫfurr
ok valhallar vísi.
gloss Jupiter oddviti
The god: aged Gautr,
prince of Asgard,
lord of Valhalla.
Reið er sitjandi sæla
ok snúðig ferð
ok jórs erfiði.
gloss iter ræsir
Riding: bliss of the one sitting,
a swift journey,
and toil for the horse.
Kaun er barna böl
ok bardaga [fǫr]
ok holdfúa hús.
gloss flagella konungr
The sore: bane of children,
mark of battle,
house of rotting flesh.
Hagall er kaldakorn
ok krapadrífa
ok snáka sótt.
gloss grando hildingr
Hail: cold grain,
a driving of sleet,
sickness of snakes.
Nauð er þýjar þrá
ok þungr kostr
ok vássamlig verk.
gloss opera niflungr
Need: the grief of a bondwoman,
a heavy lot,
and work done in the wet.
Íss er árbörkr
ok unnar þak
ok feigra manna fár.
gloss glacies jöfurr
Ice: bark of the river,
roof of the wave,
and the ruin of men already doomed.
Ár er gumna góði
ok gott sumar
ok algróinn akr.
gloss annus allvaldr
A good year: a blessing to men,
a good summer,
and a field grown full.
Sól er skýja skjöldr
ok skínandi röðull
ok ísa aldrtregi.
gloss rota siklingr
The sun: shield of the clouds,
a shining ray,
and the lifelong grief of ice.
Týr er einhendr áss
ok ulfs leifar
ok hofa hilmir.
gloss Mars tiggi
Tyr: the one-handed god,
what the wolf left,
and lord of the temples.
Bjarkan er laufgat lim
ok lítit tré
ok ungsamligr viðr.
gloss abies buðlungr
Birch: a leafy branch,
a little tree,
and fresh young wood.
Maðr er manns gaman
ok moldar auki
ok skipa skreytir.
gloss homo mildingr
Man: the joy of man,
the earth’s increase,
and the adorner of ships.
Lögr er vellanda vatn
ok víðr ketill
ok glömmungr grund.
gloss lacus lofðungr
Water: a boiling stream,
a wide kettle,
and the ground of the fish.
Ýr er bendr bogi
ok brotgjarnt járn
ok fífu fárbauti.
gloss arcus ynglingr
Yew: a bent bow,
brittle iron,
and the giant of the arrow.
Original after Dickins 1915. Translated here from the originals.