Elder Futhark

Origin

The earliest Elder Futhark inscriptions are short personal markings on objects such as the Vimose comb from Funen, Denmark, dated around 160 CE, and the Meldorf fibula from Schleswig-Holstein, dated around 50 CE, whose runic identification is debated. The script spread rapidly across the Germanic world. By the fifth century, Elder Futhark inscriptions appear from southern Scandinavia to the Black Sea, on weapons, jewellery, memorial stones, and gold bracteates that imitate Roman coins.

The full sequence of 24 runes in their canonical order is preserved on the Kylver stone of Gotland, Sweden, dated around 400 CE, the Vadstena bracteate, the Grumpan bracteate, and the Charnay fibula from Burgundy. These four artefacts agree on the order and confirm that the Elder Futhark was a standardised script across the Germanic territories, not a regional variant. The script went out of use around 800 CE, replaced in Scandinavia by the Younger Futhark and in England by the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. After centuries of dormancy, the runologist Wilhelm Grimm in the nineteenth century reignited scholarly study, and modern divinatory revival began with German occultists such as Guido von List and was popularised in English by Ralph Blum in 1982.

Meaning and method

The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark are divided into three aettir of eight runes each. The first aett, Freyr's family, contains Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo. The second aett, Hagal's family, contains Hagalaz, Naudhiz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Perthro, Algiz, Sowilo. The third aett, Tyr's family, contains Tiwaz, Berkano, Ehwaz, Mannaz, Laguz, Ingwaz, Dagaz, Othala. Each rune has a name, a phonetic value, and a symbolic meaning drawn from the three rune poems of Norway, Iceland, and Anglo-Saxon England.

The names are preserved indirectly. No Elder Futhark rune poem survives, but the Old Norwegian rune poem of the thirteenth century and the Icelandic rune poem of the fifteenth century give the Younger Futhark names, while the Anglo-Saxon rune poem of around the ninth century gives the Futhorc names. By comparing these three poems with Gothic letter-names recorded by Alcuin in the ninth century, scholars have reconstructed the Elder Futhark names with reasonable confidence. The meaning of each rune is derived from the name: Fehu is cattle and wealth, Uruz is aurochs and primal strength, Thurisaz is giant and threshold force, Ansuz is god and divine speech, and so on through the row.

In practice

Begin with a complete set of 24 runes on wood, bone, or stone, each carved or painted in a single colour, traditionally red. Cleanse them with salt, smoke, or running water before first use. State your question aloud, hold the runes in cupped hands, and draw or cast. For a one-rune answer, draw a single rune for the heart of the matter. For a three-rune cast, draw three runes for past, present, and future or for situation, action, and outcome. For deeper readings, use the nine-rune cast: hold the runes, shake, and spill them onto a white cloth, then read those that fall face up.

Reversed positions, called merkstave, are used by some readers. Each rune has a primary upright meaning and a reversed meaning, except for the nine symmetrical runes which cannot be reversed: Gebo, Hagalaz, Isa, Jera, Eihwaz, Sowilo, Ingwaz, Dagaz. To work with the Elder Futhark, study one rune per day for 24 days, then one aett per week for three weeks. Combine with I Ching for cross-tradition divination, or with tarot by laying one rune over each tarot card. Use the Runes Answer oracle to consult them online.

Symbolic depth

The Elder Futhark is structured as a cosmic map. The first aett, Freyr's, describes the material foundations of life: cattle, strength, threshold, divine inspiration, journey, fire, gift, joy. The second aett, Hagal's, describes the forces of fate and crisis: hail, need, ice, harvest, the yew of death and rebirth, the lot, the elk's protection, the sun. The third aett, Tyr's, describes the social and spiritual order: justice, birth, horse, humanity, water, fertility, day, ancestral land. Read across the three aettir, the row traces a path from material existence through trial to spiritual integration.

In Hermetic interpretation, the 24 runes are sometimes mapped onto the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet plus two additions, or onto the Greek alphabet, or onto the 24 elders of the Apocalypse. None of these mappings is historical, but they show how the Elder Futhark has been received into the wider Western esoteric tradition. The number 24 itself is the product of 3 and 8: three is the number of fate, eight is the number of regeneration, and their product is the complete cycle of existence. Continue with Runes, Futhark, and the oracle hub.

Also known as

• Older Futhark
• Common Germanic Futhark
• 24-Rune Row
• Germanic Runes
• Primary Futhark