Runes and the Origins of Writing

by Alain de Benoist

  In this initial state of the Indo-European religion, the essential theme is the homology of the time units, which makes the cosmic cycle the homolog of the day and the year, each of those units being split in three phases, a descending phase and an ascending phase with a dawn or crepuscular phase in between the two (the year starts with the winter, just like the day starts with the night). This idea is especially present in ancient Indian literature. In the description of the divisions of time, it reads: “a mortal’s year is a day and a night for the gods; and here is how the division is done: the day is the result of the sun going North and the night is the result of the sun going South” (Manu, I, 67). Likewise, in the Taittirīya Brāhmana: “What takes a year only takes a day for the gods.” In the Indo-Iranian Avesta, the text of the Vendidad (I, 1–3) also has a passage where Ahura Mazda says that “in the Vara that Yima made,” the inhabitants “consider that a day is like a year.” This formulation, which can reflect the memory of an ancient arctic accommodation,230 has a Greek and a Germanic equivalent. Therefore it is an inherited Indo-European formulation. “The system of three temporal cycles devised as homologues can be considered to be the central focus of the Indo-European idea of the conception of the world.”231

  In that system, the year is considered to have a diurnal part, a nocturnal part, a dawn and a twilight, in the image of the daily cycle. When it is not split in two periods, a bright (“diurnal” or spring-summer) one and a dark (“nocturnal” or wintery) one, it it is divided into three seasons, in the same way as the lunar month is divided into three periods of eight or nine nights.232 This notion gives meaning to the union of Zeus, god of the diurnal sky, and Hera. Philippe Jouët writes:

  The Indo-European year was made of two parts, a summer part and a winter part, which were respectively considered to be diurnal and nocturnal and were present in the Celtic year. The Indo-Europeans had a goddess of the year, whose name was found by F. R. Schröder in the name of the Greek Hera. The couple dyew-yērā- (Zeus-Hera in Greek) mythologically represents the alliance of the Diurnal-Sky and the Summertime, whose hierogamy signals the springtime return of light.233

  In the original Greek pantheon, Zeus is not in fact the spouse of the Earth, but the spouse (and brother) of the Year, Hera, who was originally the female embodiment of the summertime (this is why she is constantly associated with the color white). Likewise, Aphrodite represented the Dawn of the year before becoming the goddess of love. This is why the Vedic hymns dedicated to the Dawn must be understood both as a daily celebration of the sunrise (a function attributed later on to Eōs in Greece) and as a celebration of the end of wintertime. The Greeks also divided the year in seasons called horae, a name that first applied to the three yearly seasons, and then to the parts of the day, because hours constitute the “seasons” in a way. It is only after a long evolution, underlines Haudry, that the Hours’ (Horae) name finally became the unit days were counted in. In the Iliad, where they are first mentioned, they are introduced as gatekeepers of the sky. Their “return” originally served the purpose of counting the years. According to Hesiod, they are named Eunomia, Dike and Eirene.

  The Indo-Europeans refer to the “summertime” with the nominal theme yē/ōr-. This is the term that ended up meaning the entirety of the year (see yār- in Avestan, ar in Danish, år in Swedish, jēr in Gothic, jār in Old High German, Jahr in German, jēr in Old Frisian, jier in Frisian, jaer in Middle Dutch, jaar in Dutch, gēar in Anglo-Saxon, géar or gēr in Old English, year in English, jéras in Lithuanian, etc. See also the Venetic word for year, confirmed in the inscriptions of Este, *yōro-).234 In Greece, the same term, in a revealing way, gave the Hours their name (*yōrā), who are originally divinities associated with the return of the spring (they accompany the dawn of the year) and by extension the whole summertime, as well as Hera’s name (*yērā-), Zeus’s spouse, and finally the term “hero,” which originally is the person who “conquers the year,” meaning the one who reaches or delivers the spring after having “crossed the waters of the wintery darkness” (see Heracles’s name and Jaroslav’s name, both meaning “glory of the summertime”). Jean Haundry writes:

  Inspections of mythological and ritual facts showed that the union [of Zeus and Hera] initially symbolized the yearly reunion of the summertime and the light of day after the wintery night, thereby enabling us to understand the well established — but inexplicable — homology between year and day: a mortal’s year is a day for gods.235

  25

  The Rune for The Word “Year”

  Jean Haudry writes that: “curiously, the Germanic rune for the year, the one designating the phoneme /j/ and named after the word *jēr(a) which means year, has the shape of a Janus,”236 that is to say the dual-faced god who, in Rome, notably patronized the transition between years (his name is also found in the name of the month “January”).

  This rune is the rune number twelve, 2 or 1 (*jēran or *jæran, which are derived from *ieran but there are also the forms *jāra *jēra-, ár and ger), and it indicates the semi-vowel j. Made of two juxtaposed curves or semicircles, one being convex and the other concave, its meaning is both “(good) year” and “good times (season),” which corresponds to the dual meaning of its Indo-European root. Runic poems gloss ár with “bountiful harvest,” a notion that is also found in ōra in Greek and jarŭ in Old Russian “spring, good year.”237 The runic inscription on the Stentoften runestone (Sweden, early 7th century), gives it the ideographic value of “prosperity, prosperous year.” It’s quite possible that the two elements that make the rune Il indicates the two parts of the year (or even the dual moon, ascending and descending), especially since its position is right in the middle of the Fuþark. “It could be,” writes Wolfgang Krause, “that its shape symbolizes the two semesters of the year, if we go by a symbol with a similar shape found in numerous materials, for instance on the clay container found in Havors (Gotland), which dates to the 4th century.”238 So it seems that the rune twelve splits fuþark letters into two equal parts, and corresponds to some sort of equinoctial axis (the year begins at the fall equinox, so at the beginning of the dark period). The first half of the runes denotes by their acronyms some rather “varunian” aspects, meaning nocturnal and dangerous, and the other half some rather “mitrian” aspects, associated with good and light. Incidentally it is also very interesting to note that this rune is one of those which does not have an equivalent in any Mediterranean alphabet that could have inspired runic writing.239

  26

  Asterisms and Constellations

  The Fuþark comprises twenty-four signs. Those twenty-four signs are grouped into three eight-sign long sequences, but given the homology mentioned earlier in this books, the number twenty-four can also allude to the division of the day into twenty-four hours or the division of the year into twenty-four periods of fourteen nights (fortnight),240 or even to the twelve months in a year. The ancient Indo-European cultures didn’t have a base ten system, a system that became prevalent only much later on.241 They had a duodecimal system. This brings us to another theory, which links the Fuþark to the zodiac constellations, and even if it is tenuous, the theory is still interesting.

  The nocturnal sky is the best example of a sky map. Ever since prehistory, orientations of caves or megalithic monuments (Stonehenge, Newgrange, Goseck), as well as orientations of cave paintings (like in Pech Merle and Lascaux) have been set according to astronomical observations (sunrises and sunsets during the summer or winter solstice, or during equinoxes, etc.) A huge literature has been dedicated this day to “archaeo-astronomy,” which seems to be particularly expansive for the Germanic people and the Celts. Caesar wrote that the druids had “numerous speculations about celestial bodies and their motions” (De bello gallico, VI, 12).

  Those speculations were also, of course, about stars (from the Indo-European *ster). Uniting stars into constellations with specific names, observing the zodiac, and later on identifying four cardinal points in the horizon, as well
as the moments when seasons begin, seem to have been done in Europe on a very early date, totally independently from the Mesopotamian zodiac mentioned in texts from the first millennium BC.242 The zodiac is a circular area of the celestial sphere, whose ecliptic is centered on the middle and which comprises the twelve constellations that the sun goes through in a year. The moon and the sun never go outside this fairly narrow area. The number of zodiac parts comes from the sidereal motion of the moon, which is in retrograde for 13° 20’ every day with the depth of the sky on the ecliptic as a reference.

  The Indo-Aryans came up with that stellar mapping by identifying some asterisms on or near the ecliptic. An asterism is a singular figure made of particularly bright stars (Altair in the constellation of Aquila, Vega in the constellation of Lyra, the W of Cassiopeia, Orion’s Sword and Orion’s Belt, etc.). Different cultures came up with constellations based on asterisms. Constellations associate several stars based on perspective effects that make them stand out together. In Vedic India, they were used to count sidereal days in lunar months. The Indian lunar zodiac was first made of twenty-four and then twenty-seven “moon dwellings” (nakṣatra), some powers of the Night that are listed in the Taittirīya saṃhitā (Yajur-Veda) (II.13.20), the Kāthaka saṃhitā (39.13) and the Atharva-Veda (19.7). There is as many asterisms as there are days in a sidereal month (twenty-seven, thirty-two days), the moon goes from one asterism to the next every day. Every nakṣatra was then divided into quarters (padas). In the Taittirīya Brāhmana (i, 5, 2, 7), the twenty-seven nākshatra are called “houses of gods.” The moon (male) is described in that system as the “king (or master) of the stars” (nakṣatra-rāja).

  Some tried to find a connection between the twenty-seven nākshatra and the twenty-seven Valkyries mentioned in the Edda, and also the twenty-seven Gandharvas. Some also tried to demonstrate that the twelve “celestial dwellings” (Himmelsburgen) described in the Grímnismál (str. 4–17) were a ancient description of the Germanic zodiac (it was the opinion of Finn Magnusen and Karl Simrock). It is a possibility but it is hardly verifiable. The now famous bronze Nebra sky disk found in 1999 in ex-East Germany that dates back to 1600 BC is the oldest Germanic depiction of the sky. It is composed of a moon crescent and a full moon, thirty-two stars (including the Pleiades), two arcs of a circle and a solar barge. The Greek Pleiades correspond in India to the Krittikā, whose name make them “splitters” (they split the year into two parts). They are sometimes embodied by caregivers of Kārttikeya, son of Shiva.

  The Hávamál, as we’ve seen earlier in this book, narrates Óðinn’s discovery of the runes after he having hanged for “nine full nights” (str. 138), how he “picked up the runes” after having “looked down” (str. 139), but how was he hanging? Jere Fleck thinks that he could only have been hanging by the feet, or even by a foot (like the Hanged Man, the twelfth card in a Tarot deck), because he could only have leaned down and picked up the runes that were “down below,” which would have been impossible had he been hanging from the neck.243 This remark is not absurd. What does one see when ones hangs by the feet during the night? The sky and in particular the constellations. So, were the runes that Óðinn discovered made in the image of the constellations that he could have watched for nine full nights? Are we supposed to understand that the nights were nine consecutive nights, the span of nine “full moons” or, considering the possible homology between nights, days and years, could it even have been nine years? It is at least worthy of some consideration.

  There is a theory according to which the runic signs that brought forth the Fuþark’s letters have an “astronomical” origin. This theory has been expressed in a number of books, of varying quality, some of them being completely whimsical.244 However we cannot dismiss it a priori. Jean Vertemont and Jean-Gabriel Foucaud write that “making the first rune, Fehu, coincides with the Pleiades, which are considered to be the first dwelling in the Vedas, makes the shapes of all the following asterisms as well as their order in the ecliptic coincide with the shapes of all the runes and their order in the Elder Fuþark […] This symmetry isn’t based on individual elements, it is based on a full set of elements, which makes it valid.”245 So, arranging signs into three ættir, which was influenced by the division of the lunar cycle into three phases, supposedly also reflects the division of the sky into three distinct sets of constellations or asterisms. The peculiar order of the Fuþark is then supposedly explained by being “the order given by the ancient zodiac, which is expressed by the runes in agreement with the Indian lunar zodiac of the nakṣatra.”246 The twenty-four runes supposedly correspond to the twelve constellations or asterisms represented by two consecutive runes for each of them, and the zodiac gives us the key to identify the ascending and descending periods of the moon. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of decisive evidence for this theory.

  Nevertheless, let’s keep in mind the homology between the three ættir of the Fuþark (3 x 8 letters = 24), the three phases of the Moon (3 x 8 nights = 24), the three periods of the day (3 x 8 hours = 24), the three original seasons of the year that used to be symbolized by the Hours (3 x 8 half-months = 24).

  The mystery surrounding the origin of runic writing is far from being solved.

  Illustrated stones from Gotland (8th century) in the hall of the Sweddish History Museum.

  One of the walls of the King’s Grave near Kivik in Skåne, a Nordic Bronze Age sepulcher’s burial mound that has been restored. It depicts ancient symbols and petroglyphs: persons, ships, war chariots, lures, etc.

  The runestone of the Swedish king Eric the Victorious from Haddeby (Haithabu), dating to the 8th century.

  The famous Auzon Casket (Haute-Loire) was made in the 7th century in northern England. Runes are engraved in its slabs of whalebone. One of its sides depicts an episode of the legend of Wayland the Smith, and a scene evoking worshipping mages. Nowadays, it resides in the British Museum. This chest is also known as the “Franks Casket,” from the name of Sir Wollaston Franks who acquired it in 1857.

  The spearhead of Kowel, found in 1858 by a Polish peasant.

  The famous necklace from the Pietroasele Treasure (Romania), found by a farmer in 1837 and bearing a runic inscription. It has been lost, but it was generally attributed to the Goths.

  One of the two Golden Horns of Gallehus, found in north of Møgeltønder, in southern Jutland (Denmark). Those horns date to around the 5th century BC.

  Germanic fibula found in Charnay (Bourgogne) in 1857. Dating to the end of the 6th century, it lists almost all of the Elder Fuþark signs. There are also two short vertical inscriptions whose meaning remains controversial.

  “Sticks used to know time.” Illustration from A Description of the Northern Peoples by Olaus Magnus (Rome, 1555). This book was the principal reference regarding Scandinavian countries in the second half of the 16th century.

  Part IV

  27

  “Phoinika Grammata”

  Herodotus, who wrote about the story of Cadmus (whose name seems to have come from kekadmai in Greek) in the 5th century BC. Cadmus was the son of the king of Tyre named Agenor and of Telephassa, who came to Greek looking for her sister Europa, who was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull.247 Europa had three sons fathered by Zeus: Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. Cadmus, who was from Phoenicia, allegedly founded the city of Thebes and spread there the alphabet, “that was until then unknown to the Hellenes, to my knowledge.” This is the reason why the Greeks called the letters of their alphabet phoinika grammata, “Phoenician letters.”

  Herodotus didn’t write that the Phoenicians invented the alphabet, as it is often believed. He just wrote that they brought it to Greece: “When settling in the country, the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus brought to the Greeks a lot of knowledge, among others, the alphabet.” Tacitus also wrote that “the Egyptians call themselves the inventors of writing and claim that it spread from them to Greece with the help of Phoenicians, because they were the masters of the sea. They took credit for i
nventing something they were taught” (Annals, XI, 14). Diodorus Siculus was just as cautious because he only mentioned two traditions, none citing the Phoenicians as the inventors of the alphabet. According to the first tradition, the Phoenicians learned the letters of the alphabet from “Syrians,” and then shared that knowledge after having tweaked the shapes of some of them. According to the second tradition, Orpheus discovered writing by being taught by the Muses, and then spread to Greece “from the North.”248 It should be noted that according to the Greeks, Orpheus also invented magic.

  28

  From the Phoenicians to the Greeks

  Beside the formal resemblance between the two writing systems, the theory of Phoenician origin for the Greek alphabet seems to be confirmed by the fact that the Greeks kept designating their letters (alpha, bēta, derived from ’aleph, beth, etc.) in a meaningless way from their language’s perspective. The order of the Greek and Phoenician letters is also fundamentally the same. But specialists are divided on the issue of the location, date and circumstances where the Phoenician spread their writing to the Greeks.249