Second Night
Page 45
And the lives of my sons and their sons,
Should I foreswear this oath.
The Rune Lore of Sir Saxon Pring
The Realms of Covenant and the Subdivisions of the Runes Extract from Lecture in Council, August 2nd Year 78
Master Sir Saxon Pring: Guardians, our practical knowledge concerning the application of the runes is greatly enhanced by our understanding something of the values and the ideals of the society in which they were developed.
These were a hardy, adventurous people whose blood runs in our veins, whose memory is imprinted on every stick and stone around us, who trusted in their own strength and courage, and valued their oaths. They were fearless and capable of strong self-discipline, and yet they had no sense of nationhood as we know it. They fought for their individual community and family groups without concern for their own lives in the hope that they would achieve renown and be remembered with honour. The brave man who could laugh in the face of certain death was greatly revered.
Most of all they valued their freedom of thought and self-expression, qualities that may have led in part to their eventual downfall. Individual thinkers are not easy to structure in an expanding society. The respect commanded by their women-folk was something quite unusual in the world of their time. Women could claim and work land in their own right and the strength of their relationship with their men allowed for the possibility of real partnership in marriage.
It is not generally understood that, like their Christian counterparts, they too were monotheistic in their beliefs. Their supreme deity was the High One, All-Father, the All-Wise and All-Knowing, around whom rotate the satellite deities – a useful parallel here being the Christian saints and angels. These less lofty gods and goddesses were more immediately accessible as patrons to their mortal devotees, those seafarers and farmers, men, women and children engaged in the everyday struggle for survival. But it was the God who decided the fate of the individual in battle, who commanded the seas and the heavens, who was Master of the Runes, those symbols of power that were etched on weapons and armour to invoke victory and renown, and carved on wood and stone to protect hearth and home.
Our late teacher and mentor, Master Walfried, devoted much time and consideration to the runes. It was he who advised that the twenty-nine be further divided and reclassified in order to gain greater insight as to their interpretation within the four Realms of Covenant in the casting circle.
The Realms of Covenant should be read anti-clockwise beginning with the Realm of the Day Dawning, dedicated to Freyr, and completing at the top of the circle within the Realm of All-Father. The first Realm is where the seeds of new ideas, the undertaking of a new venture or the assumption of a new identity may be stimulated into germination and growth according to the will of the candidate. The rune of Thorn, as a rune of initiation, would suggest that the candidate may experience great difficulties in the pursuit of a new undertaking. The favour rune of Iar, the brotherhood rune cast in this first realm, would indicate that the venture would be best undertaken as a group project.
In the second Realm the candidate must consider whether he will raise Thor’s Hammer and strike with precision in order to realise his potential, or whether he will be content to rain meaningless blows achieving only mediocrity. The rune of Ur cast in this second Realm would suggest the need to hone the candidate’s hitherto untapped resources of determination and even ferocity in pursuit of his life’s quest.
The third Realm of Day’s Ending demands that the candidate be clear in his intention of what he desires to achieve, how he intends to achieve it and how he is willing to face up to his greatest fears. Does he really need what he thinks he wants? Is he prepared to face up to the consequences of his choice? He must choose whether to rise above the flames of his desires, or sink and burn. The rune of Rad cast in this Realm would indicate the necessity of the undertaking of a long and perhaps perilous journey in order to realise the warrior potential, either physically or in the depths of the mind – or both.
The candidate’s courage and strength is tested on every level in the fourth Realm of All-Father. The God gives, the God demands, the God takes back. His eye blazes. Who can withstand that light and live? The favour rune of Gyfu, the gift and the sacrifice, might demand the surrender of all that the candidate holds most dear in order to stand unflinching before the God.
Those runes that fall on the diagonals, or at the centre, are transitional runes. They are the ‘rogue’ elements when effecting a proving. More than one transitional rune in the same casting will serve either to destabilise the proving or to push it to the realisation of its finest expression. For example, the initiation rune of Ethel falling on the diagonal between the second and third Realms would emphasise the candidate’s inherited material wealth, which may either work in his favour or to his detriment in his undertaking. Likewise, a central rune will dominate the entire casting either to the benefit or the detriment of the candidate, according to his level of understanding and the advancement of his practice as an Initiate of the God.
The Runes of the Deathless are the final mystery. According to Master Walfried, there are three of them to be won but he had no idea how they are to be carved, how they are to be named or how they may act within a casting. They may work individually or they may each depend upon the others power in order to fulfil their purpose. To cast all three at any one time is a rare experience.
Guardians, in this and in all other matters, we must hold to the resolution of our oath. As Master Walfried cautioned us, blood oaths go down deeper than stone and their consequences are not easily laid aside. Always remember that tomorrow’s sunrise often shines a solution on the problems of today. We never know what the future may bring. The duty of every warrior is to remain calm, clear and alert, battle-ready at all times. We must be fearless and faithful, praiseworthy and true-souled, that the Runes of the Deathless shall be carved in light upon the heavens and that the Gaze of the God rest upon us in everlasting Illumination.
Guardians, how say you?
Guardians: Aye to that and good hunting!
Extract from The Guardians Book
of Lore: Names and Titles
As compiled by Guardian Second Archivist, Alice Crawford, Year 46
THE GOD
Names: Wuotan or Wotan (Old German); Woden (Anglo-Saxon);Odin (Old Norse)
Titles: The High One; All-Father; the One-Eyed Raven Ruler;Raven God; All-Wise; All-Seeing; Spear-Brandisher; Lord of Battle and the Slain; Lord of Poetry and Magic; Master of Inspiration;Master of the Runes.
THE GODDESS
Names: Freyja the Golden, united in dual identity with exalted Frija, Lady of the Æsir.
Titles: Beloved of Women; Womb-Quickener; Gold-Teared;Beloved of the God; Possessor of the Slain; Mistress of the Hawk Plumage; Possessor of Brísinga-men (the necklace made by the dwarves).
THE VALKYRS
Names: Of the original nine, eight are named – Hrist, the Black-Eyed, Agitator; Reginleif, the Green-Eyed, Leftover-of-the-Gods;Geirrahöd, Spearhead; Hildr, Battle Maid; Skögul, Damager-in-Battle; Herfjötur, War-Fetter; Gudr, God’s Maid; Róta, the Disturber.
Titles: Battle Maids; Choosers of the Slain; Wolf-Riders; Chosen of the Galdramerar; Maidens of Valhall.
ÆSIR: the race to which most of the gods belong.
BALDR: The Beautiful and Merciful; God of Tears; Husband of Nanna.
BIFROST: the bridge of rainbow-coloured ice between mortals and the realms of the gods.
FROST GIANTS: inhabitants of the bitterly cold realm at the second root of World Tree.
FREYR: Son of Njord; Ship-Bearer; God of the Vanir; God of the Fertility Season; Possessor of Skídbladnir; God of Wealth and Gifts.
GJALLAHORN: Heimdall’s horn of warning.
GUARDIANS YEAR: counted from the first winter solstice after the birth of Master Sir Saxon Pring; each New Year begins at sunrise, December 22nd.
GUNGNIR: Spear of the God; The Spear that never Stops in its Thrus
t.
HEIDRÚN: she-goat in Valhall, whose udders run with mead.
HEIMDALL: The White God; Watcher at the Bridge; Horn-Blower; Son of Nine Mothers; Foe of Loki.
HEL: The Dark Goddess; Mistress of Niflhelm; Mistress of Oathbreakers; Torment of Cowards and Murderers.
IDUNN: guardian of the golden apples of eternal youth.
LOKI: Son of Laufey; the Trickster; First Father of Falsehoods; the Sly God; Bench-Mate of the God; Steersman of Naglfar; father of Fenris-Wolf, the Midgard Serpent, Hel and eight-legged Sleipnir.
MIMIR: The Wise; murdered by the Vanir, the God has set his severed head to guard the Well of Wisdom in the realm of the Frost Giants.
MÚSPELL: realm of the Fire Giants that helped to create the world.
NAGLFAR: the Fire Giants’ evil ship made from the fingernails of dead men.
NORNS: Fate-Spinners; White-Spring-Dwellers; URTH, All-Knowing Keeper of the Past; VERTHANDI, All-Knowing Keeper of the Present; SKULD, All-Knowing Keeper of What is Yet to Come.
RAGNA RÖK: the final catastrophe of our planet.
RUNES: magical alphabet known as the Gift of the God; Winnings of the God; the three Runes of the Deathless are known to none, save the God and the Norns.
SKÍDBLADNIR: Freyr’s magic ship, large enough to hold all the gods and small enough to fold and keep in a man’s pouch.
SLEIPNIR: born of Loki in the form of a mare sent by the God to entice Svadilfari, a giant’s stallion.
THOR: the Thunderer; Hammer-Weilder; Foe of the Midgard Serpent; Iron-Gloved; Strength-Girdled; Son of Earth.
TÍR: Wolf-Binder, One-Handed Battle-Victor.
VALHALL: Hall of the Slain; Abode of the Noble Dead.
VÁLI: Baldr’s Avenger; Slayer of Hödr; with Vídar and Magni, destined to lead the captains of the ships that will sail the stars when this world has ended.
VANIR: race of gods connected to the fertility cults and sometime foes of the Æsir.
VÍDAR: the Silent; Slayer of Fenris-Wolf; Avenger of the Gods.
VÍGRÍD: the plain where the last battle between the gods and the giants will be fought at Ragna Rök.
THE MASTER’S LETTER
Year 81, January 3rd
My dear Jonas,
Notice of succession naming you Master of the Guardians in my place is already entrusted to Anton, Guardian Executor, Keeper of Hall and Treasury, to be endorsed in Council, February 2nd, unless my death precedes that date.
This letter, given exclusively into your hands on the day of your fifteenth birthday, must serve as both gift and sacrifice. Gift, in that I bestow upon you the fruits of my life’s work – sacrifice, in that you must take upon your shoulders the mantle of our great responsibility.
Beloved Grandson, most loyal son of my own faithless offspring, I shall not see out this year. My strength is failing and I must soon join my beloved Frija in the cold dark of the tomb. Would that we had been granted the blessing of the Gaze of the God while life yet remained to us. I must hope that such favour yet lies beyond the limitations of the mortal coil and that I may join her in the bliss of Asgard beyond the rainbow span of Bifrost.
You should know that my theory regarding the existence of the Runes of the Deathless was not developed according to whim or wild imagining, but as a direct result of an ancient parchment given into my safe keeping by Master Walfried, who cautioned me never to reveal its existence or whereabouts until the striking of the hour when I should select an heir worthy of the guardianship of so great a heritage.
That hour is upon me. You are my sole heir, Jonas, and as such you must know the full tale of how I came to meet Master Walfried and how such an artefact was delivered into my hands and thence to yours.
It was during the autumn of Guardians Year 39, when my beloved Lady and I were travelling in Bavaria, Germany, that we found ourselves sent out of our way by a catastrophic flooding following a violent storm. In our hour of need we chanced upon a remote, fortified mansion. Begging the hospitality of the elderly proprietor, we discovered him to be most welcoming and a truly erudite scholar of the ancient wisdom.
It was Master Walfried who first drew our attention to the significance of the ancient Winter Solstice rites and the Runes of the Deathless in regard to the unsolved and deeply troubling mystery of the disappearance of young Thomas Poore, as we felt compelled to recount it that first night. Entranced, we sat at his feet as he related the details of his hypothesis concerning these three, as yet undiscovered, runes and potentially the most powerful of all the known runic devices – the prize that might exert such bearing and influence on the survival of humanity as I had never before imagined.
We remained under his roof for a full fortnight. Three days before our departure he conferred upon us the fragments of an ancient parchment written in Latin, together with his translation of the work into High German and English. Where the manuscript had originated he had no idea, having inherited it among his family papers at the death of his father. He believed it to have been part of a collection of early documents charting the ancient shamanic tradition and recorded during the time of the Roman occupation in that same area. His translation was sound, taken direct from source with no risk of tampering by ill-intended scribes. This was, and remains, the most extraordinary artefact I have been privileged to accept.
He entrusted us with various other artefacts, including his ‘Book of Charms’, written in Old High German, and his personal copy of the rune poem, bound in book-form and presented in Old Norse with a more recent English translation added for our benefit. The former, both my Lady and I have worked upon to translate over a number of years – the latter remains an enigma. The runes follow neither the accepted divisions within the Ætts nor Master Walfried’s own hypothesis for the sub-divisions according to their resonance. I have no doubt that this interpretation of the order of the rune poem bears some relevance to the winning of the Runes of the Deathless, or to the fate of the one by whose valour they will be gained. How I pray the honour will be yours, Jonas!
‘I cast the seed into fertile soil,’ he said, as we were taking our leave of him. ‘You will nurture its germination but others will tend its maturity, until one chosen from among the sons of a future generation puts out his hand to pluck the ripened fruit.’
He bid us be fearless and faithful, praiseworthy and true-souled in all our endeavours, and counselled that we keep the parchment secret and remote from the narrow avenues of academia. His experience with the latter had been one of great difficulty regarding this work. Vilified by his contemporaries, he found himself shunned by the very academic community that had hitherto uttered his name only in praise. Some months after our return to England, we received notice of his death and mourned his loss as both a friend and our mentor.
My Lady and I at once took council together and resolved to continue his work under the auspices of a secret order that we would establish, devoted solely to the word of the God who had sacrificed himself, speared on World Tree for nine days and nine nights, to gain knowledge of the runes.
I admit to you, Jonas that I fervently hoped Master Walfried was mistaken, that mine would be the hand to pluck the ripe fruit and win the knowledge of the Runes of the Deathless, that mine would be the glory and I would succeed where he had failed. For within the nurturing of that seed under the shadow of the great oak at Thunderslea, truths were revealed to me through vision and the casting of the runes. More artefacts came into my hands from extraordinary sources guided by the all-seeing Eye of the God. There were none however of the calibre of the parchment and the copy of the rune poem given to me by Master Walfried, that I have concluded to be unique and have always kept most secret within the hallowed precincts of our order.
For, whether in error or true wisdom, I have not taken our beloved Guardians into my full confidence, believing the destiny of our great and long-lived family to be uniquely and inextricably linked with the eventual discovery of the Runes of the Deathless. The Gaze of the God is turned upon
our proud heritage, Jonas. Our name will be synonymous with the evolution of humanity from its present primitive levels of understanding to its magnificent ascension into the grace and wisdom that is our true inheritance.
As Master Walfried so accurately predicted, I must depart dissatisfied but nevertheless undefeated, for I leave the great work of my life to a most worthy and legitimate successor. I have no doubt that these last and greatest of the runes will be won in your lifetime, Jonas. That glory must be yours, and yours alone.
Your claim is legitimate and indisputable. By right of birth and blood, you are Master of the Guardians of the Runes of the Deathless and the appointed representative of the God in Council. Remember this and take heart as you dedicate yourself to the great task. Tolerate no distraction. Be jealous of your authority. Keep your own counsel and share only what you must of the lore to ensure the Guardians’ unswerving loyalty and devotion. Give praise where it is due and strike insubordination swiftly with an iron hand.
Under your stewardship much will change and swiftly, but the great knowledge of the Masters must be preserved and the noble name of our family upheld. Regarding that most ancient tradition where a boy-child is ritually sacrificed at Winter Solstice in place of the king, the offering up of the life of a son of one of our chosen bloodlines in place of the Master is not too great a price to pay to claim the last and greatest of the runes. These sons have been so dedicated, so nurtured and educated since the hour of their birth, and I urge you, Jonas, do not deny them any opportunity to fulfil the unique and honourable destiny that awaits them.
Go with my blessing, dearest Grandson, and my prayer that the High One look kindly upon you and favour you and be not treacherous.
Your ever-loving Grandfather,
Saxon
FOUR SIGNIFICANT WINTER NIGHTS
TO BE CONTINUED…
RAGNA RÖK, THE FATE OF THE GOD
GABRIEL J KLEIN