57: The mysterious runes, and do we sometimes misinterpret their meanings?

Written by Linden Alexander Pentecost and published on the 16th of March 2025 in the UK. This article contains 1328 words. This article contains no sub sections but follows several interesting aspects of the subject of Germanic runes and Germanic rune interpretation, and related topics. This article is relatively short and is about my thoughts on runes as a form of divination. Note that I have discussed runes in other publications pretty recently which are unrelated to this article, including a mention of the runes on the Isle of Barra in my article for Silly Linguistics, titled: Norse & pre-Norse language around the Isle of Barra, the last Norsemen in the Hebrides, and linguistic comments, and art, relating to a mysterious dream on Barra (which is unrelated to the article in front of you). 

 

The term “rune” may seem a little vague. Generally I feel that we use this word to refer to the ancient writing systems that we commonly associate with Germanic speaking peoples. This is true, but not the whole truth. The etymology of “Rune” is linked to the Irish word rún, which means “secret”. In Finnish, a runo is a magical poem, or stanza of sacred knowledge, relayed generally by a tietäjä - “knower”. The Irish and Finnish word help to expand the original meaning of “rune” to some degree. Not only are runes a form of writing, but originally especially, they were seen as something far more all-encompassing. They were transmitters of knowledge, something “other” that had to be interpreted correctly. Their use for writing language was really, originally, limited to certain formulaic uses of language, which has lead to, in my opinion, the misinterpretation that runestones provide an accurate view of language at that time, rather I think they represent a specific use of language, specific in that it was a use of language that fits into a larger philosophical picture of magic and knowledge, that represent a part of something that is largely beyond our comprehension.

Runes, I think, fundamentally, can only be read, when certain other levels of understanding are in place, understandings which I may have only touched upon occasionally, and understandings which are likewise, touched upon by few. Runes are structurally symbolic in their shape, acting as different keys, their shapes reminiscent of trees. Their names are symbolic, the way in which they can be used to write words, can be symbolic, as are the words themselves, their context, the surrounding symbols and petroglyphs. 

 

And this is the thing, I do not claim to be able to comprehend them. I only barely have “felt” I understood them in terms of their magic to some degree, on certain occasions, and I doubt that I even comprehend very much in those moments. Originally, people would likely, judging by similar teachings in other cultures, have taken years, possibly even decades, to fully understand them and to work with them. 

 

Furthermore, to add to this confusion, I think it highly likely that some runic inscriptions are actually by and large unreadable, apart from a few formulaic parts which are obviously Germanic. In other words, I think it possible that there is some other, or several other languages incorporated into some of these inscriptions, particularly those in Britain for example. This is something I have gone into a lot elsewhere, and I would recommend reading my other work on this, but to give it a slightly simpler explanation here, it could be thought of as a form of code-switching. A very different example of this in English for example, would be how we might say the Lord’s prayer but then end it in Amen. The word “Amen” is like a magical formula. And this is what runes were used to write, by and large I think. And, not only this, but the shapes of the runes, and what they represent, are also magical. 

 

But another potential thing I have come across here is that we might be interpreting the runes, oftentimes, incorrectly. I begun to think this, when I have worked with runes from time to time, and, I have had the distinct feeling that I was learning things from the runes, but that the actual interpretations given online for what different runes mean, were often not matching what I felt, nor the patterns that I continued to notice. 

 

I am not saying that people interested in Norse magic do not know how to read runes. Perhaps these other explanations do work for some. But for me personally, perhaps because I feel more connected in some ways to the “pre-Norse” cultures who might have originally used these runes, and used the languages in some of the inscriptions - perhaps for this reason I have always felt that the runes required that I understood a larger picture, and only really made sense to me, when I offered a level of commitment and understanding that brought me outside of those common rune interpretations that one is likely to find online, or in a book on witchcraft.

I felt strongly that, the runes, their magic, their consciousness, was present around me. It is as though they are individual beings, that require great introspection and to gaze into the cosmic ocean, to be quiet and to be still. I had an intense feeling about this, more so than with any other form of divination I have tried. And when I did have this introspection, and thought about the pre-Norse cultures for example, I strongly felt that the runes communicated with me. And the answers were bang on accurate. And having studied a fair bit of Germanic (& pre-Germanic) religious tradition, the answers were accurate to what I understood of the wider etymological meaning of these words. And often this differed significantly from the interpretations given online and in most books. This is not to say that I can interpret runes consistently, and perhaps it is indeed due to me having a particular interest in the pre-Norse cultures, and so, in a sense, I was having a pre-Norse, rather than Norse understanding of the runes shown to me.

In any case, runes are secretive, and mysterious. Perhaps it is also possible that we have sometimes misunderstood how to interpret their original meanings, turned them into something too physical, and forgotten that they are living, cosmic, almost incomprehensible forces. The rune itself as we write it, I think, is like the vibrational key, and its name, its full name, and the sound it makes, is the auditory form of that key. But what the runes fundamentally are, is I think something more than both of those things put together, living things, cosmic forces that our ancestors could understand an aspect of, but which took probably a long time to truly understand; and the knowledge of it, its shadow, may be fragmented, not lost, but in fractals, and perhaps sometimes put back together in an incorrect or non-universal order. I myself am not one with an ability to help put it back together in a different way, but I would like to work with them more, and learn more, and may share and write more on their meanings. I hope that this article was an interesting read. This article was written in honour of all that I love, and the moon, which I also love, and tonight, she hangs particularly bright in the heavens. Of course J.R.R. Tolkien used runes too in his writings, and, in connection to the moon, he wrote about runes that can only be read by moonlight. I wonder if there is any folklore behind this in terms of Germanic runes. I do not know. But perhaps one day I will. And perhaps the reason that I chose to write and publish this article today, has to do with the moon in some way. I suspect that perhaps it has, but I do not know why.