NOTES ON RUNES. By J. LINTON PALMER, F.S.A., FLEET SURGEON, R.N. BEFORE addressing my audience on the subject of Runes, I would state that their study is confessedly attended with some difficulty, not only on account of the variance of opinion between the best authorities, but from antagonism of socalled facts, and perhaps it would not be a waste of the time at our disposal to tell you first by whom Runes were made and used, and from whence those people came. Once in a time of which we have no correct data, somewhere in the countries lying north of the Caucasus, between the Black and Caspian Seas, there was bred and nurtured a race of warriors, one of the most powerful in the list of conquerors. As it is estimated that about one-fourth of the inhabitants of our islands are descended from them, I think we have some little interest in the Norsemen and their goings on; so I begin with a rapid sketch of them. This was their appearance, and even now their descendants resemble them :-Of fair complexion, with ruddy cheeks and blue eyes; hair reddish, often flaxen, smooth; brow high and broad; skull large and round; face oval. Of stalwart frame, with long legs and arms; feet and hands rather large; in stature tall, above the middle height. In disposition, they were sensual in animal pleasure, reckless of their own life, hence cruel and unsparing, with an enormous idea of independence; sincere; careless of danger, for this life to them was but strife and indulgence, and in that to come, of which they were assured there was to be only a repetition of this world's brawling and feasting. Why should they hesitate to expose themselves to chances of death. Nay, as "death on the straw"-strædæd-w thought ignominious, they preferred a surer passage to their heaven by an axe blow or lance thrust, or should this not happen in combat, they ended their days in a way I shall advert to presently by cutting Runes to Othinn. Their language was distinctly Aryan. Haxthausen says they are at present to be recognised in the Caucasian tribe of the Ossetes. They seem to have been much allied to the old Parthians and Sarmatians-not to the Slaves. Scandinavia, or Scania, was considered by the old Greek and Roman navigators as a cluster of islands. Pythias of Marseilles, who lived circa B.c. 320, got up so far. He visited Albion, and came in six days thence to a country in the N.E. he calls Thule, probably Jutland or Thyland, in old Norse called Thjoda. He says the people of the north were hunters and fishers; those to the south grew grain, reared bees, and drank hydromel, but all were equally fierce. The old geographers and historians enumerate among the Scandinavians the Sviones (Sviar, of middle age, Norse). Guttonæ-Gutæ (Goths). The Danksiones or Danes, whose original seat was Scania (Danir or Danskir of old Norse). Procopius, in his sequel to Belisarius, accurately describes the Norsemen. It was from Jutland the Cimbri (Kimbr, a warrior) came down upon Rome B.c. 110. Tacitus gives great eulogy to this people, who, on emigrating from Asia, are said to have been led by Othinn, their Pontiff chief, and his subordinates the Esir. But there are certainly two Othinns. The first their High Deity-one of their Trinity, the three sons of Bör-he who to man gave life and spirit-at first called Alfadir, Allfather; but in later times he appears as Valfadir, the Choosing Father, i.e., of those to be slain in battle. His dwelling is Gladsheim, in Asagard, in which is Valhalla (the Hall of Choice). There the souls of the Einherjorthe select heroes-are received and waited on by the Valkyrjor, choosers of the slain, celestial virgins, Othinn's angels, so to say. Othinn and they feast on the wild boarSchrimnir-quaff hydromel, and fight their battles over again till tired. Othinn, however, is to perish at Ragnarökr, he being only an emanation of the Alfadir, "who liveth from all ages, swayeth all things, great and small, hath formed heaven, earth, and all things thereto belonging, hath created man, and given him a soul that shall live and never perish, though the body be mouldered, or burnt to ashes."* The Pontiff chiefs, who governed these tribes despotically, both in "Church and State," seem to have assumed this title, Othinn, as their cognomen, as the Egyptian monarch's title was Pharaoh-the vicar of the Sun-god on earth. † The particular Othinn of whom I speak is the legendary or historic Othinn, whose name was said to be Sigge, the son of Friddulph, and who owned many possessions in Tyrkland (Turkestan). He and the Sviar sallying forth, passed the Tanais, or Don, and settled for a time in Asgard, the Aspurg of Strabo-Azov of to-day. There he left his two brothers, and traversing through Gardariki (Russia), passed on to Saxland, and thence to Odensee, in the Isle of Fünen, staying there some time. He left his son, Skjold, in Denmark as regent, went on to Sweden, and lived at Old Sigtuna, on the Malar See, near Upsala, where he at last died, and was cremated, having first, to avoid "Strâdæd," given himself nine wounds in a circle with a lance-head, besides cutting his veins, to avoid "going to Hela." This * Prose Edda, c. 3. If, as many say, Othinn means the sun, what a coincidence is this with Pharaoh, Phrah, the Sun God. is the Cutting Runes to Odin. In the Frithiofs SagaKing Ring's Death : "Now will I shed my blood. Bring me a sword! 'Tis good To follow strict our old forefathers' law. The Northern kings disdain their bright renown to stain, To Odin now each vein he cuts with placid mien, And Runes of blood his dauntless soul attest." Othinn is represented as the most persuasive and eloquent of men, able, like Mahomet, to inspire his followers with utter contempt of evil chance, danger, or death; also he was a poet, a Runeman, and said to have invented Runes; he was regarded as a divinity.* EDDA LORE. We now come to the traditions of this race, without which we should be in the dark as to the meaning of Runes. There are two compilations called Edda, one in verse, the other in prose. They say the meaning of the word is Great Grand Mother. † The elder, or Poetic Edda, is the work of a celebrated Icelander, Sæmund, son of Sigfus, always styled the Wise, Multiscius, deeply learned, who lived at the close of the eleventh century, just after the legal establishment of Christianity in Iceland. He was a lineal descendant of King Harold Hildetön. He became priest, yet had the reputation of practising "white sorcery." It is said, though adequate proof is wanting, that he transcribed these poems from Runic staves or manuscripts yet, most probably, oral tradition was the source of his information. *He knew how to sing lays (his subordinate had the name of "Master of the Lay." He could strike his enemies with blindness, deafness, or sudden panic, and could assume any form that he wished for of beast, bird, or fish, meanwhile his body remaining in a trance. + Some say it is derived from the feminine of oðr or odr-wisdom. Bishop Brinjolf Sveinson, in 1673, caused a transcription of these poems to be made. They were found in a vellum codex, judged to have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century. This codex is now in the Royal Library at Copenhagen. Amos Cottle, of Bristol, translated and published, 1797, the first part; which was subsequently done by Finn Magnusen, in 1828, and by Thorpe, in 1866. The poems of the Elder Edda may be divided into those of the mystical, didactic, mythologic, and · heroic, or mytho-historical classes. The Prose, or Younger Edda, is believed to have been the compilation made by Snorri Sturlason, who lived about a century after Sæmund. He was a most extraordinary man in all respects, who, after a turbulent life, was assassinated by his kindred in 1241, aged sixty-three. In this is to be found a most complete synopsis of Norse mythology, and it is very probable that Snorri made use of the MSS. of Sæmund and Ari the Wise for the important parts of this work. These MSS. were preserved at Oddi, and we are ignorant of their precise contents. In 1818, Rask published a very correct edition of the original text. This Edda was succeeded by a collection made by unknown authors, called the Skalda. This was a sort of dictionary of synonyms, such as that found in the Alvismâl, also an Ars Poetica, so to say, an essay on the art of versification. Rask, in 1818, translated it; but Resenius, by mistake, in 1665, incorporated half of it in Snorri's Edda. The Skald was not so much a poet as a versifier, or verse-smith-"Ljoda-smith," as he was often called, The Edda is the though not as a term of reproach. production of sages and poets. The Skald, too, was not only a roaming minstrel, but a herald or ambassador between hostile chiefs and tribes, having by this office a kind of sacred character attached to |