CHAPTER XV

Runes. An early love-poem


I said I would tell you a little about runes, which I have had more than
once occasion to mention. The runes were the alphabet used by the
Teutonic tribes, to which the English belonged. This alphabet is very
old, and it is not certain where it originally came from. The word
"rune" means secret or mystery. To "round" in a person's ear means to
whisper, so that what is said is a "secret" or a "mystery." The word
comes from "rune." When we use the word to "write" we think of setting
down words on paper with a pen or a pencil. But the old meaning of
"write" is to incise, or to cut, or engrave. Probably the runes were at
first cut in wood. A wooden tablet was called "bóc," from beechwood
being used for it. When we talk of a book we are away from the first
idea of a book a good distance. Runes were also carved, or incised, in
metal and in bone. They were associated, not only with secrecy or
mystery, but with magic, and were supposed to possess power for good or
evil. People thought that "runes could raise the dead from their graves;
they could preserve life or take it, they could heal the sick or bring
on lingering disease; they could call forth the soft rain or the violent
hailstorm; they could break chains and shackles, or bind more closely
than bonds or fetters; they could make the warrior invincible and cause
his sword to inflict none but mortal wounds; they could produce frenzy
and madness, or defend from the deceit of a false friend."

There is a story in an old Norse book telling that Odin, the
Scandinavian god, learned them and used them. St Bede tells in his