17 Bit Software 4: Phase Four/17Bit_Phase_Four.iso/files/3117.dms/3117.adf/RuneMasterDocs/About.Doc

Text File | 1994-04-24 | 11.7 KB | 292 lines

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        * RuneMaster V1.05                  By Peter Wesson       *
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        About RuneMaster and the runes


   I wrote RuneMaster because the only other rune program that I'd seen
   (an early version of M.O.R.C.) didn't do what I'd wanted.

   I found M.O.R.C. very difficult to understand.  A criticism that was
   also rightly levelled at this program before I added the .Doc files!
   I also wanted to allow the user more than one set of runes.

   It seemed to me to be unlikely that there'd be another program along
   in the near future so I decided to produce my own. In the meantime
   D.R.A.T. came along but that's life!

   I must  mention the debt that this program owes to Edred Thorsson's
   work. He is the author of several books on the subject of runes,
   frequently plagiarised. His book FUTHARK first fired my interest in
   the runes.

   I would also recommend in particular Leaves of Yggdrasil by Freya
   Asswyn and Rune Games by Marijane Osborn and Stella Longland to
   anyone interested in reading more on the subject.

   There is nothing that my program does that wouldn't be better done
   by making your own runes and actually casting them. Well it saves
   you making them I suppose!

   THE RUNES

   The Runes are the alphabet of the North European Germanic peoples.
   Runic inscriptions appear in many places in Scandinavia. Where the
   runes originated is a subject of some debate. Comparisons have been
   made with Roman characters, Etruscan, Greek, Celtic and others.
   To the North Europeans they were the gift of Odin one of their gods
   The following from the Havamal suggests at least one right of passage
   to gain this knowledge:

   I know that I hanged from
   a windswept tree for nine
   full nights. Wounded by a spear
   given to Odin - myself to myself.
   On that hanging tree the roots of
   which none may know.

   I had neither bread nor drink
   and looking down I took the runes
   and fell back screaming

   Nine songs of power was I given
   from Bolthorn's son, Bestla's father
   And I drank of the goodly mead
   poured out from the Othrör

   Then did I thrive and gain wisdom
   I grew and was well

   Each word led to another word
   Each deed to another deed

   The sounds of the Runic letters and their forms varied from
   place to place and over time.
   Some places used Runes that others did not. Some rune forms look
   identical but represent different letters in different rune sets.

   To give some idea, take the Roman alphabet that is used in many
   countries today.

   The letter J would have been unfamiliar to a Roman, it was a late
   addition to the alphabet. Also the letter J's sound varies from
   language to language. Another example: the letter X looks the same
   in English and Malti but in Malti represents the sound SH and the
   letter C looks the same in cyrillic and Roman but represents the
   sound S in the former.

   English used to contain the letter þ [called thorn in English]
   this letter is now found, as far as I'm aware only in Icelandic.
   The English letter 'yogh' represented different sounds at
   different times: Some of these words have been carried through
   into Modern English equivalents with the letter Y and others
   with the letter G.

   The physical appearance of Runic script is angular and this, it
   is thought, was because it was easier to carve.

   A feature of the Runic alphabet, which is not shared with the
   Roman alphabet, is that the individual letter names were also words.
   This was by no means unique the same is true of Hebrew and Greek
   for example.

   It is these names that are the seed of the use of runes for
   divination.

   However, please be clear that the Rune names I have used are
   the modern English equivalents. I couldn't see the point in
   facing users with Old English, Old Norse and the highly
   speculative germanic forms. For example the Old English Rune
   named Wynn which means Joy. Wynn survives in the word winsome
   but is it that obvious?

   There is another problem with the Anglo-Frisian Rune names -
   the meanings of some of the Runes is at best uncertain. Where
   this is the case I have tried to say so. These runes obviously
   represent a problem in translation. I also do not know
   whether the Frisian Rune names were the same as those in Old
   English. The variations between the English and continental
   Ingnaeonic were quite small so it is possible that the Rune
   names were the same but I am by no means certain. If anyone
   reading this does know I'd be interested to hear from you.

   There are examples of Runic letters being used in Old English
   to represent the word rather than the letter for which they
   stand.

   Old English Grammar ISBN 0 19 811943 7 may be of interest. It
   touches only briefly on Runes in Chapter I.

   To take account of the different Runic alphabets, I have included
   the first three of the four runesets in this program:

   The Elder Fuþark

   This is the default runeset in the program.

   This is held to be the eldest runeset and is the one most commonly
   employed for divination. The set consists of 24 letters. Not
   surprisingly, written examples vary in the character forms that they
   use. As with the other runesets here there is an element synthesis.

   The Elder Fuþark has been chosen as the default because it is by
   far the most popular runeset for divination and consequently
   most books on the runes use it.

   The Younger Fuþark

   In the scandinavian countries over time the runeset reduced to
   16 runes. Some users may feel more at home with these runes of
   the Vikings. Why the Vikings decided to reduce the number of
   runes I cannot know as it made spelling more difficult for them.
   As R.I.Page explains in his book:

   If you wished to commemorate a king [konungr]
   you would have to spell the title either kunukr
   or kunukR (with n omitted before g and k used
   in place of the nonexistent g rune).

   The Fuþork

   In England and Frisia the opposite happened and their runeset
   enlarged. This runeset is rather neglected by comparison with
   the other two and I can only think of two books on the subject
   Rune Games and Anglo Saxon runes. Fortunately they are both well
   worth reading.

   In England the final Runeset reached 33 Runes but these later
   additions in Northern England are not covered by the Runeset I
   have implemented.

   I have included one other runeset:

   Armanen

   Included purely for the benefit of those users, particularly in
   Germany, who are accustomed to this set.

   This set is far later than any of the others and seems to me to
   be an alternative to the younger Fuþark form.

   The only book I have on this subject is Stephen Flower's
   translation of the Austrian Guido Von List's work.

   The trouble I have with Von List is that his work is very
   intuitive in places but enmeshed with the Aryan views of his time.
   I offer no readings for these runes but there is a sound reason for
   this. List's contention was that words of similar sound were
   subconciously related. List strove to use German and germanic
   words but I see no need to do that. Imagine a root word LAF
   you may link this with Laugh, Love, Loaf, Life etc. but the
   IMPORTANT thing is that it is the links that YOU make in your
   mind that will be valid for you, so ignore my example.

   The idea is not so far fetched. Take HAM mode on the Amiga this
   allows modification of one colour of RGB at a time and the whole
   gamut of colours are related, if you see the point I'm making.

   Refering back to the Havamal: One word leads to another word.


   Runes have been used for around two thousand years for one
   purpose or another. At the moment there seems to be something
   of a runic revival in their use for divination.
   Runes have been used for divination for a long time, whether
   the tradition is an unbroken one I cannot know. There is a much
   quoted passage in a Roman historian's book on the germanic
   peoples - Tacitus's The Germania. The account is brief:

   For omens and the casting of lots thet have the highest regard.
   Their procedure in casting lots is always the same.
   They cut off a branch of a nut bearing tree and slice it into
   strips; these they mark with different signs and these they
   throw, completely at random, onto a white cloth. Then the priest
   of state, if the occasion is a public one, or the father of the
   family if it is private, offers a prayer to the gods and, looking
   skyward picks up three strips, one at a time, and reads their
   meaning from the signs previously scored on them.

   Tacitus The Agricola and the Germania is available from Penguin
   classics ISBN 0 14 044241 3.

   That is one of the reasons that the program casts 3 lots. The other
   is that 3 is a significant number: It is the number of the three
   fates who weave the web of wyrd and also represents Odin Villi Ve.

   Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien's work The Hobbit will be familiar
   with Runes. His transliteration of the runes appears to be very
   much on its own. Although, since J.R.R. Tolkien studied Old English,
   he may well have had his own reasons.

   Combinations of Runes were used for magical protection etc.
   but they fall outside the scope of this program at this stage in
   its development.

   It is very interesting to read the various Rune Poems that survive.
   To many these are seen to hold the key to the mysteries of the runes.
   For example the letter þ that I mentioned earlier [Thorn] is written
   of as:

   The thorn is most sharp an evil thing
   to take grip on, extremely grim
   for any man who rests among them

   With this additional information the nature of the rune can be deduced.

   In fairness to the cynics amongst you the poems could be aids to
   memorising the alphabet akin to :

   A is for apple that grows on a tree
   B is for boat afloat on the sea

   This brings me on to the last area which the program doesn't yet
   cover: The order of letters in an alphabet. As we have already
   discussed the letters of the Runic alphabet vary slightly from
   source to source and there are actually very few complete
   alphabets remaining intact. These alphabets are set out in Aetts
   [eights] and the only reason that I can find for doing this is to
   enable them to be encoded. Yet the broader question is still in
   the back of my mind that peoples somehow and for some reason put
   letters into a specific order and that is the mystery of any alpha
   bet - what decided the order?

   I hope I have been able through this program to fire your interest
   in the Runes. If so then in some small way it helps repay the debt
   that I owe to the authors of books on this and related subjects

   I never intend this program to replace a good book on the subject.
   To that end I have created a biblio.Doc file with a list of books
   that you might find helpful. You certainly don't need all of the
   books.

   Lastly, if you find any bugs in the program, please let me know.


                Peter Wesson
                53 Beaumont Road
                Petts Wood
                ORPINGTON
                Kent
                England BR5 1JH

   This program is provided strictly without warranty and as is.



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