Page:Norse mythology or, the religion of our forefathers, containing all the myths of the Eddas, systematized and interpreted with an introduction, vocabulary and index.djvu/262

 SECTION XV. ODIN AS THE INVENTOR OF RUNES.

The original meaning of the word rune is secret, and it was used to signify a mysterious song, mysterious doctrine, mysterious speech, and mysterious writing. Our ancestors had an alphabet called runes, before they learned the so-called Roman characters. The runic stave-*row was a futhore (f, u, th, o, r, k), not an alphabet (A, B) as in Greek or Latin. But what does it mean mythologically, that Odin is the inventor of the runes? Odin himself says in his famous Rune-song in the Elder Edda:

I know that I hung On a wind-rocked tree Nine whole nights, With a spear wounded And to Odin offered, Myself to myself; On that tree Of which no one knows From what root it springs.

Bread no one gave me Nor a horn of drink, Downward I peered, To runes applied myself Wailing learnt them, Then fell down thence.

Potent songs nine From the famed son I learned Of Bolthorn, Bestla's father, And a draught obtained Of the precious mead, Drawn from Odrœrer.

Then I began to bear fruit And to know many things,