Runes: Can the Viking Alphabet Rewrite Your Fate?
Runes are the letters the Norse and other Germanic peoples wrote with, and in myth they are also something more. In the poem Hávamál, Odin wins them by hanging nine nights on a windy tree, wounded with a spear and given to himself, and other Eddic poems use runes in charms for victory, healing and safe voyages. The idea that a rune can rewrite your fate is modern: in the Norse sources, fate belongs to the Norns.
According to Norse myth, the runes were won by Odin himself. He did not find them in a book somewhere: he had to pay for them with his own body, hanging on a tree for nine whole nights with no bread and no drink before he could take them up.
Try it yourself: write your name in Norse runes with our free Rune Translator.
In everyday use the runes were an alphabet like any other. The oldest known inscriptions date from the second century AD and use the Elder Futhark of 24 runes, named after its first six letters (f, u, th, a, r, k), which was in use until about 800. In the Viking Age, Scandinavians wrote with the shorter Younger Futhark of 16 runes. They carved runes on memorial stones, on tools and jewellery to say who made or owned them, and on sticks of wood to send messages. Each rune had a name that was an ordinary word: the f-rune was called fé in Old Norse, “wealth” or “cattle”. The idea that every rune stands for a cosmic power, and that writing one speaks straight to the universe, comes from modern esoteric writers, not from the Viking Age. Runes even outlived the Vikings: the Codex Runicus below, written in the early 1300s, sets down the Scanian Law in runes on parchment.
What Hávamál actually says is short. In stanza 138 Odin says he hung on a windy tree for nine whole nights, wounded with a spear and given to Odin, himself to himself, on that tree of which no one knows from what roots it runs. In stanza 139 no one refreshed him with bread or with drink; he peered down, took up the runes, took them up screaming, and fell back from there. The poem does not name the tree, though it is usually taken to be Yggdrasil. It does not say whose spear wounded him, why he did it, or that he gazed into the well of Urðr or watched the Norns. Those details come from modern retellings.
After the ordeal, stanzas 140 and 141 say, Odin learned nine mighty songs, got a drink of the precious mead, and began to grow wise and to thrive. Later the poem lists eighteen charms he knows: one to help against strife and sorrow, one to blunt the blades of his enemies, one to make fetters spring from his limbs, one to bring his friends home whole from battle. The poem presents most of these as songs to be chanted. Only the twelfth says runes are carved: when Odin sees a hanged man swinging in a tree, he carves and colours runes so that the man walks and talks with him.
Other poems pass the runes on to people. In Rígsþula the god Ríg teaches runes to his son Jarl, and Jarl’s youngest son Konr knows runes and how to save men, blunt blades and calm the sea. In Sigrdrífumál the valkyrie Sigrdrífa teaches the hero Sigurd victory runes to carve on a sword hilt, ale runes for a drinking horn, runes to help a woman give birth, sea runes for a ship’s prow and rudder, and healing runes cut in bark. So the poems do treat runes as a tool of magic as well as a way of writing.
Take the first rune, which modern guides call by its reconstructed name Fehu. In Old Norse it was fé, in Old English feoh, and both words mean wealth or cattle. What we know of each rune’s meaning comes mainly from three medieval rune poems, one Old English, one Norwegian and one Icelandic, all written down centuries after the oldest runes; the meanings of the Elder Futhark are reconstructed from them. The poems are less cheerful than modern guides. The Norwegian and Icelandic poems say wealth causes strife among kinsmen, and the Old English poem says wealth is a comfort to everyone, but each man must share it freely if he wants honour before the Lord. Wearing Fehu as a sign of luck and prosperity is a modern custom, and for many people that is the point: the rune is a daily reminder of what they are working toward.
Can runes rewrite your fate?
No Norse source says so. In Völuspá fate belongs to the Norns: three maidens, Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld, come from the water beneath the world-tree; they carved on wood, laid down laws, and chose the lives and fates of the children of men (stanza 20). The poem does not say what they carved. The runes in the poems help in a fight, at sea, in childbirth or with a wound, but none of them is said to change what the Norns have set.
Fortune-telling with runes has an even thinner record. The Roman writer Tacitus, around AD 98, describes the Germans cutting a branch into slips, marking them with certain signs, scattering them on a white cloth and reading three of them (Germania, chapter 10). He does not say the signs were runes, and the Eddic poems mention lot-wood without saying it was marked with runes. Rune-casting as it is practised today, with a meaning for every rune and readings for reversed runes, is a 20th-century creation, popularised by Ralph Blum’s The Book of Runes in 1982.
Keep exploring: for the historical side of this alphabet, read our Viking runes guide, and see all 24 letters decoded in the Elder Futhark rune meanings guide.
Runes and fate FAQ
Who discovered the runes in Norse myth?
Odin. In the poem Hávamál he says he hung for nine whole nights on a windy tree, wounded with a spear and given to Odin, himself to himself, with no bread or drink, until he peered down and took up the runes. The poem does not name the tree, though it is usually taken to be Yggdrasil.
Are runes just an alphabet?
Mostly, yes. Runes were letters, used for memorial stones, makers’ and owners’ marks and messages, and each rune’s name was an ordinary word, such as fé, “wealth”. Some Eddic poems also describe runes carved as charms, for victory, healing or safety at sea. The idea that each rune names a cosmic power is modern.
What does it mean that runes can rewrite your fate?
It is a modern idea. No Norse source says runes change a person’s fate; in Völuspá the Norns lay down laws and choose the lives of men. Wearing or carving a rune as a reminder of what you are working toward is a modern custom.
Did the Vikings use runes for divination?
There is no clear evidence that they did. Tacitus describes Germanic tribes reading marked slips of wood around AD 98, but he does not say the marks were runes. Modern rune-casting is a 20th-century practice, popularised by Ralph Blum’s The Book of Runes in 1982.