Loosening runes?
Þat kann ek it fiórða
I know the forth
ef mér fyrðar bera if men fasten
bönd at bóglimum locks on my limbs
svá ek gel I sing a spell
at ek ganga má --- so I may step free
---
sprettr mér af fótum fjöturr the fetters snap off my feet
en af höndum hapt the hasp off my hands!
Hávamál stz 149
Bede substitutes a superstitious interpretation of the
loosening bonds being caused by written spells with the central Christian rite
of the recitation of the mass, replacing older cultural hermeneutics and
teaching us how to read the miraculous from a Christian perspective. It is not
even clear whether Bede is referring to runes in this episode, or to a generic
superstition about the act of writing and the power of words, and his reluctance
to elaborate on the fable may well constitute an ‘act of literary suppression’
as Seth Lerer suggests (1991: 39). The Old English translation, however, seeks
to make some sense of this allusion to litteras solutorias through the concept
of written characters and the ‘releasing rune’:
Ond hine ascode hwæðer he ða alysendlecan rune cuðe, and þa stafasmid him
awritene hæfde, be swylcum men leas spel secgað and spreocað, þæt hine mon
forþon gebindan ne meahte.
‘And he asked him whether he knew the releasing rune, and had with him the
letters written out, such as men tell idle tales of and speak about, so that,
for this reason, he could not be bound.’
(Old English Version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History 4/22: 328)
There is considerable uncertainty as to the earliest
purpose of the runes, whether they were originally used as real characters of
writing, or, as the name suggests, as mystical signs, bearers of potent magic.
But, since the power and force of the spoken word easily pass into the symbol
for which it stands, it is not improbable that the latter meaning is secondary,
the spell becoming, so to speak, materialised in the graven letter, and, even
in this form, retaining all its original power for good or evil. For the
earliest Germanici literature abounds in proofs of the magic nature of runes;
from the Edda poems down to the latest folksongs of the present day there is
continuous evidence of their mystic influence over mankind. 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. Their origin was, moreover, believed to be divine, since Odin is
represented in the Edda as sacrificing himself in order to learn their use and
hidden wisdom.
Ref: The Cambridge History of English and American
Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). Volume I. From the Beginnings to the
Cycles of Romance. Runes in Scandinavian and Old English Literature.
