Examining Naudiz in 2021
I don’t usually like to delve too much into runes, because it seems like more of a rabbit-hole than I conceivably have time for. I do have a basic understanding of runes, of course, but I normally just avoid working with them in any manner. This tends to get looks from people when I state this, but let’s be honest… learning Old Nordic has been a far more useful application of my time. Learning runes does not necessarily help in understanding Old Nordic as not all inscriptions with them are linguistic in nature. And it seems to me, the majority of people learning them aren’t interested in their linguistic capabilities either. Which is all good, but someone else can be the keeper of that knowledge not me.
Where am I going with this? Heck if I know! It was all very clear to me when I was out on a lovely Spring walk earlier, but some of that clarity has faded now. I know where I want to start though. A lot of people have been talking about the Isa rune as the rune that represents the pandemic. Originally, they were using it to describe the year 2020, but as the pandemic continues into 2021, it is now being used to describe the time surrounding the pandemic. As a good friend pointed out though, that is way too simple. Anyone can make that connection, even with rudimentary understanding of the runes. This is true. It is no surprise to anyone, including myself that Isa is associated with stagnance, and therefore makes sense to describe plague times.
Now this is all well and good, but how are we ascribing this rune to the pandemic? Did we pull it out of a hat? Did we just think “Hmm stagnance.” and then remember Isa can mean stagnance and just pair the two? Of those options the second makes more sense. I suppose we could meditate on the meaning of the Isa rune and apply what insights come from that to the pandemic. As some have pointed out, we are all learning resiliency through the stagnance associated with the pandemic, and Isa can teach us resiliency.
However, I am skeptical of the application of Isa to the year, even if meditating on it may give us some insights into how to make it through 2020 or through the pandemic as a whole. That said there is a historical basis for associating runes with years.
In Rune Rasmussen’s Nordic Animist Year, he takes luni-solar reckoning from the medieval Scandinavian rune staves. The historical calendars used runes to delineate time in three ways. One was to show important dates. Another was to depict the Sunday runes, which were used to delineate where Sundays fall throughout the lunar year. The final set of runes depicts the golden numbers, which show where the new moon falls during the year, and the runes rotate in a 19 year cycle. According to Rasmussen these golden numbers and their associated runes can be associated with the Swedish Rune Poem to give insights into the type of year it will be. Most of these insights seem to be agricultural in nature, which makes sense.
Now, I would not see these insights as predictions for the year, but rather observable cycles that people historically noticed. The elder heathens were much more aware of the Earth and its natural cycles than we are in modern times. How this relates to our lives now is hard to say and will take some time to determine. For one thing, it remains to be seen how accurately Rune Rasmussen was able to calculate where we currently fall into these cycles. Also, the latitude where we live will affect how we observe these cycles compared to Scandinavians. Further, many of us don’t directly deal with agriculture, so not all the knowledge is necessarily of use to us anyways.
According to Rune Rasmussen’s Runic Animist Calendar the rune for the year 2020 was the Hail Rune. And the rune for 2021 is the Need Rune. These runes get associated with the Swedish Rune Poem to determine what to expect that year.
2020:
Hagal er bo i bäst.
Hail is best when (you are) at home.
Hagl Regn hårdest
i.e. Tijdwinter godt Korn åhr
Hail is hardest rain
i.e. Timely winter, good grain year
2021:
Nöd er enda kŭst.
Need is the only choice.
Nordanwäder kallast
i.e. dyr Tijdh
Northern weather [is] coldest
i.e. hard times
Now this information is interesting because I have looked and I cannot find mention of the Swedish Rune Poem in English anywhere other than in Rune Rasmussen’s book because it is so obscure. And I don’t know Swedish. It is quite similar to the Norwegian Rune Poem, which is widely circulated and I will include a link below. The other interesting part of this was that Rune includes interpretations from the scholar Georg Stiernhielm, which provide the second layer of meaning you see above.
Now we will compare the lines for the same runes in the Norwegian Rune Poem.
2020:
Hagall er kaldastr korna;
Kristr skóp hæimenn forna.
Hail is the coldest of grain;
Christ created the world of old.
2021:
Nauðr gerer næppa koste;
nøktan kælr í froste.
Need gives little choice;
a naked man is chilled by the frost.
Looking at these combined sources we can see that if Rasmussen’s Nordic Animist Calendar is accurate, that 2020 was supposed to be a difficult year in some ways, but a good grain year. “Hail is best when (you are) at home.” really does seem like an accurate description. Perhaps this is noted as a year that has a lot of storms and is bad for travel. As a result staying at home and tending to crops (that are benefiting from the storms) is prudent. I don’t think this can be taken literally, as hail, because if it were, it would not be a good year for agriculture. Instead we must see hail as some sort of difficulty. Now, my own experience from the agricultural standpoint was that 2020 was a blight year. My crops did poorly. Admittedly though, I don’t grow grain, and I don’t live in Scandinavia so it is hard to know exactly how much of the agricultural stuff will transfer to my situation. As such I am looking to Sweden to see how their crops fared, and I see they had a good harvest as the weather stayed nice for them at harvest time, producing more yield.
We can look next at the insights for 2021. This year is marked by the Need Rune, and suggests hard times. How will this manifest? I was out walking today as I previously mentioned, and noticed the water table was unusually low for this time of year. We are still experiencing cold weather, but the snow has melted and there should be more water in the river. Everyone is so focused on the pandemic there has been no talk of this. Will it be a drought year? What other ways might we experience Need this year? With the sustained pandemic many people are falling on hard times. I have already had my own troubles this year, but overall our family’s luck is holding. We have enough. This is obviously not a year to stretch, but we will be okay. I think it is a prudent time for people to remember, that even if they have less than they have become accustomed to, if they have enough then they have been lucky. When it is a Need year we are wise to remember to build a longer table, not a wall. People will be suffering in our communities, and we should do what we are able to help them through. The rune poems speak a lot of cold as well. Is this to be taken literally or only metaphorically? We will see as the year progresses but we must be prepared to ride out these tough times.
As heathens it is worth discussing with our tribes how we can help each other out and make extra effort to be present for our kin. If we are able, it may also be prudent to extend a helping hand out into our broader communities. We see the true nature of our communities when times are tough. We see the spirit and resilience in them. We see the kind of people who live around us. There is no hiding people’s true natures.
The last Hail year was 2001 and the last Need year was 2002. For those of us who can recall those times we can have further insight into what may be in store for us. Sparknotes if you cannot remember those years:
2001
The World Trade Center was attacked, halting international travel. There was also an outbreak of West Nile Virus in North America. India had a massive earthquake that killed millions. US recession.
2002
The SARS outbreak occurred. America starts its War on Terrorism. Wildfires and drought occur across North America. US Recession continues.
So what we have in store for us this year will probably be a trial. I cannot predict how it will unfold, just make educated guesses. People are getting vaccinated but there is no clear plan of how to open things up and where the magic threshold for percentage of vaccinated people is. The numbers in my region for new cases are currently on the rise and we are going into 3rd lockdown, much to the annoyance of the general public. People are getting scared and angry. Civil unrest seems like a possibility if things do not change soon. We are so focused on the pandemic we aren’t seeing the other patterns occurring. Rising prices for fuel are raising prices for goods in stores, right when people are already struggling. The water table seems low, suggesting a bad year for agriculture, and the nights are still cold, meaning planting is not a possibility. So much money has been funneled into healthcare that other sectors are struggling. It is not sustainable. As such, it seems very reasonable to associate this year with the Need Rune.
I hope this wasn’t too rambling. I had a lot of ground to cover so I could explain my thinking, and this is definitely a topic I never expected to cover on my blog. Hopefully, you can make sense of it, and that it leads to your own interesting thoughts and discussions. Stay safe!
Further Reading
"An unusually intensive harvest in Sweden 2020 – and a record breaking oats harvest"
The Nordic Animist Year by Rune Rasmussen
“The Norwegian Rune Poem” https://throwbackthorsday.wordpress.com/2017/05/25/the-norwegian-rune-poem/
Photo Source:
The photos are my own.
