Examining Sol in 2024

- June 07, 2024

wind, seafaring, Sol, rune poems, Viking, weather, Sol year, Hearthside Blog

These posts are sometimes the hardest to keep up with, since it is a long-term project that may or may not yield anything interesting. In addition, I have found this year particularly difficult, at first due to personal time constraints, but also because this year has been surprising me!

Rune Rasmussen talks of a 19 year cycle which he associates each year with a rune in the Swedish rune poem. What I am doing each year is looking at the rune poems, plus historical data, to see if I can predict trends for the year. Think of it as a Heathen Farmer’s Almanac or something.

I had initial thoughts based on the rune Sol as to what that might mean for 2024, and went to historical data to see if I might be correct. However, the data wasn’t showing me a particular trend. It seemed that both warm weather and rain were likely for a Sol year, but sometimes these weather patterns would go to the extreme, causing flooding or drought. The Dust Bowl started in 1930, which was a Sol year. This year the tendency locally seems to be trending towards flooding, but not to an extreme. There has been more precipitation than expected so far. However, the garden is thriving and the environment is green and flourishing. We have had several drought years leading up to this and so the flooding is a welcome relief to the natural world. It is almost as if things are going back into balance after the Aun year.

That said, I like to look at Sweden as well since this is where the rune poem is from that Rune Rasmussen is basing his findings on. The last Sol year was 2006 and was marked by low snowfall in Europe, and a heatwave in Sweden that led to many hospitalizations. In 1987, a cold snap led to flooding and deaths in Sweden.

Interestingly, the previous Sol year was 1968. This was the year that the Swedish Ambassador first warned the UN about the effects of climate change. This leads us into another interesting feature of the Sol year, the need for change. In the 1960s, Sweden was caught up in a post-war movement. In 1987, Sweden was caught up in a race-crisis. In 2006, Sweden faced a historic election, voting in a new government after 12 years!

Similarly, in Canada in 2006, the top news story was the War in Afghanistan. In 1987, the Meech Lake Accord was drafted. In 1968, Canada was reforming its political identity to recognize the rights of Indigenous people, women, and French Canadians.

So, it seems like the year is to be marked with extremes that help to rebalance.

Now for the confusing part… I found the rune poems in their various versions for this year to be difficult to read and to not match up with each other. We will start with the Swedish rune poem, as that is what Rune uses in his book:

Swedish

Sol i himbla hogest

Sol in heaven highest

I.e. Blasahr

I.e. windy year

The part about it being a windy year makes sense both with the extremes in weather, and the extremes in political climate. But what does it mean that Sol is in highest heaven? Is this to be taken at face value that it will be hot and sunny, or is there a hidden metaphor here? Perhaps what needs to be exposed is illuminated now.

Icelandic

Sól er skýja skjöldr

ok skínandi röðull

ok ísa aldrtregi.

Sun = shield of the clouds

and shining ray

and destroyer of ice.

The Icelandic poem seems fairly weather based. The sun determines the weather. It is interesting that the sun is described as the shield of the clouds, rather than the clouds as the shield of the sun.

Norwegian

Sól er landa ljóme;

lúti ek helgum dóme.

Sun is the light of the world;

I bow to the divine decree.

Here we see a religious element. Is this a Christianization of the poem, or are we talking about Sol as a divine being? What is clear is that we are affected by the natural world, whether we like it or not. The climate of this year will affect our lives.

Anglo-Saxon

Sigel semannum symble biþ on hihte,

ðonne hi hine feriaþ ofer fisces beþ,

oþ hi brimhengest bringeþ to lande.

The sun is ever a joy in the hopes of seafarers

when they journey away over the fishes' bath,

until the courser of the deep bears them to land.

This one surprised me, as often it is the Anglo-Saxon poem that is heavily Christianized. Here we see that it is a good year for travel by sea. This may be another reference to the wind that was mentioned in the Swedish rune poem.

Overall, it seems that there are fair winds, but also winds of change that are intertwined throughout this year. Be prepared for surprises and changes!

Sources

The Nordic Animist Year by Rune Rasmussen

2006

https://wayback.archive-it.org/7084/20170925152800/https://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=E05286AA-1

The Dust Bowl

https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP13CH1PA2LE.html

Swedish Heatwave 2006 Hospital Admissions

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3402/gha.v2i0.2034

Swedish Weather Data 2006

https://weatherspark.com/h/y/84156/2006/Historical-Weather-during-2006-in-Stockholm-Sweden

Swedish Cold Snap 1987

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/01/14/europes-cold-snow-kill-more-than-100-in-3-days/8b552486-1cde-46e6-8c00-e8af7fb65ff8/