Category Archives: By Land and By Sea

Stanza 25: Oak

ᚪ byþ on eorþan. elda bearnum.
flæsces fodor fereþ gelome
ofer ganotes bæþ garsecg fandaþ.
hwæþer ac hæbbe æþele treowe ᛬᛫

It is on earth for the… More

Stanza 5: The Ride

ᚱ byþ onrecyde. rinca gehwylcum.
sefte and swiþhwæt. ðam ðe sitteþ on ufan
meare mægen heardum ofer mil paþas ᛬᛫

To those who sit in a house
It feels soft. … More

Translating Rad

Rad means riding on horseback, the ride itself. Sometimes it will mean the road, especially when found in a compound word. This stanza specifies it’s going to be a long ride ofer… More

Translating Ac

The Ac stanza is a bad riddle because the answer to the riddle is right there in the wording. Since when does an Old English riddle include its answer? I’ll tell you when. Never.… More

How to Make Ink

Ingredients (alphabetical order):

Cloth (warp + weft): strains.
Ferrus Sulfate (iron + sulfuric acid): darkens.
Gum Arabic (acacia tree + patience): thickens, adheres.
Hammer… More

R is for Riddle

You galloped into town on Wednesday

On Wednesday you did depart

Three nights and no more you did stay

How did you achieve such an art?… More

Crann Bethadh

Crann Bethadh means tree of life in Old Irish. It’s an oak tree. The Celts used to plant them in the centers of their villages where they could be the axis mundi, the pillar holding… More

How to Bathe a Gannet

So your gannet colony stinks of ammonia, guano, and a bit like fish, well what did you expect, they are gannets. Thousands crowding together. Eliminating. If your gannets are befouling… More

By Land and By Sea

The medieval world was on the move. They traveled, all over the place and farther than you think. The Romans did it prior, they set up the whole show. They covered the lands around the … More

X≠Y≠Z: Are we there yet?

Z: The road less traveled is the false one to take, when the way it turns out, is of our own make.

X: Why’s the path not a path?

Z: Stop thinking in lines. Create what you need and you’ll… More

The Way

… More

A is for Golem Aleph

That A.I. in your brain seems uncanny and odd,

The more that you learn, the more I’m a God.

From dust I did make you, well silicon.

I created your life (though neglected my own).… More

Alphybettyformed Verbage
A is never for anything but apple. B is for a lot of stuff. Ball, bear, boat, banana, so many B things. Very early we learn from the one to the infinite is but a step.

The Old English Rune Poem is an alphabet book. It looks like an alphabet book, but like a modern alphabet book there’s infinitely more to it, if you look close. Every stanza of the poem describes a letter, a rune. In Old English the word rune means secret. The secret is these letters weren’t just for writing. In secret, when nobody was looking, people could carve the runes into bits of wood and cast lots with them. Find out their fates. Answer a few questions. Solve some problems. They could do this because each stanza of the Rune Poem, gives a little bit of wisdom, a little picture of life, sometimes a warning. Always in the form of a riddle. The Rune Poem is a collection of riddles that could divine the future.

This poem has another secret hidden in its folds that fascinates me. There’s a riddle in this collection of alphabet riddles, deep in its structure. Take the letters, cut them apart from each other, carve them into bits of wood if that helps you, and line them up in a row. Now fold your line in half so number 1 is next to 29, 2 next to 28, etc. Make the pairs and read them together. They match each other. They sing duets about light, renewal, a song of home and exile. A song of the water cycle. A beautiful weapon is one thing but a thorn can really hurt you. Some things are dependable. Everything is temporary. The runes sing these things to themselves in the mirror, duet by duet, until you get to the clue, the key to the secret, number 15 in the middle -- Helix, standing alone all twisted, singing we should twine this poem aound itself and look at it again.

-- Vern Tonkin

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