You’ll be mired in it. You’ll twist yourself up trying to get out of a quagmire and end up bogged down in quicksand. Sinking. Don’t grab over your head for something to pull yourself out with, that’s a sharp edged sword rotating just above. Turn around, you are facing the wrong direction. See that? There’s your path out. Go back the way you came and see it all again from the other side.
The answer to this riddle is the sun, though when you read it it could be something else related to seafaring. Semannum, more commonly spelled sæmanum, means mariners, plural, people in boats on the sea. Such people this stanza tells us, are always hoping for the answer to this riddle. They expect it too: hihte means joy as well as hope, but in the sense of an expectation of joy with elements of trust and comfort, which might otherwise be lacking in the cold and perilous waters of the North Sea.
Much of the time sæmanum is used to mean a general sailor, but it is also a word for invaders by sea and by the ninth and tenth centuries became a word for Viking. In the Old English poem “The Battle of Malden,” about a Viking attack that happened in the year 991, the Vikings were called sæman. But … More
It’s clear as day you’ve been feeling all at sea lately, but don’t give up hope. If you can’t find your inner compass to guide you to shore, trust in an outer one. Somebody will shine a light on things for you and you’ll know which way to steer.
Things will go dark, obscuring your vision. It’s difficult to navigate when you can’t see your way forward, but chin up. You are being guided. There is somebody who will never deceive you. You’ll see the signs. You can trust this one well.
Listen up. As if from nowhere you will have nothing. Nowhere is where nothing comes from, did you not know? That pain in your chest will be your heart squeezing down two sizes too small. You’ll be in need and you will feel it. Pay attention to the gods on this one baby love, help will come if you shush, listen, and do what you’re told.
You have been rock and hard placing for so long you think time isn’t passing. Do you see your destination through the storm? Or will it take you too long to get there? No. You’re not looking ahead. You don’t look forward whilst hanging on for dear life, riding it out directionless. You’re in a tempest love, and you don’t control the weather.
Any help you had packed up their stuff and hit the road. You are on your own. That was a powerful benefactor and hitching your wagon to that particular star was a good idea, but you are on your own now. Take stock of your remaining goods because what was once abundant will now be scarce, and you will have to work hard for what once came easily. All is not lost, greater ones have gone before you and you’ve learned a thing or two from them about prosperity. Follow them and maintain your trajectory or you’ll get stuck traveling in circles.
He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;
indeed he so impeded my ascent
that I had often to turn back again.
Gift giving was a big deal to the people of the Rune Poem. It was everything. They gave everything. It could be food or goods, but they loved ornament and anything old especially: gilded, edged with silver, blinding shiny, these were the best gifts, but it wasn’t about the bling so much as the message. What you give is what you’re worth and what you will be remembered for. Everybody wants to be worth something and everybody wants to be remembered, it’s the only permanent thing in a world where every single thing is temporary. We are each other’s immortality on earth through the memories we lay down in other people, it’s the only way to live, so by God you will remember me.
With the gift comes gleng, which means both ornament and honor, and as is typical in such cases, it’s the intangible half of this pair that’s worth more. It … More
The Rune Poem is sung in a tempo that changes from time to time. You can find the beats and the rests between them in the stresses of the words in each stanza. Some move quickly like the adjacent Hail and Need stanzas. Stand in the hail and you’ll see why it needs a quick stanza. Stand in need and you’ll feel the staccato tempo of a life crashing down. The Home stanza is the last in a string of four stanzas bound together by a change of tempo: Human, The Sea, Ing, and Home. Together they tell a story about Ing who was a goddamned legend. He appears in the adjacent pair to Gift and Home, so we’ll visit Ing soon. For now know that home is where you start from and the end of the story as well. You have nothing else.
In the world of the Rune … More
It’s blinding when it happens. You didn’t see it coming. You did and you didn’t. The writing was on the wall, it was right there in your face and you were reading it all this time. And now you need to spell the words out? You want to study what happened? Go ahead, you’ll do it anyway, sound it out. Reduce to elementals who said what when to whom and at what volume. Unwind the choreography too: hands flying, hands shielding, arms folded up, faces folded up. Pick apart the blocking: sudden entrances and exists from rooms or phones, backs turned, unturned, turned. Reduce everything to parts seen and unseen, divide it into infinite smallness and you’ll see nothing’s there. Nothing. A tearing asunder holds no specifics you can explain to the curious.
What really caused your banishment? What do you want me to say. Maybe you didn’t belong together in the first place.… More
Light is a transverse wave and an electromagnetic wave. Light is a vibrating electric field creating a vibrating magnetic field, creating a vibrating electric field. Light is vibrating in S shapes, unfolding itself toward you, self creating.
You, what are you, you are made out of waves too, sometimes, depending on who’s looking. I see you. All lit up from inside, I can see it in your eyes. Vital spark.
Illuminate for me before you go into the light, O luminary, are you the messenger or the message?
You are getting a message. Pay attention to the messenger because in the clear light of day your messenger is the message. There’s nothing subtle about it either, a massive spotlight will shine right onto your fate, and you could be anybody. You could be flush with everything right now or be sitting in a pile of nothing, likely both, but the sun will sparkle upon you and you will love it.
Things can get pretty dark sometimes. I get it. The gloom comes in and anything shining or warm, the bright things, go dim. All the luster to anything recedes. Be at ease, there’s a fire inside and the light will come back. It always does. Turn around and look. Don’t you see? All these shadows are made by light at rest upon your body.
You want to hear from your God and got the God rune. You pulled a rune that tells you to talk to the Gods with runes. That’s some nested levels of scale messaging from your deity right there. Here’s what you do. Pay attention. That’s what to do. The Gods are talking, take comfort in that, be easy and remain hopeful. Divinity is talking to you on every level, you’re not on your own, so listen up.
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Let’s worry about the thegns. We’ve worried about the thegns before, but these poor bastards have a lot on their plate. They’re the glam squad for a bunch of divas going to war, and it’s a lot. Have you ever gone to war? You need to bring a lot of stuff. Have you ever hung out with a diva? You need to bring more. Are you a diva? Then you know. Exacting standards. Everything perfect down to the last whatever. Don’t piss off the divas, they’re prickly. They’ll cut you. Just give them what they want, when they want it, or they’ll make your life a living hell. Detail detail detail. The divas didn’t just wake up like that, you think it’s easy to look good on a horse? You think that bow they’re carrying around looks impressive and dangerous just like that on its own? You know the answer. Beauty is pain … More
You have shot your arrow, congratulations! Now you must hit your target. Hopefully you chose a nice wide target that is standing still. If your target is motionless ascertain if it is sentient and if it is conscious. If so, make sure it is aware you are shooting at it, for the arrow one foresees arrives more gently.
If your target is in motion, determine why your target is in motion. Is your target being pulled or propelled somehow, or is it moving under its own power? If your target is moving itself, ask your target why is it in motion? This is only common courtesy. Under circumstances such as these, politeness is a target we all must aim for.
If your target is in rapid motion, the element of speed might prevent or preclude its reply to your inquiry. In this case you must determine the direction of your target’s motion. If it … More
Our three body problem’s a bit of a riddle
Though our moods be discordant together we cling
Our center is everywhere and circumference the middle
We’re like Efimov dolls or a Borromean ring
Trinity’s not right, syzygy’s too twee
We won’t hum in pairs but as a trio we sing.
What’s your decree? What’s our wee rule of three?
(Though you should be aware we burn to Vern’s fiddle)
X is not Y and neither is Z.
Say something. Go ahead, you heard me, say it and listen to yourself. Now say it about a hundred years ago. Hear it? You can hear it. Different. Speech sounds change. Accents change. You’ve changed. You think you sound the same but go back home after some distance and they’ll tell you different. And they’ll tell it to you differently. English has changed, big time, my God it’s different. It’s old. It’s medieval. Let’s think of a famous medieval person, to see how old. Somebody with a real mark of distinction. Dante. Dante Aligheri. He finished writing the Divine Comedy in 1320. He’s really really old, hundreds of years. Think of this, in this current moment we are closer in years to Dante than he was to the start of Old English. And from the Rune Poem to us he’s in the middle of the path of life. Not the runes, they’re even older, the … More
