Tag Archives: Dante Alighieri

Rune Casting: Tiw

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… More

Rune Casting: Nyd

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.… More

Rune Casting: Lagu

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… More

Rune Casting: Ing

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… More

Turn

He did not disappear from sight, but stayed;

indeed he so impeded my ascent

that I had often to turn back again.

… More

Translating Gifu

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,… 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… More

G is for Go

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… More

Or are you both?

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 … More

Rune Casting: Dæg

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… More

Rune Casting: Cen

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… More

Rune Casting: Os

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… More

UI is for User Interface

User Interface Spec Doc:
LettersforTitles.com

Background Image:
1. Hildegard of Bingen Riesencodex, Lingua Ignota. Hochschulund Landesbibliothek RheinMain: Hs. 2, 464v. Alphabet

… More

Alphybettyformed Verbage
A is always for 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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Tag Archives: Dante Alighieri

It Never Deceives

Rune Casting: Tiw

Rune Casting: Nyd

Rune Casting: Lagu

Rune Casting: Ing

Turn

Translating Gifu

Translating Eþel

G is for Go

Or are you both?

Rune Casting: Dæg

Rune Casting: Cen

Rune Casting: Os

UI is for User Interface

For Anybody Who Rests With Them

Arrows

They’ll Cut You

How to do Archery

X≠Y≠Z: Three Body Problem

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Rune Casting: Eolhx

Rune Casting: Sigel

Translating Sigel