ᛖ byþ for eorlum æþelinga wyn.
hors hofum wlanc. ðær him hæleþ ymb.
welege on wicgum wrixlaþ spræce.
⁊ biþ unstyllum æfre frofur ᛬᛫
It is for warriors the joy of princes
A horse with bold hooves, the fighters there around him
The wealthy on steeds trading speech.
And it is for the uneasy ever a consolation.
There’s lots of words for horse in Old English, hors, for one. But there’s wicg, hengest, friþhengest, onrid, radhors, mearh, sceam, steda, stott, blanca, gelew, all words that mean specific types of horses by the style, sex, physical appearance, color. This was a horse culture. Horses were a very big deal. Why? They made life easier. Having a horse changes everything. They were useful for pulling stuff, not for ploughing though, they would use oxen for that, but they would use horses to bring goods to market and to haul just about anything anywhere, including themselves: in carts and on horseback. During their prime, horses were particularly indispensable for sending messages long distances. Speedy communication has always been desirable. Finally, literally, chop marks in their bones mean that sometimes horses were eaten, particularly after they’d reach five years of age. Even … More
Saddle up, you’ve got a battle on your hands, and no wonder, you are feeling protective and as well you should. You’ve got plenty to protect. You are well equipped for this one, so be proud of that, and you can talk a good game too. Well, talk it up. Gather your people and exchange words about it. Don’t just chat at everybody though, listen and pay attention.
This is the rune for Eh, war horse, letter E. In the Cotton library manuscript called Galba A.ii (burned in a different fire from the one that got the Old English Rune Poem) the name of this rune is spelled eoh. In other manuscripts the name is spelled Eh as it is here, not with an EO at the start. There’s another rune for EO: ᛇ, spelled eoh like it’s a horse but it means a yew tree. This is the Rune Poem catching a vowel shift, from E to EO. This rune gets tangled up in ᛟ as well, Eþel, the rune for Œ. Notice that is not an Œ at the front of ᛟ’s name, it’s an E. ᛟ used to be œþel, but that sound shifted into E from what used to be mostly O sounds. Vowels are shapeshifters. The sound of this one makes us smile.
Carve … More
