Weird -- I was just toying with the idea of bumping this old thread after coming across my copy of Nigel Pennick's Practical Magic in the Northern Tradition and sort of accidentally immersing myself in this stuff again.
He gives the ninth rune the name Haegl, by the way. Doesn't mention Heimdall with that aett.
But one thing he does mention is the correspondence between the 24 runes of the futhark and divisions of the year, and with the old system of measurement. Imperial feet and inches (and acres and rods) descend from a double set of measurements used in northern Europe before the Romans came -- "northern feet" and "natural feet" were the basic units.
Let me see if I can get this to make sense. A "northern foot" was also called a "Saxon foot," and was a third-again larger than a "natural foot." In other words, three shafthands made a natural foot, and four shafthands made a Saxon foot. A shafthand was supposedly the width of a hand grasping a spear, I gather.
One shafthand was made of three thumbs, which equaled 9 barleycorns. Or, in other words, three threes.
Two northern feet made a northern cubit, or an ell (8 shafthands). ("Ell" is a great word for crossword puzzles, by the way.) Three ells (or 24 shafthands) made a fathom.
Two and a half fathoms (15 northern feet, 20 natural feet) made a rod, 40 rods made a furlong, and 8 furlongs made a mile.
Pennick has these arranged so that there are three levels under the foot, and five levels above the foot -- the smaller measures are all in magic 3s, while the larger are in magic 8s. (Not just the five plus the three, but also by doubling a foot, then doubling that measure, then doubling that measure, etc.)
Pennick explains: The number nine, which is the sacred number of the North par excellence, occurs in the arrangement 3-3-3 underlying the natural foot. The rune equivalent to nine is Hagal or Haegl, the hailstone, that icy egg or seed of primal cosmic pattern and life underlying the mystical framework of the world. Within this framework, the sacred geometrical structure of matter, natural measure acts as a reference point through which the Mysteries can be approached.
He goes on to link the thumbs in a foot with Jera, representing the cyclical pattern of the universe, completion and the cycle of the solar year, and the rod - the basic unit you use to measure land, not people - with Eolh or Elhaz, the rune of sanctuary, protection and boundaries. The rod is the canonical measure of ancient tradition for the mystic plot - sacred ground set aside for ceremonies -- used by the secret semi-official Vehmgericht courts of Westphalia, Germany. The court measured out its ground with a sacred measuring rod called a mete-wand (apparently used in Canne and Baton stick-fighting -- there's an illustration to this effect on the facing page.)
Anyway, I think what Pennick is getting at is that three ranks of eight runes = relationship to units of measure. In the old days, measuring something was an act with esoteric significance, and the runes reflect that. |
