Deciphering the Symbolism in Runic Alphabets

Joannes Richter

As a child the teachers taught us the biblical Creation Legend and my brain soaked this biblical
truth up along with mathematics and language 1. As an adolescent however I learned to be selective
in accepting the truths and to be suspicious against the adults. And as a student I considered religion
as a mild form of mind control, although we used to call it “brainwashing”.
From 1990 onward our company restructured and economic pressure motivated me to invest some
more time in philosophical studies. The introduction of philosophical theories of Marx, Nietzsche,
Schopenhauer, Plato, gradually opened the view on the mechanisms in programming humans to
form an optimal society. The oldest concept for human society seemed to be documented in the
Kabbalah was said to be based on language and linguistic elements.
Blavatzky described the thesis of dedicated vowels which represented fundamental elements such as
male and female antipodes, but the theoretical models in theosophy turned out to be too chaotic.
Further investigations did lead me to the discovery of correlations between the name of the sky-god
(example: Diéu) and the corresponding personal pronoun (example: iéu) of the first person singular.
It took me some years to find these correlations and to compose the extended lists of the
corresponding dialects.
In an overview these correlations did not turn out to be global rules and had to be restricted to the
Neo-Latin languages of the Roman Empire and their satellite regions. Germanic languages
however used a similar correlation between the name of the sky-god (example: Tiw or Tuw) and the
corresponding personal pronoun (example: wit or wut, → we both) of the first person in dual form.
Apart from the Germanic languages we may find the dual form in other languages, but not with a
correlation between Tiw or Tuw and the personal pronouns wit or wut.
Germanic languages also seemed to have integrated three of their prominent divine names Tiw,
Voden (and maybe also Thor) at the beginning of the runic alphabets. The concept of treating the
first alphabetic character ᚠ as a universal sound Digamma allows us to interpret the word ᚠᚢᚦ
(“Futh”) also as “wuth” or “vuth”. In this case the alphabet starts with a keyword ᚠᚢᚦ as “Wuthor”
or Wuth”, in which we also may find various personal pronouns such as ”we”, “wut” and “thu”.
Vud (Voden), Thuw (Tiw) and Thor may be found in “Wuthor”.
Directly following after the keyword ᚠᚢᚦ (“Futh”) the Futhorc alphabet contains a standard
“A...I...Ω”-structure, which also may be found in archaic Greek and Latin alphabets2.
Except for the Kylver stone3 all Futhark and Futhorc alphabets contain the keyword ᚠᚢᚦ (“Futh”) at
the first three characters of the alphabet. After the last rune of the alphabet at the Kylver stone
follows a spruce- or tree-like rune, with six twigs to the left and eight to the right of a single stave.
This is interpreted as a bindrune of stacked Tiwaz rune,[5] or possibly of six Tiwaz and four Ansuz
runes to invoke Tyr and the Æsir for protection.[6] At a separate space the word ᛊᚢᛖᚢᛊ sueus is
inscribed. The meaning of this latter palindromic word is unknown, but it is possible that it is
associated with magic.
Apart from the divine names Tuw, Tiw, Woden and the pronouns wit or wut which may have been
stored within the keyword ᚠᚢᚦ another Dutch word “ fut” (Dutch: resilience, energy) is found, which
in a Flemish dialect is understood as “sperm”4.

1 Godsdienstles 1954-1955
2 The Sky-God, Adam and the Personal Pronouns
3 The Kylver stone begins with a vertical rod.
4 (In Dutch) Ϝut - Het Nederlandse sleutelwoord
These keywords provide the runic alphabets with a larger symbolic power than the archaic Greek
and Latin alphabets. The impact of the keywords may have raised the symbolism of all runes and
runic texts5.
Around 95% of European languages is equipped with a correlation between personal pronouns of
the first person and the name of the sky-god. The Neo-Latin languages correlate their sky-god
(Dyaus) with their singular form (“I”) respectively the Germanic languages their sky-god “Tiw”
with the dual form (“wit” → “we both”) of the personal pronouns of the first person6.
The gradual death of runic symbolism had been followed by the dual form. In the Neo-Latin
languages the correlations between the divine name and the pronouns still exist although their
symbolism had been lost.
The dual form may have been responsible for the highly ethical standards in matrimony, which
Tacitus praised above the Roman culture7:
Their marriage code, however, is strict, and indeed no part of their manners is more
praiseworthy. Almost alone among barbarians they are content with one wife, except a
very few among them, and these not from sensuality, but because their noble birth
procures for them many offers of alliance.

The wife does not bring a dower to the husband but the husband to the wife. The parents
and relatives are present, and pass judgment on the marriage-gifts, gifts not meant to
suit a woman's taste, nor such as a bride would deck herself with, but oxen, a
caparisoned steed, a shield, a lance, and a sword.

With these presents the wife is espoused, and she herself in her turn brings her husband
a gift of arms. This they count their strongest bond of union, these their sacred
mysteries, these their gods of marriage. Lest the woman should think herself to stand
apart from aspirations after noble deeds and from the perils of war, she is reminded by
the ceremony which inaugurates marriage that she is her husband's partner in toil and
danger, destined to suffer and to dare with him alike both in peace and in war.

Tacitus explains the married couple had to be symbolized by a yoked pair of oxen, which may have
been understood as a symbol for the dual form of the couple.
The yoked oxen, the harnessed steed, the gift of arms, proclaim this fact. She must live
and die with the feeling that she is receiving what she must hand down to her children
neither tarnished nor depreciated, what future daughters-in-law may receive, and may
be so passed on to her grand-children. (Latin)

And although in general the dual form has been lost in all languages Tacitus' description still
convinces us to believe in the remnants of the great ethical status of Germanic matrimony.

5 Runic magic
6 The Sky-God, Adam and the Personal Pronouns
7 Chapter XVIII in Germania (1876), translated by Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb
Abstract
Around 95% of European languages is equipped with a correlation between personal pronouns of
the first person and the name of the sky-god. The Neo-Latin languages correlate their sky-god
(Dyaus) with their singular form (“I”) respectively the Germanic languages their sky-god “Tiw”
with the dual form (“wit” → “we both”) of the personal pronouns of the first person.
The gradual death of runic symbolism had been followed by the dual form. In the Neo-Latin
languages the correlations between the divine name and the pronouns still exist although their
symbolism had been lost.