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A Concept for a

Runic Dictionary Joannes Richter

Abstract
The Futharc alphabet seems to be composed as a twofold structure of (1) an initial header ᚠᚢᚦ and
(2) a trailing body segment.
The 3 or 4 characters in the header section “ᚠᚢᚦ (ᚨ)” of the Futharc alphabet lists the deities Frey,
Thor (and Odin).
The runic characters “runes” are named „vitha“ and symbolize “wit”, “wisdom”, “eternity”, the dual
form “wit” (“we two”), a set of keywords for procreation and a set of “Vid”-names.
A fundamental word FutiR is described by Dieterich as a universal keyword to describe life by 10
parameters: (1) to feed up, (2) fat, (3) father, (4) fodder, (5) foster, (6) wod, (7) fud, (8) butt, (9)
futter, (10) fetter,
In Backward Reading Mode the header section “ᚠᚢᚦ” symbolizes various words such as Tiw, Tuw,
Teiws, Ziu/Zîo, Tuesday, Ziischtig, tíwesdæg, tow, touw, two, twee, zwei, Tuihanti, twine, twijn,
Zwirn, and Odin.
The Futharc alphabet also reveals a creation legend and a simplified model for the universe as a
huge tree as a supporting pillar.
The first male man may have been created as an image "ash" (rune ᚫ) of “Creator god” (rune ᚪ).
Locally the creation legend may have symbolized the unified Man as Æ, in which A = Ask and E =
Embla, which explains why the western, northern and southwestern Norwegian dialects and the
western Danish dialects of Thy and Southern Jutland, use æ as a significant first person singular
pronoun I.
The rune ᛇ (yew-tree) may represent Yggdrasil as the central pillar of the alphabetical A-I-Ω vowel-
structured universe.
Fundamental concept of the Futharc alphabet
The Futharc alphabet seems to be composed as a twofold structure of an initial header and a trailing
body segment.

Gods
The header section “ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ” of the Futharc alphabet lists various runes (*fehu, *thurisaz, and eventually
also *ansuz as a fourth rune ᚨ) as references to deities such as Frey, Thor (and Odin).

The runes as an image of wit, wisdom, eternity, the dual form “we two”
The “runes” are named „vitha“, as a derivation of an image of “wit” (“knowledge”), most of which
is encoded in the first word “ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ” of the alphabet. This word “ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ” also encodes witan and wite
(„wit“, „wisdom“ and “guarding”), “vet” (eternity) and “vida” (tree), the dual forms við, Ƿid / við,
vid / wit, við of the personal pronouns for the 1 st person. Originally the dual form “with” had been
equivalent to the dissociating preposition viðr (against) but transformed itself to an associating
preposition “with”, which is found in “fighting with....” in the sense of “fighting against....”.

The keywords for procreation and names


The same keyword “ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ” also represents the words fut, Fut, fut, Fut, Fout’, Vut or Vutt as
references to procreation, the names Vidvut, Vides, Ƿidland, Víðarr, St. Vitus, Widukind and Vidovit
as references to various regions, gods, saints respectively visionary leaders of the community.

The Tiw- and Two-categories


In Backward Reading Mode we may identify the following words in the header section “ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ”: Tiw,
Tuw, Teiws, Ziu / Zîo , Tuesday, Ziischtig, tíwesdæg, tow, touw, two, twee, zwei, Tuihanti, twine,
twijn, Zwirn, and Odin.
The symbolism of duality in the words tow, touw, two, twine, twijn, and Zwirn may refer to the
social weaving pattern which fetters the population in a social pattern.
The body section represents Odin & Ash (as Vowel A/O), the yew-tree (as Vowel I), the Sun, Týr,
Man, the god Yngvi (→ Frey) and the terminal vowel Ω.

The Creation Legend


In Old English the creation of the first male man "ash" (ᚫ) from “god” (ᚪ) uses “equivalent” runic
letters. The A-I-Ω vowel-structure starts with the “A”-character for “god” (ᚪ) or “Odin” and the
equivalent "ash" (ᚫ) character as a symbol for the first male creature. Therefore the first male man
may have been created as an image "ash" (rune ᚫ) of “Creator god” (rune ᚪ).

A = Ask & E = Embla in the ligature Æ


Locally the creation legend may have symbolized the unified Man as Æ, in which A = Ask and E =
Embla, which explains why the western, northern and southwestern Norwegian dialects and the
western Danish dialects of Thy and Southern Jutland, use æ as a significant first person singular
pronoun I1.

1 Other Germanic languages in Wikipedia æ


The A-I-Ω body section with the yew-tree as an Yggdrasil pillar for the universe
The rune ᛇ (yew-tree) may represent the center of the A-I-Ω body section, in which the yew-tree
may represent the Yggdrasil pillar for the universe, which in the course of time was supposed to
pose a risk of collapsing.
Vocabulary

Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ) in Forward Reading Mode


Section Runic Translation Meaning Source Source link
Root
H 01 ᚠ *fehu wealth, cattle, Futhark Elder Futhark
Frey (Lord)
H 02 ᚦ *thurisaz thyth < þiuþ "good" Futhark Elder Futhark
"the god Thor, giant"
H 03 ᚨ *ansuz Odin Futhark Elder Futhark

H 11 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ vitha Runes West Slavs Hanuš 1842, p. 381


H 12 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ *vid / *vit image / side / facet West Slavs Hanuš 1842, p. 381
H 13 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ witan f. wita (“wise man”) Wiktionary witan (Old English)
H 14 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ wite to guard, to accuse Wiktionary wijten (Dutch)
H 15 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ witan To wit, to know Wiktionary Witan (Old Dutch)
H 21 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ vet Ever, eternal vetgrønster vida Mythology / Ash tree
H 22 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ vida Tree vetgrønster vida Mythology / Ash tree
H 31 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ við cord, band, fetter withe; collar Við (Old Norse)
H 32 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Ƿid / við “we two” (dual) From Old Norse ƿit Old
vid / wit with (Originally: vit, the first-person English/Pronouns
against) dual pers. pronoun Við (Icelandic)
H 33 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ við Against (viðr) viðr (against) viðr (Old Norse)
H 41 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ fut "God's foot" (oath) 1602, Shakespeare Fut (English)
H 42 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Fut Vulva Dictionary (Grimm) Fut (Deutsch)
H 43 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ fut Vitality Etymologiebank fut (Dutch)
H 44 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Fut [1873] Sperm Etymologiebank Fut (West-Flemish)
H 45 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Fout’ Sperm (Fr. v. foutre) Etymologiebank Fut (→ French)
H 51 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Vut ot Vutt “Idol” (for Grisons) Teut. Mythology p. 829 in Teut. Myth.
H 52 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Vidvut Vodan of the Vides Teut. Mythology p. 829 in Teut. Myth.
H 53 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Vides Lettons/Latvians (?) Teut. Mythology p. 829 in Teut. Myth.
H 54 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Ƿidland Vidland (Åland Isl.) Google Maps Vidland (Åland Isl.)
Vidland, Finland Vidland, Finland
H 55 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ Víðarr name of a god Wiktionary Víðarr (Old Norse)
H 56 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ St. Vitus Christian saint Wikipedia St. Vitus from Sicily
H 57 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Widukind leader of the Saxons Wikipedia Widukind (Saxony)
H 58 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ Vidovit Clairvoyant/visionary Dictionary Vidovit (Slavic)
Table 1: Runic Dictionary - Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ) in Forward Reading Mode
The FutiR-entry in the book Runen-Sprach-Schatz
The word FutiR is found at page 4 of the Runen-Sprach-Schatz2 and is described by Dieterich as an
universal tool to describe life in one word:
FutiR 1468, isl. fæda, ernähren, gebären, fæda und fædi, Speise, fódra, füttern, fódr,
Futter, schw. föda (verb.), föda (subst.) , fodra , foder , dän. føde (verb.), føde (subst.),
fodre , foder , goth. fitan gebären, scheint ebenfalls ursprünglich ernähren zu heissen,
daher isl. fitna, fettwerden , schw. fetna, dän. fedes , ils. feits fett, d. h. wohlgenährt,
schw. fet, dän. fed, goth. fodjan ernährern, fodeins, Nahrung, ahd. fotjan , nhd. füttern ,
alts. fodan, ags. fedan, engl. feed, holl. voeden — ernähren, gebären, vergl. Faþir.
Auffallend ist die Bedeutung von Scheide, theca, vagina, in den Formen, goth. fodr ,
ags. fodr , ahd. fuotar , schw., dän. foder, isl. fud, Mutterscheide, weibliche Scham,
fydill, das Diminutivum von fud, männliche Scham, nhd Futteral.— << Runic text see
the included image >> , d. h. Jetzt werden wenig Bessere als er geboren.

1: The FutiR-entry in the book Runen-Sprach-Schatz by Udo Waldemar Dieterich (1844)

In Teutonic dialects the Diminutive „Füdle” of “Fud” described the butt (bottom) of male and
female beings3. The butt includes the whole buttocks and pelvic region that includes one's private
parts.

2 Runen-Sprach-Schatz oder Wörterbuch über die ältesten Sprachdenkmale Skandinaviens, by Udo Waldemar
Dieterich (1844)
3 Hinterteil
The important entries “wit” and “witness” (probably related to “wod”) are missing in Barnes' view
of the English language as a Teutonic tongue.

Relevant categories of F*þ-words in the Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ


In his book Tiw (1861) the author William Barnes claims that the English vocabulary has been
based on a core of approximately 50 German root words, in which numerous variants may be
generated by inserting different vowels. Barnes chose the title Tiw as the name of the god from
which the Teutonic race seemed to have taken their name.
Relevant categories of F*þ- and FutiR-words are listed in the Tiw-vocabulary of William Barnes4:
(1) to feed up, (2) fat, (3) father, (4) fodder, (5) foster, (6) wod, (7) fud, (8) butt, (9) futter,
(10) fetter, but probably for prudery the genitals fud & butt (female and male) and futter
(copulation) as well as “fat” and “feed up” are missing.
The important entries “wit” and “witness” (Dutch “weten”, German “wissen” are missing in Barnes'
view of the English as a Teutonic tongue.
In the overview in Barnes' Tiw (1861) I found other categories of relevant F*þ-words, such as
“fetter”, “feet”, “with”, “widow”, etc.
All these elements are concentrated in a single runic word FutiR. Probably Faþir also may have
been included in this root word
These words will be included in the following overview of the Header section. One of the words
(“Fut”) may also be found in the previous table 1, but will also be included in the following table:

Section Runic Translation Meaning Common sources: Source link for


Root FutiR (& Faþir) FutiR (& Faþir)
(FutiR) & Wiktionary
H 61 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ To feed up to feed up To feed
H 62 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ fat well-fed Fat
H 63 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ father “seed”-father father
progenitor
H 64 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ food, food Fōdor
fodder (Old English)
H 65 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ foster Foster-father foster Runen-Sprach-Schatz
(“Feed”-father) Dieterich - 1840
H 66 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ wod, woad, Wod, wode, wode Wod, wode, wode
wude (→ furious, frantic )
H 67 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ fodr, fud Private parts fud
Fud (female)
H 68 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ butt Private parts butt
(male & female)
H 69 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ futter To copulate from Latin futuo
H 70 ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ fetter Fetter (restriction) fetter
Table 2: The words to be derived from the FutiR-rune
Runic Dictionary - Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ in Forward Reading Mode

4 Notes to the book TIW


Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ) in Backward Reading Mode
The header section in Backward Reading Mode may be split up into:
1. Tiw, Tuw, Teiws, Ziu / Zîo , Tuesday, Ziischtig, tíwesdæg, tow, touw
2. two, twee, zwei, Tuihanti, twine, twijn, Zwirn,
3. Odin, which as a runic word may be started a the fourth rune *ansuz (“O”) and from the
right to the left uses the runes: ᚨ (“O”) - ᚦ (“th”) ᚢ (“u”) ᚠ (digamma: “w”). In the Icelandic
rune poem, the name óss for the fourth rune ᚩ refers to Odin.

Section Runic Translation Meaning Source Source link


Root
H 10 ᚦᚢᚠ Tiw Týr / Tiwaz (Mars) Wikipedia Tuw (→ (Old English)
H 12 ᚦᚢᚠ Tuw God (Sky-god) Taaldacht (NL) Tuw (→ Dutch)
H 13 ᚦᚢᚠ Teiws God (Sky-god) Taaldacht (NL) Tuw (→ Gothic)
H 14 ᚦᚢᚠ Ziu / Zîo Týr / Tiwaz (Mars) Wikipedia Týr (Old High German)
H 21 ᚦᚢᚠ Tuesday Tiw's Day Wikipedia Tuesday (English)
H 22 ᚦᚢᚠ Ziischtig Tiw's Day Wikipedia Ziischtig (Alemannic)
H 23 ᚦᚢᚠ tíwesdæg Tiw's Day Wikipedia Etymology (Old English)
H 31 ᚦᚢᚠ tow untwisted bundle wiktionary tow (Old English)
of fibers
H 32 ᚦᚢᚠ touw untwisted bundle wiktionary tow (Middle Low
of fibers German )

H 41 ᚦᚠᚢ two two PIE *duwo two (adj.)


H 42 ᚦᚠᚢ twee two PIE *duwo two (adj.)
H 43 ᚦᚠᚢ zwei two PIE *duwo two (adj.)
H 44 ᚦᚠᚢ Tuihanti Germanic tribe Wikipedia Twente
H 51 ᚦᚠᚢ twine twisted dual thread PIE *dwo- "2" Twine (English)
to twist strands
H 52 ᚦᚠᚢ twijn twisted dual thread PIE *dwo- "2" Twine (Dutch)
H 53 ᚦᚠᚢ Zwirn twisted dual thread PIE *dwo- "2" Twine (German)

H 60 ᚨ ᚦ ᚢ ᚠ Odin Wodan
Table 3 Runic Dictionary - Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ ) in Backward Reading Mode
A-I-Ω Body section (ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ….) in Forward & Backward Reading Mode
Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚨ. The Anglo-
Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a rune into three independent runes due to the
development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are ōs ᚩ
(transliterated o), ac "oak" ᚪ (transliterated a), and æsc ᚫ "ash" (transliterated æ).

The A-I-Ω vowel-structure is marked in purple. The divine names, the first man from an “ash” and
planetary names are marked yellow.
Proto-Germanic Old English Old Norse
Name *Ansuz Ōs Āc Æsc Óss
"god" "god" "oak" "ash" "god"
Elder Futhark Futhorc Younger Futhark
Shape

Unicode ᚨ ᚩ ᚪ ᚫ ᚬ ᚭ
Transliteration a o a æ o
Transcription a o a æ ą, o
Position in row 4 4 25 26 4
Table 4 The split of the Elder Futhark “a”- rune into three independent runes
(from Wikipedia's *Ansuz (rune)
In Old English the creation of the first male man "ash" (ᚫ) from “god” (ᚪ) uses “equivalent” runic
letters. The A-I-Ω vowel-structure starts with the “A”-character for “god” (ᚪ) or “Odin” and the
"ash" (ᚫ) character for the first male creature, which suggests to consider the first Man as an image
of the Creator.
Section Runic Translation Meaning Source Source link
B 01 ᚨ, ᚩ *ansuz Vowel A/O Futhark Elder Futhark
The god Odin
B 02 ᚫ ash Ash (1st male Man) Futhark Elder Futhark
B 03 ᛇ *ī(h)waz/ Vowel I Futhark Elder Futhark
*ei(h)waz yew-tree
B 04 ᛊᛋ *sōwilō Sun Futhark Elder Futhark
B 05 ᛏ *tīwaz tyz < *tius Futhark Elder Futhark
the god Týr
B 06 ᛗ *mannaz Man Futhark Elder Futhark
B 07 ᛜᛝ *ingwaz Yngvi (→ Frey) Futhark Elder Futhark
B 08 ᛟ *ōþila-/ Vowel Ω Futhark Elder Futhark
*ōþala- heritage, possession

B 11 ᚦᚩᚱ Þor The God Thor


B 12 ᚱᚩᚦ Rod The God Rod ninth century Rod and Deivos
B 13 ᚲ ᚱ ᚩ ᚦ Crodo The God Krodo Saxon Chronicle Rod
by C. Bote (1492)
Table 5 A-I-Ω Body section (ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ….) in Forward & Backward Reading Mode
Conclusion

The role of the Futhark alphabet


The header section in Backward Reading Mode lists various runes such as *fehu, *thurisaz, *ansuz
as references to deities such as Frey, Thor and Odin.
• The “runes” are named „vitha“, as a derivation of an image „*vid / *vit“ or probably “wit”
(“knowledge”).
• The words witan, wite, witan refer to „wit“ and „wisdom“.
• The words vet, vida refer to eternity and the wooden trees.
• The words við, Ƿid / við, vid / wit, við refer to the dual form of the personal pronouns for the
1st person.
• The words fut, Fut, fut, Fut, Fout’, Vut ot Vutt refer to procreation.
• The names Vidvut, Vides, Ƿidland, Víðarr, St. Vitus, Widukind and Vidovit refer to various
regions, gods, saints respectively visionary leaders of the community.
At least 10 relevant categories of F*þ- respectively FutiR-words are listed in the Tiw-vocabulary of
William Barnes5:
(1) to feed up, (2) fat, (3) father, (4) fodder, (5) foster, (6) wod, (7) fud, (8) butt, (9) futter,
(10) fetter, but probably for prudery the genitals fud & butt (female and male) and futter
(copulation) as well as “fat” and “feed up” are missing.
The header section in Backward Reading Mode may be split up into a few categories:
• Tiw, Tuw, Teiws, Ziu / Zîo , Tuesday, Ziischtig, tíwesdæg, tow, touw,
• two, twee, zwei, Tuihanti, twine, twijn, Zwirn,
• Odin, which as a runic word may be started a the fourth rune *ansuz (“O”) and from the
right to the left uses the runes: ᚨ (“O”) - ᚦ (“th”) ᚢ (“u”) ᚠ (digamma: “w”). In the Icelandic
rune poem, the name óss for the fourth rune ᚩ refers to Odin.
The body section represents Odin & Ash (as Vowel A/O), the yew-tree (as Vowel I), the Sun, Týr,
Man, the god Yngvi (→ Frey) and the terminal vowel Ω.
• In Old English the creation of the first male man "ash" (ᚫ) from “god” (ᚪ) uses “equivalent”
runic letters.
• The A-I-Ω vowel-structure starts with the “A”-character for “god” (ᚪ) or “Odin” and the
"ash" (ᚫ) character for the first male creature, which suggests to consider the first Man as an
image of the Creator.
• Locally the creation legend may have symbolized the unified Man as Æ, in which A = Ask
and E = Embla, which explains why the western, northern and southwestern Norwegian
dialects and the western Danish dialects of Thy and Southern Jutland, use the ligature æ as a
significant first person singular pronoun I6.
• The rune ᛇ (yew-tree) may represent the center of the A-I-Ω body section, in which the yew-
tree may represent the Yggdrasil pillar for the universe, which in the course of time was
considered as a risk of causing a collapse of the world.
These details had been encoded in and may be derived from the alphabet's structure. The
harmonious composition and the perfect design of the alphabet seems to be well-thought.

5 Notes to the book TIW


6 Other Germanic languages in Wikipedia æ
The role of the dual form “wit” (“we two”)
Especially the dual form “wit” (“we two”) seems to play a dominant role in the cooperation and
associating social behavior of matrimonial couples as well as in a dissociating concurrency between
rivals. Both associating and dissociating forces had been ruled by symbolic prepositions (the
associating “mid” and the dissociating “wid”).
Only in English language the dissociating dissociating “wid” transformed 7 in a associating “with”-
symbol8:
In Middle English, the word wiþ (“against, opposite, toward”) shifted to denote association
rather than opposition, displacing Middle English mid (“with”), from Old English mid
(“with”), from Proto-Germanic *midi, cognate with Old-Frisian mith (“with”), Modern
Frisian mei (“with”), Old Norse með (“with”), Icelandic með (“with”), Dutch met (“with”)
and German mit (“with”). 9
In the philosophical duels between Homer, Hesiod and Heraclitus the youngest (Heraclitus)
ultimately explains the true character of Eris.
In one of his latest essays “About the Dual Form” („Über den Dualis“, 1828) Wilhelm von
Humboldt issues a warning, that we should not consider the dual form as a superfluous luxury in
linguistics. The dual form contributes to the precision in internal relations between words and
enhances the impressive and expressive powers.10
Von Humboldt however does not really explain the fundamental backgrounds of the dual forms,
which may be concentrated in the 3-letter header-information of the runic alphabet, the identity of
the dual form “wit” („we two“) and the English word “wit” (“the Greek νοῦς or νόος ”)11.

7 This transformation took place around the Norman conquest (1066).


(The Antipodes Miᚦ and Wiᚦ)
8 The Duality in Greek and Germanic Philosophy
9 with - Wiktionary
10 Wilhelm von Humboldt: Über den Dualis. Berlin 1828.
11 The Role of the Dual Form in the Evolution of European Languages and Notes to the Philosophical “Nous”-Concept
Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Fundamental concept of the Futharc alphabet......................................................................................2
Gods.................................................................................................................................................2
The runes as an image of wit, wisdom, eternity, the dual form “we two” ......................................2
The keywords for procreation and names........................................................................................2
The Tiw- and Two-categories..........................................................................................................2
The Creation Legend.......................................................................................................................2
A = Ask & E = Embla in the ligature Æ......................................................................................2
The A-I-Ω body section with the yew-tree as an Yggdrasil pillar for the universe........................3
Vocabulary............................................................................................................................................4
Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ) in Forward Reading Mode..................................................4
The FutiR-entry in the book Runen-Sprach-Schatz.........................................................................5
Relevant categories of F*þ-words in the Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ ..................................................6
Header section ᚠ ᚢ ᚦ (including ᚨ) in Backward Reading Mode.....................................................7
A-I-Ω Body section (ᚦ ᚨ ᚱ ᚲ ….) in Forward & Backward Reading Mode.......................................8
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................9
The role of the Futhark alphabet......................................................................................................9
The role of the dual form “wit” (“we two”)...................................................................................10

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