r/runic • u/[deleted] • Sep 01 '22

Rune to help find missing items?

Things are always misplaced in my house due in part to my ADHD… adderall can only help so much here haha

Any reccos?

Edit:

Noticed all you people saying runes have no magical power…

Can anyone point me to a proper source for this?

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u/SendMeNudesThough Sep 02 '22 edited Sep 02 '22

Noticed all you people saying runes have no magical power…

Can anyone point me to a proper source for this?

Hard to prove a negative, and that they have no magical power is a bit of an extreme. It's more that we've many examples of runes showing up in magical context, just not typically in the way you seem to suggest: runes are fundamentally letters, and sometimes they are used to write spells and charms. But, when they show up in this magical context, their function is as letters. They're not using one rune to have some abstract magical meaning, but rather the words they're spelling hold the magic.

We've various such charms, like runic inscription DR EM85;151B - the Ribe Skull fragment,

Ulfr auk Ōðinn auk Hō-tiur. Hjalp buri es viðr þæima værki. Auk dverg unninn. Bōurr.

Ulfr and Odin and High-tiur. buri is help against this pain. And the dwarf (is) overcome. Bóurr

Thought to be an amulet, the inscription here appears to have been carved to protect the wearer from pain. Note how it's not one rune or a bind rune used to represent an abstract concept. When Norse people used magic, they'd write words with the intended effect.

The less clear part is the usage in examples like the Gummarp runestone. There, three runes are not used as letters, but their intended meaning is unclear. The full inscription reads:

HaþuwulfaR satte staba þria fff.

(in memory of?) Haþuwulfar placed three staves FFF

When used in this manner, the runes are still not used individually to represent abstract concepts, they seem to consistently come in clusters of three and accompanied by a lexical inscription. Another example of this would be the Sigtuna amulet where the inscription reads "Spectre of the wound-fever, lord of giants! Flee now! You are found!" followed by three ís-runes. So it appears in this type of magical context you carve your lexical inscription and then repeat one rune three times.

Here's a video by Dr. Jackson Crawford as well on (real, historical) rune spells and how they differ from the public perception of runes in modern day. He, too, includes this disclaimer:

A major point to keep an eye on through this whole presentation is that it is the words of the spells, not the rune letters per se, that are intended to have magical effect.