Link to Essay I
Link to Essay II
Link to Essay III
Link to Essay V
Changes in Perception – why the rune meanings have changed
The perception of what is important in society has changed drastically over the last 1000 years alone. New ideals have sprung up, with the old ones being discarded as society moves on. The classic example of how wealth is viewed can be used to illustrate this. The runes themselves have the rune for 'wealth' or 'cattle' as the first letter, just as the Hebrew, Greek and Gothic alphabets place this before anything else.
Wealth in the modern society could mean money and a show of expensive material goods. A large house, several cars, boats and expensive hobbies are all common denominators of wealth. To the Christians of the 8th Century, wealth meant something other than material possessions. It came to mean spiritual wealth, in parallel to the saving of the human soul. With the Christian monk’s rule of poverty, material goods meant very little, what was owned was shared between the monastery. Society has changed since this system was prevalent; the values have altered until what is accepted to be valued in one place is treated as worthless in another.
Modern day people have so many goals to aim for that achievement in a single ideal is no longer regarded as unique. Education, Sport and Business all have so many different levels of understanding that to try and gain respect in any of them has become so difficult, with governing bodies, qualifications and job titles all being separate, that people have become confused about what is really relevant today.
In the 8th Century the Christian Monks knew exactly what was important to them. Amongst their highest priorities was the preservation of knowledge. They became reputed for the skills of reading, writing and illumination. They held great libraries, stores of books and endeavoured to keep as much knowledge as possible. Unfortunately, the monks also doctored the texts in their keeping. Subtle changing of words and phrases, whilst keeping the original meaning, was common practice. As the monks where commonly the only individuals allowed to read, write and have access to the texts, their altering could have been a deliberate attempt to change public belief in the past and to increase faith in the Christian system.
The Anglo-Saxon rune poem is the classic example of how the Christian monks changed the meanings of a text. As already stated, the Anglo - Saxon rune poem was copied and printed by George Hickes in 1705. (See Appendix 7, parts I – III) Although the original manuscript was destroyed by fire in 1731, the manuscript was certainly sufficiently changed by the Christian monks who copied the text from the original. Hickes supplied the rune names and their equivalent in Roman letters, it is generally assumed that the original manuscript simply gave the rune shape and its use, assuming the reader would know to which word the rune referred. The rune poem has generally been considered to be a mnemonic aid usedby the monks to help them remember names and meanings which were out of use with the increase of Latin.
The rune poem is conspicuous in its non-usage of certain things. Knowledge of the Viking society and previous cultures is common and there are certain ideals, which are accepted from this time period. The role of women in society, the Viking pantheon and their perception of life after death are all well documented. Why, then, does a poem from this period make no mention of women, or extols the benefits of one god over many and mentions heaven? These points are easy to ally with the Christian values of the period.
To an 8th Century Christian monk, women where viewed as saints or whores. The mention of many gods must have been almost blasphemous; it's a wonder that the poem survived at all.
Other poems for the same period, even the other rune poems themselves have a set pattern rhythm, with numbers of lines, syllables and grammar patterns carefully controlled by the author. The Anglo - Saxon rune poem shows little of this control, with stanzas ranging from 2 - 4 lines, with one stanza having a line missing. The other rune poems are used as a measure for this.
Although women did not play an exact equal role in society, they are mentioned in the other poems. The Christian ideal of one God is frequently mentioned as if using it to cover up references to the many gods of Viking culture. This can be seen as a deliberate attempt by the Christians of the time, to cover up or alter history by using their advantage of being able to read and write. Thankfully, some of the poem survived to the present day, showing more Christian bias than original meaning.