The monster wrenched and wrestled with him but Beowulf was mindful of his mighty strength, the wondrous gifts God had showered on him: He relied for help on the Lord of All, on His care and favour. So he overcame the foe, brought down the hell-brute.

- Beowulf.

Éar bẏþ egle eorla gehƿẏlcun,
ðonn[e] fæstlice flæsc onginneþ,
hraƿ colian, hrusan ceosan
blac to gebeddan; bleda gedreosaþ,
ƿẏnna geƿitaþ, ƿera gesƿicaþ.

Éar is horrible to every warrior,
when the corpse quickly begins to cool
and is laid in the bosom of the dark earth.
Prosperity declines, happiness passes away
and covenants are broken.

The Éar rune poem marks the final verse of the Anglo Saxon rune poem. No consistent meaning for the rune is ever really given, though the rune is associated with death, the grave or burial. The word Éar has a cognate with the Norse aurr, meaning dirt or soil. As death is inevitable, the rune may relate to the burial of the warrior in the cold earth, perhaps undignified in comparison to a kingly ship burial or warriors cremation.

Further to my previous post on the Ear rune, Grimm suggested that Ear was an extension of the Tir rune, claiming the Tir and Ear were found in the German names Zio and Eor, whom he believed were two names for the same god. Grimm cites German regional terms for Tuesday (Tīwesdæġ, Tir being Tiw’s rune) including Ertag, Iertag, Irtag and Eritag as evidence for this.

Pictured are the Anglo Saxon Tir and Ear runes.

An interesting pattern found in the Anglo Saxon runes. The runes here are ger/gær, gar and cealc/kalc.

Indeed, the burial grounds of our ancestors are classrooms, and we, the living, are their students.
To understand their wisdom, we must emulate them by silencing our minds and flesh.
Hail to the Elves and Disir.

Early mediaeval figure with swastika motif on his chest, resembling the style found on the Swastika Stone at Ilkley Moor, from the All Saints' Church, Sutton Bedfordshire.

The swastika of Sutton was obviously a symbol worn on a garment of a dancer sacred to Woden - Nigel Pennick.

It is always the custom at our larger folk-moots to hold a symbel. Two important aspects of this is that a female carries the drinking horn around and that she carries it sunwise.

The role is given to a female as she represents the wælcyrie and she given the name ealu-bora or ale-bearer. Passing the horn around sunwise invokes luck. The opposite of this is widdershins, also called rangsælis in Icelandic. In OE words like wiþerweard had a similar meaning. To go anti-sunwise is to invoke bad luck. A number of the Icelandic sagas tell of seiðkona who invoked harm on their victims by walking around their dwelling in a rangsælis or widdershin direction chanting runes and spells.

Mugwort is named as the first herb in the Nine Herbs Charm. Also called Una which means ‘one’ or ‘the first’. It’s commonly thought that the name comes from mug-wort, as a herb used to flavour ales or used to brew ale in its own right. But for those who use mugwort in their rituals, you’ll know it can be burnt as an incense (like sage) and has a pungent but pleasant smell. Nowadays the herb has another name, ‘dreamweed’ because of the association mugwort has with inducing vivid dreams. An eleventh century Anglo-Saxon herb blessing reads this about mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris is the Latin name) -

‘The root, Worn as an amulet bestowed health and strength.
Artemisia is mighty among herbs!
If you fear magic, hang four bundles
In your room, and demons or other bad things will not harm you
Your children or the cattle...’

The Old English Rune Poem (OERP) stops with the Ear rune. In the book Eagle’s Mead, author Eirik Westcoat pens another four verses for the runes cweorð, calc, stān and gār, sometimes referred to as the ‘grail’ runes.

Cweorð byþ cweorna sum and se cwica fýres;
bēam hēo byrneð, bǣr-fǣġne þeġn;
sāwle hēo lȳseð, þe sēċoð rodor.

Querth is a sort of quern and the quickener of fire. It burns a tree, a thane doomed to the bier. It releases a soul, which seeks the heavens.

Calc byþ cūþ wel – cēnum wōðborum
swā se hālga horn, hefiģ mid lēoðum,
nýdfull æt symble; þes naca dweorga,
weģ-winn Wōdnes, byþ wynsum grāl.

Cup is known well by keen bearers of inspiration and madness as the holy horn, heavy with poems and necessary at sumbel. This boat of dwarves, a journey-gain of Woden, is a winsome grail.

Stān byþ strangest - swā stede-bletsung
ģif ģehālgod write, hǣðenum rūnum:
hearga ǣċe; þēos heorte eotenes
līf-ģifende tācn, byþ langsum grāl.

Stone is strongest as a blessing for a place if hallowed with writing, with heathen runes: an eternal altar. This heart of the etin, a life-giving sign, is an enduring grail.

Gār byþ gum-dōm, gūðwuda drȳ-wiga:
wyrde hē wealdeð, wæl hē ćēoseð,
blōd hē bēodeð; þes brand Wōdnes,
unģemetum ēaċen, byþ æðele grāl.

Spear is man’s sovereignty and a sorcerous hero of battle-woods. It rules over wyrd, it chooses the slain, it summons blood. This fiery brand of Woden, immeasurably powerful, is a noble grail.

Hanging was said to be introduced to these isles by the Anglo Saxons, the last person to be hanged was August 13, 1964. It is a death we associated with Woden, Lord of the Gallows, who himself hung on the wind swept tree. There are a number of places in England which derive their name from the fact they had gallows, Gallow Field for example. The OE for gallows was ġealga however the wulfhéafodtréo or wulf-head-tree was also an OE kenning for them. Interestingly the OE term Warg, ON Vargr (meaning outlaw) comes from the word wargaz ‘strangler’ itself from wargh meaning to choke or strangle.

Some of Woden’s bynames reveal him to be the Gallow’s Burden. Hangaguð and Hangatýr are his names and both mean God of the Hanged.

Old English poem ‘The Fortunes of Men’ from the Exeter Book;

Sum sceal on geapum galgan ridan,
seomian æt swylte, oþþæt sawlhord,
bancofa blodig, abrocen weorþeð.
þær him hrefn nimeþ heafodsyne,
sliteð salwigpad sawelleasne;
noþer he þy facne mæg folmum biwergan,
laþum lyftsceaþan, biþ his lif scæcen,
ond he feleleas, feores orwena,
blac on beame bideð wyrde,
bewegen wælmiste. Bið him werig noma!

One must ride the gaping gallows,
hang to death, until his soul-hoard,
his bloody bone-coffer, becomes broken.
There on the gallows the raven takes his eye,
the dark-cloaked one tears at the soulless;
nor is he able to ward off that evil,
that loathsome thief of the air,
with his hands-- his life is fled,
and he, senseless, without hope of living,
pale on the tree, awaits his fate,
covered by the mists of slaughter. His name is cursed!

Hjúki and Bil are two children who became servants of Máni (OE Mōna) the moon god. They carry between them a pole called Simul from which hangs a pail called Sæg. Bil is later listed as a goddess in both Gylfaginning and Skáldskaparmál and is believed to be the same figure as Bilwis, a female corn spirit.

The names Hjúki and Bil survive in the traditional English nursery rhyme ‘Jack and Jill’. In the rhyme Jack and Jill climb a hill to fetch a pail of water, whilst in Norse myth they collect water from the well Byrgir, that is until Jack falls down and broke his crown. This is a reflection of the name Hjúki, which (according to Simek) means ‘the one returning to health’.

It's the full moon today. Some calendars will refer to it as the Æftera Liða full moon. The name buck-moon is of Amerindian origin but there are examples of Germanic names for this moon, including hay moon and berry moon. The OE Æftera Liða refers to the second Liða month (Ærra Liða and Æfterra Liða fall roughly either side of the sunstede). Those of us in England will know it's been a very hot and dry summer so far, so tonight my family hearth will make libations to Thunor in hope of a summer storm and some rain!

Wæs þu Thunor hāl!

Ginungagap Mead for our Thunor offerings, courtesy of Heathen Carvings.

August is the month the grain harvest was bought in from the fields. So big was this task that everyone including children would help bring the harvest in, which is why the English school holidays fall in August.

The celebration of Hlafmæsse or Loaf-Mass fell on August 1st, is known today as Lammas. As it falls halfway between the sunstede and equinox the origin of this observation was likely heathen.

Béowa and Béole appear in the Lokasenna as Byggvir and Beyla and both are servants of Fréa. Béowa means barley and his name has also been recorded as Beaw, Bēow, Beo and Bedwig, whilst Béole is meant to mean either bean or bee.

Hāl Béowa and Béole!