ABSTRACT

The poem not only serves to incorporate the runic script into the mythological complex and integrate it into a sacred narrative, but in the process engages with socially relevant questions about how writing functions and what it represents. The spells, runes and mead seem to be three distinct but complementary elements in the transmission of sacred knowledge: spoken, written and 'liquid knowledge' transfer, all of which are explicitly associated with personal growth. Underlying many of the apparently sacred associations are the ordinary characteristics of writing, including its ability to name and immortalise, to record history and transcend the present, and perhaps most importantly, to convey information via visual signs that can be read privately. The power of writing is rooted in its operations, although such operations are restricted to those initiated into runar reginkunnr. The social implications of the acquisition of this technology become clearer when we turn to look at the myth of its transmission to the human world.