Rune 9:
Hagalaz
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I can't believe I'm now starting on the Second Aett of the Elder Futhark.
Time is indeed flying by! Looks like this is a highly auspicious, or at least
a very fitting time for me to write this article! While Hagalaz literally
means "hail" as in ice balls falling from the sky, its secondary meanings
include snowflake, bad weather, and storms. Even as I am writing this, I'm
sitting here surrounded on all sides by about some 18 inches of snow.
For Central Kentucky, this is quite unusual. The place has been virtually
shut down for days! I'm blaming "El Nino", that weather phenomenon which
was named quite fittingly in this Heathen's biased and perhaps somewhat jaundiced
opinion, on the "Christ Child." Floods! Landslides! Or, in the words of Bugs
Bunny's nemesis, the cartoon character Elmer Fudd (wearing a horned helmet,
no less): "Awise, Stowm! Nowf Wind bwow! West Wind bwow! Typhoon! Huwwicane!
Eawfquake! Smog!" El Nino is Hagalaz in action, in other words. [ed.
note: Cartoon title - "What's Opera, Doc"]
The phonetic value of this first rune of the Second Aett is the same as the
modern English "H." Most Germanic languages kept this word in something fairly
close to its original form, while dropping the -az noun ending. The Old English
Rune Poem, the Old Norse Rune Rhyme, and the Old Icelandic Rune Poem all
contain verses for this rune, since unlike a number of others, it carried
over into the Younger Futhark. All three poems refer to hail as a grain,
either white grain or cold grain, both of which are apt descriptions as the
roundish to oval hailstones, especially the smaller ones, do indeed resemble
seeds! The Old English Rune Poem refers to how hail melts away. This happens
quite quickly in warm Summer weather, which is when most hailstorms occur.
The Old Icelandic Rune Poem talks about how hail makes snakes ill or destroys
them, even though there are not, nor have there ever been, snakes in Iceland!
This bit of wisdom no doubt was brought over from Norway, which amazingly
does actually have a few snakes and from whence most of the first Icelanders
came, either directly or by way of Ireland (another snakeless place!) Cold
weather is indeed rough on cold-blooded reptiles, and a snake caught out
in an open field could easily be killed by hail. This rune has some ties
with Asa-Thorr. Thor is very swift to act, whether for our good or Jotuns'
ill. Hail seems to come out of nowhere: big chunks of ice, out of the sky,
usually in hot weather. Thor is associated with storms, not just thunder
and lightning, and the myths refer to hail coming from the wheels of Thor's
chariot. Think of a speeding car on a dirt road kicking up gravel, or in
this case, hail. Hail kills snakes, and Thor kills big snakes, like the Midgard
Serpent!
This rune also is related to accidents, sudden change, unexpected disaster,
rain, and even windfall (unexpected good). Think of hail knocking apples
off trees (the origin of the term "windfall"; that is, stuff knocked down
by wind) and onto the ground where you can get them. "Windfall" in Icelandic
is "hvalreki" or "whale-beaching" (Whale on the beach? Ouch, Jordsvin, it's
diet time!). Apples don't grow in Iceland, but storms (a manifestation of
Hagalaz) do wash whales ashore there, and they were and perhaps still are
eaten. That's how the whalebone for the Northumbrian "Franks Casket" (named
for the guy who found it, not the Frankish tribe) was obtained (in England,
not Iceland).
In Vinland, a Heathen prayed to Thor and a whale washed up when the doughty
and unfortunately mostly Christianized Greenland Viking explorers were starving.
Everyone was feasting happily on this "hvalreki" until the Heathen reminded
them Thor delivered the goods when Jesus couldn't. Then the Christians got
sick and threw their meat over a cliff. Betcha a whaleburger that the meat
was perfectly fine and it was their fear of their newly-imported and highly
jealous Deity that gave them upset tummies!
Hagalaz ties in with Nauthiz. Hail can ruin crops. Even after it melts away,
the damage is still there. Ruined crops, for an agricultural people, can
quickly lead to need and poverty (meanings of Nauthiz, next month's rune)
or worse. They didn't have the emergency resources available today. Still,
Hagalaz can be difficult to deal with, whether you wreck your car in bad
weather or just lose a couple of days' pay because you are snowed in, as
my life parter just did. Fortunately, I'm on salary!
However, Hagalaz, like Thurisaz, can be used magickally to break Nauthiz.
If Thurisaz is a rifle, shooting bullets right on target, then Hagalaz is
a shotgun, shooting many tiny but dangerous pellets which can scatter widely.
Shrapnel from a grenade works on a similar principle. You get the point:
aim Hagalaz with the greatest of care. Like Thurisaz, it is a difficult rune
in magickal workings.
Hagalaz can really upset the applecart. Things are often never the same again.
This can be good and/or bad, depending on how YOU react to it!
Sometimes you can turn apparent disaster into a new opportunity, even one
with vast horizons. Wind often accompanies hailstorms, and "it's an ill wind
that blows no good" to someone, somewhere. For example, the decay of Christianity
has in some ways destabilized Western society, and brought about a decline
in morals. However, it has also given folks much more freedom, which has
in many but unfortunately not all cases been wisely used, and has even made
possible the public Pagan/Heathen revival!
If Hagalaz is moving ice, then Isa (which comes after Nauthiz in the Futhark,
or runic alphabet) is stationary ice, blocking your way. This is another
polarity worth meditating on. Thorr Sheil associates Hagalaz with mass
advertising (distributed randomly, think of junk mail and even worse, junk
e-mail for porno web sites), bombings (out of the sky, like hail), and even
ambulances (swift aid to the victim of an unexpected disaster).
Directionally, Thorr Sheil associates Hagalaz with the East. (I'm guessing
that this is due to East being the direction of Elemental Air, an important
ingredient of storms. Storms themselves usually come out of the West, due
to the Earth's rotation, or so my life partner, an amateur meteorologist,
assures me) . By the way, the other "directional" runes are Thurisaz (South,
Elemental Fire), Ansuz (North, the holy direction in our Tradition, I've
noticed most Heathens face North when praying; Ansuz means a Heathen God;
this is the rune for Elemental Earth), and Laguz (West, Elemental Water).
These "directional" interpretations are probably influenced by non-Norse
magickal systems but I have still found them useful. Thorr Sheil was trained
in an oral tradition, and in most cases, his material is LESS influenced
by "other" magickal systems than are the writings of "those other" Heathen
writers; the "directional" runes being a rather rare exception.
I'll close this article with a few more observations from Thorr Sheil. He
has noticed, as I have also, that the Younger Futhark form of the rune Hagalaz
is shaped like a snowflake in that it has six rays. For those unfamiliar
with the Younger Futhark, think of Gebo superimposed over Isa. Thorr Sheil
says this design is in Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Signs as a protective symbol.
The Hex signs evidently contain hidden runic elements. What better way to
hide Heathen runework than as quaint, harmless "folk art"? By the way, that
six-armed whatchamacallit is also on ambulances....
However, Sheil warns us that seed-like appearance to the contrary, Hagalaz
is NOT a "cosmic seed" as some modern Runesters assert. I've done some
dirt-farming in my day and I can back Sheil up on this one: hailstones DON'T
sprout! They just smash your prize crops and then melt quietly away.
May you always be able to turn this rune's often difficult aspects to your
favor, or at least deflect the worst of their force! Hagalaz is deeper than
it looks! The runes are like that. If you ever become bored by them, it's
your fault, not theirs!
My friend Pam C. has this to say about the Rune Hagalaz. She refers
to the Rune by its later name, and is right about dandelions. The sun
never sets on the Kingdom of the Dandelion; but on the bright side, they're
edible!:
"I remember Audrey (Sheil) getting very excited over Hagal one day as she
was caught in a hail storm on her way home. But Hagal is there in the dandelion
puff suddenly caught in a gust (to a gardener that IS
destructive)."
Works consulted: The Road to Bifrost Volume III: The Runes and Holy Signs,
by Thorr and Audrey Sheil. As I have mentioned before, my runework is based
on Thorr Sheil's, supplemented with my own personal work and extensive reading.
I also used At the Well of Wyrd: A Handbook of Runic Divination by Edred
Thorsson for its translations of the Rune Poems. These alone are well worth
the price of the book. You can order it from Samuel Weiser, Inc., the publisher,
or directly from the author's own Runa-Raven Press, thus enabling Edred to
profit more from his hard work. Runa-Raven can be reached at
RUNO@aol.com,
and has many other fine books for sale.
See you next month, hopefully in better weather!
all works used by permission of the authors
last modified
01/13/2004