About Runic Texts Shown on the Left Menu (200 BCE to 720 CE)

(April 1, 2023)

1. 279 CE - Romans begin retreat from the Rhine delta lands

2. 400 CE - Land mostly depopulated

3. 500 CE - Repopulation by people defined as Anglo-Saxon coming from coastal Denmark, Germany, and possibly Norway.  Word "Angle" seems to come from the Akkadian phrase A.NaG meaning "those of the coast."

4. 670 CE - Pagan Frisian kingdom ruled by kings Aldgils and Redbad enters the Christian historical record when they come into conflict with the Christian Frankish kingdom which is trying to expand northwards. This is the beginning of the Northern Christian Pagan War.

5. 719 CE - Death of king Redbad. Franks conquer most of Frisia and start forcible Christian conversions. This is when Elder Futhark ceases to be written in favor Younger Futhark which is in their native language (Earliest Old Frisian/Norse/German)

6. 754 CE - Death of Saint Boniface after he cut down a Druid sacred oak called Thunar's Oak. This was an oak representing the boundary crossing power of the hermaphrodite deity Thu or more specifically the magical motion "powers of Thu" written as Thunu.

7. 805 CE - Christian conquest complete. Conquerors record of existing law codes in the Lex Frisionum dated to 800 CE.

8. 810 CE - First Viking raids which at first seems to be a continuation of the Pagan/Christian religious war.

9. 920 CE - Christianity victorious

10. 1100 CE - Local monks begin writing in Latin

Old Norse to English Dictionary by Cleasby & Vigfusson

Online version of the classic Old Norse / Old Icelandic dictionary by Richard Cleasby & Gudbrand Vigfusson, originally published in 1874. It is the largest Old Norse to English dictionary. Containing over 35,000 entries with English definitions. Online at: https://cleasby-vigfusson-dictionary.vercel.app/

English to Old Norse Dictionary At "The Vikings of Bjornstad" 

https://www.vikingsofbjornstad.com/Old_Norse_Dictionary_E2N.shtm#b

(July 8, 2023) The importance of horses to the Indo-Europeans would be reflected in their ritual centers and later European (Druid and Indo-European) ritual centers where decentralized tribalism remained the main form of social organization instead of centralized empires around the Mediterranean.

The reason the steppe people of Eurasia were  involved with the horse was because horses could survive their winters. They had the behavior of using their hooves to break through thin layers of snow and ice to get at the vegetation. Cattle don't do this. Bison can survive deep snows but not ice because they use their heads to push aside the snow which is why they have such big heads and necks. Bison can survive in regions with deeper snowfall than horses.

Consequently, their primary use of horses was for food and milk. Only later were they adapted for transport and warfare because they turned out to be faster than cattle. Yet the Druid cattle were found to be more productive in terms of milk and meat production. 

The Indo-Europeans also seem to been the first to use crop rotation in order to keep the same plots of land fertile. This also manured their fields since one of the rotations was pasturing.  In contrast, Druid culture was based upon slash and burn agriculture. This made the Indo-European farming much more productive than found in Druid Culture.  

(August 3, 2023) We do not really know many of the Old Norse names for the heavenly bodies and constellations which they used despite their many Pagan texts. This is because even these texts tended to use Latin and Greek names. Yet they must have used stars to navigate across the various seas.

The existence of a Norse calendar is mentioned in the Icelandic chronicle “Íslendingabók” (c 1000 CE) regarding the Icelander's adoption of the Roman Julian calendar between 700 and 1000 CE. This text indicates that the Icelanders were aware that the motions of the sun to define the year did not perfectly match the 12 periods of the moon which divided up the year. 

In Völuspa in the Eddas the origin of the stars and planets are mentioned, as well as their end at Ragnarök. The world was created from the body of the giant Ymer (Akkadian IMu-er = "emotion-maker"). His skull forms the firmament and is held in place by four dwarves, where sparks from Muspellheim (Akkadian MS.PL-realm = "realm of the night.rulers") form the stars. Their place in the sky was determined by the gods and some were given paths they will roam.

In prosaic Edda, which is a textbook on writing poetry, we find more stories where stars are mentioned. As in the Greek mythology, stories explain how they ended up in the sky.

In Skáldskaparmál, the story of Tjatse is told. Tjatse managed, with the assistance of Loki, to kidnap Idun, the keeper of the apples of youth, from Asgard. Loki managed to save her but was pursued by Tjatse who got killed. Tjatse's daughter Skade came and demanded compensation for her father. The compensation included among other things a husband. In addition Odin or Thor placed Tjatse's eyes in the sky.

• Tjatse (Akkadian T.IT.S = Astronomy-magic.Omens.Su or "Astrological-omens from Su" where Su is the dark new moon god surround by the celestial light goddess Selene). So the eyes of Tjatse were the bright and new moons.

The other story where a star or constellation is mentioned is in the epilogue of the fight between Thor and the giant Hrungne. Thor was injured in the fight, and a small piece of stone got stuck in his head. In order to get it out, he sought help from a Vala, a type of oracle, named Groa. When Thor felt that the stone were coming out, he told Groa that he helped her husband Aurvandil, to escape from the land of the giants. During the escape Aurvandil froze his big toe, which Thor broke off and threw into the sky to become a star or a constellation, Aurvandil's toe. This made Groa so happy that she forgot her magic, and Thor still has that piece of stone in his head.

”Aurvandil's toe” is most likely the Corona Borealis, partly because of the likeness with a toe. But there are also other indications making this identification the most likely. Corona Borealis is a spring constellation, which is of importance. In ”Gesta danorum" written by Saxo Grammaticus [4], one finds a story of a King, Horwendil, who is fighting a duel with a Norwegian king, Koller (cold). The duel ends with Horwendil cutting off Koller's foot and thus killing him. This story is probably based on an old myth of the fight between seasons, making Koller's foot or “Aurvandil's toe” a sign of spring or summers victory over the cold winter. 

While not a constellation the rainbow is related. In the Eddas the rainbow is called "Bifrost" In the north-western European traditions the rainbow is the road of the dead. This road in Norse mythology called the road to Hel. But the rainbow is also the road to the “other” world. The name Bifrost originates from two Indo-European words, bif, meaning "shimmering" or "trembling," and rost meaning "road." In the poetic Edda, Bifrost is described as the shimmering road and as the road to Asgard. The spirit Heimdall  (Akkadian ""Realm-DaLu" meaning "realm of water-transport") is the guardian of Bifrost. He lives in a house ”high up in the sky.”  This indicates Bifrost is the rainbow.  

References

Jonas Persson (2003-2023) Norse Constellations. Online at: https://www.digitaliseducation.com/resources-norse.html

References used by Person:

1. Roslund Curt, Stjärn-Oddi: En vikingatida astronom på Island, Astronomisk årsbok, s 28, 1984 (in Swedish)

2. Beckman, N. and Kålund, Kr. (1914-16). Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklo-pædisk litteratur: II. Rímtöl [Encyclopaedic literature on the calendar]. s 48-53 (in Swedish).

3. Richard Hinckley Allen, Star Names; Their lore and meaning

4. Saxo Grammaticus, ”Gesta danorum" (In Latin)Rudolf Simek, The Dictionary of Northen Mythology

5. Jan de Vries, Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte (in German)

6. Beckman, N. and Kålund, Kr. (1914-16). Alfræði íslenzk: Islandsk encyklo-pædisk litteratur: II. Rímtöl [Encyclopaedic literature on the calendar]. s 72. (in Swedish)

7. Gislason, K. Fire og fyrretyve for en stor Deel forhen utrykte Prøver af oldnordisk Sprog og Litteratur. (København: Gyldendalska bogh. 1860) (in Danish)