In order to understand the meaning of Runes is important to have a deep knowledge of Nordic Mythology and Litterature, where we can find important references and quotations about their use.

Rediscovering the Runes brings us to an ancestral but actual wisdom, because the world of Archetypes which Runes are deeply involved with, is part of the collective unconscious of past and present humanity.
 

Nordic deities are not seen as perfect and unreachable creatures; they have all the faults and the imperfections of human beings, they cannot avoid the Wyrd, the force of the cosmic justice, similar to Karma, that urges them to face the consequences of their actions, confronting also with death, that comes for everyone into the terrible Ragnarok, the twilight of the Gods.

The main sources of our knowledge related to the German religion are: the chronicles of Latin authors (specifically the “De Germania” by Tacit, written around 98 A.D.)

"Vitae" of the missionaries, edited beteween the Lower Roman Empire and High Middle Age;

Icelandic compositions called "Poetic Edda" (anonymous anthology of carms dated IV°- V° Century A.D., but compiled on the second half of the XIII°Century) and the "Prose Edda" (composed by Snorri Sturluson about 1220 circa);

Scaldi poetry, based upon the common German inheritance and featured by the use of the so called kenningar, or poetic metaphors (IX°-XIV° Century A.D.);

The famous 'Norsen sagas' (XII°-XIII° Century), with heroic tales, unique in their genre; they are the basis of the modern novel;

We can also add the “Danorum Gesta”, by Saxo Grammaticus, written between XII° and XIII° Century A.D.

Other sources are the genealogies of Norwegian kings: the chronicles of viking sites in Iceland and Greenland

Tales of non-Scandinavian travellers, as the arab Ibn Fadlan;

The Christian authors, as Adam of Bremen; and toponyms, numismatic, popular ballads and iconography.

Cosmogony

The Myth of Creation

The poem Voluspa tells us which was the origin of the world and how the world of Gods was made.

At the beginning of times when there was no sea, nor earth, neither the sky, the universe was an immense empty precipice, the Ginnungagap, the abyss of the abysses.

North from Ginnungagap, there was the Niflheim ('house of the mist'), the region of eternal ice, dominated by freeze and fog.

At the South of the world there was the flaming Muspellheim ('the house of the world destroyers') made of fire and flames.

The first animated being was the giant Ymir, born from the ice and the fire of these two worlds, which created a very fertile steam.

From this steam also Adhumla went to light, the 'wet-nurse', the huge Cosmic Cow whose milk was Ymir's food.

He covered the entire earth and into measureless cavities of his body he hid a powerful fire that could elevate incredibly his bodily temperature. So he was called “who that can boil the mud”.

One day, while he was sleeping, he started to sweat and from this sweat drops a moltitude of monstrous beings came from: the breed of the Giants.

Meanwhile Audhumla, licking the salad ice that was her only food, created the first human being: Buri, 'the Generator', who gave birth to a son, Bor, 'the Generated'.

Bor had a relation with Bestla, a Giantess; she gave life to three sons, the first Gods: Odin, Vili and Vè. They had a terrible fight with Ymir, managing to kill him, drawning into the bloodbath great part of the Giants.

Gods threw the enormous body of Ymir into Ginnungagap, creating the earth. Some flaming lapilli that came from Muspellheim became suddenly stars, sun and moon.

Among the pieces of Ymir in putrefaction some maggots appeared, unconscious germs of new lives. Odin and his brothers gave them intellect and conscience; from that unshaped swarn the first dwarves came to light.

With Ymir's skull they made the sky dome.

Four dwarves held on the enormous dome in correspondance of the four cardinal points: Austri, Vestri, Nordhi and Sudhri.

Their names stand for the four cardinal points. From flesh they got the earth, with bones the mountains, with teeth they made rocks and stones, with hair all kind of trees.

From his blood they made the sea and every type of waters, with his skull the skydome, with the brain they made the clouds.

The three sons of Bor, while having a walk on the beach, found two tree trunks; with them they made human shapes.

Odin gave them life and soul; Vili the intellect and Vé the five senses. The man was called "Askr" (Ash tree), while the woman was called "Embla" (Elm).

Askr and his mate went to live in Midgard. From them the human race started to spread.

At its extreme borders the three brothers created the territory destined to giants, the Jötunheim. They built a huge wall all around that perimetrated the territory that humans gave them to be confined.

Gods lived into Asgard; there was a huge hall in which there was mead to drink, the game of chess and where they could observe the entire world from.
 
 

Asgard

The Realm of Gods

Asgard, the divine city, a sort of "Asi's enclosure" where the 'Asi' deities could reign over, guided by Odin.

Odin resides in "Valaskyalf" "the scar of the killed ones", recalling the macabre activity of the God, patron of deads in battle and suicides, that hanging on a tree, vowed their life to him. From his high throne, called "Hlindskyalf" he could easily see everything happen on the earth.

The God of light and innocence, Balder, lives in Breidhablik, ('vast splendour'), the most luminous of the divine houses.

His son Forseti lives in Glitnir ('shining'), in a palace with golden columns and a roof in pure silver. The powerful god “Thor”, the strongest among the Gods, is also the lord of Thrudvangar ('paths of power'), where we find the Bliskimir ('the shining one') palace, the biggest building in Asgard with its 540 halls.

Njördhr, protector of sailors, lives in Noatun ('house of the ships'), while Ullr, the Gods' archer, was walking around hunting prelibate kills for the divine banquet in Ydalir ('the valley of yew trees'), a place full of bird game and wood for magnificent bows.

Close to the frontiers of Asgard, in the sorroundings of the Bifröst ('the trembling way') that links the divine town to the world of the mortals, there's "Himinbjörg", the house of the guardian which has to watch over the divine properties, called “Heimdall”.

The beautiful Freya, divinity of beauty and love, holds wide territories of “Folkvang” ('the field of the army');  at its center we find “Sessrumnir”, ('place full of benches'), a palace with a number of stalls destined to recover the half of the dead warriors (the other half belongs to Odin).

Odin's bride, the beautiful Frigga, reigns over Frensalir ('residences of the sea'), while her rival Saga, who drinks unbeknown to her every day entire bowls of mead with Odin, lives in Sokkvadekkr ('downward stream').

Asgard confines with the Alfheim, the territory of light Elfs, mysterious creatures “luminous as the light of the day” (on the contrary, the dark ones “darker more than pitch”, which inhabited the obscure recesses of the earth).