Rune

A graphic, symbolic representation of an idea. In (fictitious) Gloranthan metaphysics, their existence is more formal in the Hero and God planes; every deity is associated with one or more runes, and a deity may be considered the owner of a rune. Gloranthan Runes represent primal, universal forces, such as Fire, Chaos vs. Law, Man (mortal beings), Death, Harmony, etc.

audited 7/22/00 by ModernAngel

Also a recently released PC game about vikings, Loki and hitting people in the face with heavy, sharp objects

Great fun for the whole family

The game is pretty damn good, but does have a couple of problems:

Single player is very repetitive, very repetitive, very repetitive.

Multiplayer is split into FFA (free for all) and 1on1 or honour matches.

There is a golden horn, found at Gallehus in North Schleswig in Denmark, and which has one of the oldest known inscriptions in runes, and in any Germanic language. It says, in a very early form of Old Norse, ek hlewagastiR holtijaR tawiDo. That means, "I Hlewagastir of Holt made the horn".

The rune here transcribed R is not the ordinary rolled r, but a sound derived from an earlier Z, and before that from S. (It corresponded to the Latin ending -us and has disappeared today in all Germanic languages except Icelandic.) It is not known how exactly it was pronounced. My symbol D is because if I try to use the proper eth symbol, HTM &edh;, it screws up my browser. The rune for j was formerly believed to be ng (Holtingar).

The Golden Horn of Gallehus, dating from about 400, is the most famous early runic inscription, but is not in fact the very oldest. There is an end-clasp of a sword-sheath found in Torsbjærg, also in Danish Schleswig, which appears to be from around 300. This says owlTuTewaR ni wajemariR, where I'm using T for thorn, and this names the owner as "Owlthuthewar of no ill fame".

Also, in Phantasy Star IV, the name of one of your party members. Rune is a very powerful Esper Wizard who was entrusted with the memories of Lutz (Noah, in the American version), the wizard from the first game. The translation of the game is not so good, but one gets the impression he is the descendant of Alisa and Lutz from Phantasy Star I, and that he may have, at some point, been dating your main character, Alys.

In Ultima Online, a 'rune' is a object that you can mark a location on, and recall (teleport) back to by ways of magery.

Rune (r&udd;n), n. [AS. r&umac;n a rune, a secret, a mystery; akin to Icel. r&umac;n, OHG. & Goth. r&umac;na a secret, secret colloquy, G. & Dan. rune rune, and probably to Gr. 'ereyna^n to search for. Cf. Roun to whisper.]

1.

A letter, or character, belonging to the written language of the ancient Norsemen, or Scandinavians; in a wider sense, applied to the letters of the ancient nations of Northern Europe in general.

⇒ The Norsemen had a peculiar alphabet, consisting of sixteen letters, or characters, called runes, the origin of which is lost in the remotest antiquity. The signification of the word rune (mystery) seems to allude to the fact that originally only a few were acquainted with the use of these marks, and that they were mostly applied to secret tricks, witchcrafts and enchantments. But the runes were also used in communication by writing.

2. pl.

Old Norse poetry expressed in runes.

Runes were upon his tongue, As on the warrior's sword. Longfellow.

Rune stone, a stone bearing a runic inscription.

 

© Webster 1913.