american futharch

A proper futhark needs a rune poem. The Anglo-Saxon Futhorc has its Old English Rune Poem (OERP), and the Younger Futhark has the Old Icelandic Rune Poem (OIRP) and the Old Norwegian Rune Poem (ONRP). Undoubtedly, there were rune poems for the Elder Futhark, the original ur-poem being in Proto-Germanic, but those were lost, as it seems no rune-carvings were made of them, at least none that survived. And they would have been way too long for the typical rune carvings of that era anyway!

So on the heels of my recent launch of the American Futharch rune row and its website, I now present the American English Rune Poem (AERP) that goes with it. And like the ancient rune poems, it’s in proper and traditional alliterative meter. In this case, it most closely resembles the meter, style, and didactic purpose of the OERP.

I’ve posted the full poem on my American Futharch website, but here, I’ll give you a taste with three of the stanzas:

Charcoal is chiefly chunky in form,
a fire-essence fashioned by man
from organic matter for gunpowder, art,
filtering, cooking, forging, and more.

Year is the unit that’s yoked to the sun,
the seasonal cycle of sowing and harvest,
the longer measure of our mortal lives,
and a wheel that turns, once for each Yule.

Lake is limited yet living with fish,
unseen on the surface when sailing across.
Its depths hold gold that dragons may guard,
and storms can stir the stillest waters.

You can see all 33 stanzas, from Fee to Ash, on my AERP page on my American Futharch website.

Want to write exactly like an ancient runemaster? It hasn’t been possible, until now.

I’ve got some things to say about that, so read on if you like, or you can jump ahead and see the website at https://americanfutharch.com if you prefer. But also read on nonetheless for the what, why, and how.

Ever try writing modern English with runes? Clunky, isn’t it? And that’s regardless of whether you’re using the Elder Futhark or the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc. Inevitably, most such writing attempts inevitably cheat at some point by treating the runes as an alphabet, doing a “what rune can stand for such-and-such letter” kind of approach.

That’s not how the first ancient runemasters wrote in runes. Around the start of the Common Era (or somewhat before), writing in runes meant the Proto-Germanic language with Elder Futhark runes. And these three steps:

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