I’ve recently made my first podcast appearance with the American Futharch, and it’s on Random Heathen Ramblings, by Midgard Musings. It’s S5, EP18 – Introducing the American Futharch Runes.
The audio-only form of the podcast is free, and available on many platforms, including:
The video-version of the podcast is available to his subscribers at Patreon.
Enjoy!
In just a few weeks, the American Futharch will come to a public heathen event for the first time. That will be the annual East Coast Thing, which is one of the longest-running heathen events in the country. I’ll be presenting a one-hour workshop on the American Futharch there, at some point during the four days of the festival, May 16–19. (The exact time slot has yet to be determined.)
The deadline for registration and payments is May 10, so you still have some days to register. https://eastcoastthing.org/
Since last year, it’s been in Maryland, not too far from Deep Creek Lake. I’ve been attending the event since the mid 00’s, and it’s always been great.
Here’s the title and abstract for my presentation:
The American Futharch: Runes That Speak Your Language!
Write exactly like an ancient runemaster! The original Elder Futhark was perfectly fit to its language, Proto-Germanic, enabling PG speakers to write anything they said as a precise, phonetic transcription—the magic of concertizing their speech directly into material forms. By reforming the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, I have created the American Futharch, a new system of 33 runes with that same perfect fit to American English, and the rune names are all from today’s English.
In this workshop, you’ll learn the American Futharch, the path to mastering the mysteries of your speech, and the three-step process to use with it so that you, too, can write exactly like an ancient runemaster. But writing with them is only the beginning: they are built for magic, divination, esotericism, poetry, and more, and some of these topics will be touched on. These Runes can truly Do All The Things! This is the debut public heathen event for the American Futharch, where it will be the “œpandi nam” heard ‘round the world!
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.
Copyright © 2024 Eirik Westcoat
The Skaldic Eagle 