Armanen runes

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Circular arrangement of the Armanen runes.
Circular arrangement of the Armanen runes.

The Armanen runes, or Armanen 'Futharkh' as List referred to them, are a row of 18 runes that are closely based on the Younger Futhark which were, according to his claim, "revealed to" the Austrian occult mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List in 1902 and his theories subsequently published.[1]

Contents

[edit] History and Runic revivalism

The row of 18 so-called "Armanen runes", also known as the "Armanen futharkh" came to List while in an 11 month state of temporary blindness after a cataract operation on both eyes in 1902. This vision in 1902 allegedly opened what List referred to as his "inner eye", via which he claimed the "Secret of the Runes" was revealed to him. List stated that his Armanen Futharkh were encrypted in the Rúnatal of the Poetic Edda (stanzas 138 to 165 of the Hávamál), with stanzas 147 through 165, where Odin enumerates eighteen wisdoms (with 164 being an interpolation), interpreted as being the "song of the 18 runes". List and many of his followers believed his runes to represent the "primal runes" upon which all historical rune rows were based. Needless to say, this claim being based on a visionary's account exclusively, it is given no credence whatsoever in scholarly circles.

List's row is based on the Younger Futhark, with the names and sound values mostly close to the Anglo-Saxon Futhork. The two final runes, Eh and Gibor, added to the Younger Futhark inventory, are taken from Anglo-Saxon Eoh and Gyfu. Apart from the two additional runes, and a displacement of the Man rune from 13th to 15th place, the sequence is identical to that of the Younger Futhark.

List noted in his book, The Secret of the Runes, that the "runic futharkh (= runic ABC) consisted of sixteen symbols in ancient times.".[2]

[edit] List of runes

The first sixteen of von List's runes correspond to the sixteen Younger Futhark runes, with slight modifications in names (and partly mirrored shapes). The two additional runes are loosely inspired by the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.

  1. Fa (rune) (an inverted Fe)
  2. Ur
  3. Thurs (rune) (as Anglo-Saxon Thorn) (also known as 'Dorn')
  4. Os (rune) (a mirrored Younger Futhark Os)
  5. Rit (rune) (as Reidh)
  6. Ka (as in Younger Futhark)
  7. Hagal (as Younger Futhark Hagall)
  8. Nauth (rune) (as Younger Futhark Naud) (also known as Not)
  9. Is (rune) (as in Younger Futhark)
  10. Ar (rune) (similar to short-twig Younger Futhark)
  11. Sig (as Anglo-Saxon Sigel)
  12. Tyr
  13. Bar (rune) (as Younger Futhark Bjarkan)
  14. Laf (rune) (as Younger Futhark Logr)
  15. Man (rune) (as Younger Futhark Madr)
  16. Yr (rune) (as in Younger Futhark, but with a sound value [i])
  17. Eh (rune) (the name is from Anglo-Saxon Futhork, the shape like Younger Futhark Ar)
  18. Gibor (the name similar to Anglo-Saxon Futhork Gyfu)

[edit] Contemporary use

The Armanen runes are still used today in occultist and national socialist currents of Germanic neopaganism. The use of the Armanen runes by neo-nazi groups is especially puzzling, as the Armanen runes were not actually used by the Nazis themselves. When runes were used in Nazi regalia and symbolism they preferred to use the more readly recognizable Elder futhark.

After World War Two, Karl Spiesberger[3]reformed the system, removing the racist and folkish ("racial folk-soul") aspects of the Listian, Marbyan and Kummerian rune work and placing the whole system in a "pansophical", or eclectic, context.[4] In recent times Karl Hans Welz,[5] [6] Stephen E. Flowers, Adolf Schleipfer, Larry E. Camp[7] and Victor Ordell L. Kasen[8] have all furthered the effort to remove any and all racial connotations previously espoused by pre-war Armanen rune masters.

In German-speaking countries, the Armanen Runes have been very influential among rune-occultists. According to Stephen E. Flowers, a scholar of Germanic languages and religion (who is also a practicing rune-magician), they are better known even than the historical Elder Futhark:

"The personal force of List and that of his extensive and influential Armanen Orden was able to shape the runic theories of German magicians...from that time to the present day. [...] the Armanen system of runes...by 1955 had become almost 'traditional' in German [rune-magical] circles"[9]

The Armanen runes are also having a significant impact in English language occultist literature.[10]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ von List (1902)
  2. ^ In his English translation of the work, Stephen Flowers insists that the final h is not a misspelling, but indicates the seventh rune, Hagal; the historical Younger Futhark likewise have h in seventh position, while the first aett of the Elder Futhark was fuþarkgw, so that the historical name ''fuþark spells the initial sequence common to both the Elder and the Younger variant.
  3. ^ Spiesberger, Karl Runenmagie, Runenexerzitien fur Jedermann, Reveal the Power of the Pendulum.
  4. ^ Flowers 1984: 16.
  5. ^ [1]; [2].
  6. ^ Knights of Runes [3]
  7. ^ Handbook of Armanen Runes by Larry E. Camp (aka Deitrich) [4] (Head of the Knights of Runes and Europa Ltd.).
  8. ^ Kasen, Victor Ordell L. 'Personal website'
  9. ^ Flowers 1984: 15-16.
  10. ^ Pennick (1992); Kasen, Victor Ordell L. [5]; The Armanen Runes [6]; The Armanen Rune Set [7]; The Armanen [8]; Karl Spiesberger Runenmagie; Karl Hans Welz [9] [10]; Knights of Runes [11]; Handbook of Armanen Runes by Larry E. Camp [12]; Flowers (1992)

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links