Ætt 2 · Pos. 2

Name

Need, necessity: hardship, constraint, what you are forced into.

Meaning

Need is what corners you: pressure that tightens the chest, a life of hardship, work that wears you down, no choice left. The Icelandic stanza gives it to the bondwoman, who had no say over her own life. Yet the English poem turns it: need, faced before it overwhelms you, can become help and healing. The tradition used it that way. In Sigrdrífumál, among the runes for the drinking horn, the valkyrie tells Sigurðr to mark the need rune on his fingernail, so the drink cannot be turned against him.

The poems

English Rune Poem

Need is tight
on the chest;
yet it often becomes
for the sons of men
a help and a healing,
if they heed it in time.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Need is the bondwoman’s grief,
and a hard lot,
and toilsome work.

Norwegian Rune Poem

Need leaves little choice;
a naked man freezes in the frost.

Swedish Rune Poem

Need is the only choice.