Ætt 2 · Pos. 4

Name

Year, and above all the good year: the harvest it brings in.

Meaning

In all the poems the rune stands for a good year, an abundant harvest that people long for and all share in. The Icelandic stanza adds summer and ripe fields, and the English poem has the earth feed rich and poor alike. The year is the reward of the turning seasons, never taken for granted. The Norwegian poem names Fróði, the Danish king whose reign was one long peace, while two jotun women ground gold and plenty from his mill Grotti. On the Stentoften stone a single rune is enough to say it: Haþwulf gave a good year.

The poems

English Rune Poem

Year is the hope of men,
when God,
holy king of heaven,
lets the earth give
bright fruits
to the noble and the needy.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Year is the good of men,
and a good summer,
and a field grown full.

Norwegian Rune Poem

Year is the good of men;
I say that Fróði was generous.

Swedish Rune Poem

Year is the widest leafing.