Ætt 3 · Pos. 6

Name

A sore, an ulcer, the kind that festers. In the English poem the rune is cēn, a torch of pinewood.

Meaning

In the Nordic poems the sore is a festering sickness that strikes the young and drains the life from a body. The English poem turns it into a torch, a clear flame burning in the hall. A fever and a flame both burn from inside. The old charms knew where such sickness could come from. An Old English charm against sudden, stabbing pain blames it on elves shooting arrows into the body. The charm orders them back out: “Out, little spear, if you are in here.”

The poems

English Rune Poem

Torch is to every living one
known by its fire,
pale and bright;
it burns most often
where the nobles
rest within.

Icelandic Rune Poem

Sore is children’s misfortune,
and scourge,
and house of rotting flesh.

Norwegian Rune Poem

Sore is the bane of children;
misfortune makes a corpse pale.

Swedish Rune Poem

Sore is worst in the flesh.