Runes 1- Fehu

Fehu is the first rune in the first Aett of the Elder Futhark, according to the commonly accepted ordering of the runes.

Information

Indo-European root is *Peku ((when looking at Indo-European roots, the star designates a reconstructed word, rather than one which has physical evidence)


Gothic: Fahu, faihu
Old High German: Fehu, fahu
Old Icelandic (Old Norse): Fe, feu, fehu
Old English: Feoh

Keywords (by author)

Aswynn - cattle, money, wealth, food, hamingja (personal store of magical energy, mana or ki/chi), greed, envy, creative energy
Blum -possessions, nourishment, cattle, profit
Cooper - cattle, wealth, livestock, social responsibility, charity,hope, plenty
Conway - cattle, fee, money, gold, fulfillment, goals reached
Farrell - wealth, material fulfillment, ownership, prosperity
Fries - cattle, warfare, migration
Grimnisson - cattle, hamingja, prosperity, generation of money
Gundarsson - cattle, hamingja, vanir (Freyr, Freyja)
Hulse - cattle, possessions
Karlsson - wealth, reward, taming the wild
Kaser - fortune, poverty, land, rent
King - wealth, charity, cats, butterfly
Meadows - culmination, exchange and distribution, generated wealth
Mountfort - abundance, wealth, luck, greed, materialism
Paxson- productivity, passion, prosperity, liquid wealth, stewardship
Pennick - cattle, Audhumbla (primal cow), payment
Peschel - earned income, material gain, loss of wealth
Peterson - cattle, money, mobile property
Plowright - money, sharing wealth
Ravenwolf - money, wealth, sexual passion, fire of creation and destruction
Smith - cattle, wealth, business, ego, debt
Svensson - work, wealth that is earned, expansion, gain, loss
Thorsson - cattle, wealth, dynamic power, creation, destruction, greed, primal fire (Muspellheim), social success, atrophy

Verse: OERP is the Old English Rune Poem, OIRP is the Old Icelandic, ONRP is the Old Norse. The old Icelandic also has a Latin equivalent keyword, and a word for leader beginning with the rune.

OERP (F2a)
Feoh byth frofur, fira gehwylcum;
sceal deah manna gehwylc, miclun hyt daelan;
gif he wile for drihtne, domes hleotan.

Paxson (P5a) substitutes 'gehwyle' for 'gehwylc'

(F2a)
Feoh is a comfort to all men,
yet must every man bestow it freely,
if he wish to gain honor, in the sight of the lord.

(P5a)
Wealth be by all very much welcomed,
each man shall deal it out freely
if he will from the lord get approval

(G1a, S1a)
Wealth is a comfort to every man
yet shall every man dole it out greatly,
if he wishes before the lord to gain glory

(S2a)
Wealth is a comfort to everyone,
yet each must give freely
if he will glory in heaven

(P1a)
Money is a comfort to humans all,
but each one should deal it out abundantly,
if he wants before the lord to chance judgement.

(M2a)
Wealth provides comfort,
but you must share it who hope to cast lots,
for judgement before the gods.

(A1b)
Wealth is a comfort to all men,
yet everyone must give it away freely,
if he wants to gain glory in the lord's sight

(T1a, T1b, G2a)
Money is a comfort to everybody
although every man ought to deal it out freely
if he wants to get approval from the lord.

(T1e)
Wealth is a comfort to every man
although every man ought to deal it out freely
if he wants before the lord his lot of judgement


ONRP

(F2a)
Fe vaeldr fraenda roge
fodesk ulfr i skoge

(T1e)
Fe veldr fraenda rogi
foedisk ulfr i skogi

(F2a)
Fe is a source of discord among kinsmen
the wolf lives in the forest

(P5a)
Wealth is trouble among relatives
the wolf is raised in the forest

(G1a)
Cattle causes strife amongst kinsmen
and feeds the wolf in the woods

(P1a)
Money causes kinsmen's quarrel
the wolf is reared in the forest

(M2a, T1a, T1b, T1e, T1f, G2a)
Money causes strife among kin
the wolf grows up in the woods

Thorsson, in Rune-song (T1e) substitutes 'forest' for 'woods', in Northern Magic (T1f) uses 'gold' for 'money' and 'kinsmen' for 'kin', and in Runelore (T1b) and At the Well of Wyrd (T1a) has 'kinsmen' for 'kin'. Gundarsson, in Teutonic Magic, also does the Gold/Money and Kin/Kinsmen substitution.

(A1b)
Wealth causes strife among kinsmen
the wolf lurks in the forest

(C1a)
Money causes strife among kinsmen
the wolf is raised in the woods


OIRP

(F2a)
Fe er fraenda rog
ok flaedar viti
ok grafseids gata

aurum fylkir

(F2a)
fe = source of discord among kinsmen
and fire of the sea
and path of the serpent

gold

(P5a)
Wealth is trouble among relatives
and fire of the sea
and path of the serpent

(G1a)
Wealth is kinsmen's strife
and flood-tide's sign
and grave-sorcery's way

(S1a)
Wealth = source of discord among kinsmen
and fire of the sea
and path of the serpent

(P1a)
Money is kinsmen's quarrel
and flood-tides token
and necromancy's road

gold

(M2a,T1a, T1b, T1e, T1f, G2a)
Money causes strife among kin
and the fire of the flood tide
and the path of the serpent
Thorsson adds, in Rune-song, the translation of 'fylkir' as 'Leader of the war-band'

(C1a)
Money is strife among kinsmen
the fire of the sea
and the path of the serpent

gold Leader of the retinue

Whew! Lots of translations there. You may ask, why so many? Although the majority of the translations are similar, there are also some significant differences between them. By showing all that I currently have available, I hope to encourage debate and discussion, or even some new perspectives on the source material.

Out of the 24 runes of the common Germanic Futhark, only 16 appear in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. These three poems are the only sources we have (other than the Abdecarium Nordmanicum which i will cover in a later post) for the meanings of the runes. The Old English rune poem gives meanings for all 24 of the elder Futhark, but it splits the fourth rune, ansuz, into a fourth and a twenty-sixth rune, os (fourth) and as (26th). Everything beyond these poems, written by anyone, about the runes is speculation.

I do not deny the value of personal insight, mystic revelation, shamanic journeys, or any other inspiration dealing with the runes. What I emphasize is that all the rest of my posts and the writings are unavoidably speculative. As you see above, there is not even complete agreement about the translation of the poems themselves.

However, people seem to get results using the runes in the fashions the various authors recommend. They can be uncannily accurate for divination, and appear to function well for magic. It is possible that the entire world of religion, spirituality, magic, and the occult is no more than a MUSH (Multi-User Shared Hallucination). I prefer to believe it is not.

Now that we have looked at the thoughts of others on the rune Fehu, let us take a look at my thoughts. As you can see, the majority of authors agree that at the most basic level, Fehu represents wealth, especially liquid wealth. This is shown by the meanings of cattle, gold, money, etc. A point to remember, however, is that, depending on the rune row, there are 16, 18, 24,28, or33 runes to represent the totality of existence and experience. As a result of this, an individual rune covers more territory than a Tarot card (78), or a Chinese/ Japanese/ Egyptian ideogram (several thousand in each system, although it can be argued that most in each are made up of combinations of simpler ideograms. But I digress.)

So, for each rune there should be a common thread that ties its myriad of meanings together. In my opinion that common thread is energy (or power) under conscious control. The domesticated cattle represent food energy, raw materials (leather, bone, horn, sinew), and disposable influence. This also extends to the Hamingja (mentioned earlier in this post), which is your personal store of magical power, psychic energy, or luck.

Through husbanding and increasing these energies (physical, economic, spiritual) we increase our ability to effect change in the surrounding world. A point to remember is the 'no free lunch' concept. In order to gain we must sacrifice.Time, money, effort,all can be(and frequently are) sacrifices made to gain an increase in our energy. We sacrifice a portion of our lives to our jobs, businesses, or investments. In return we receive compensation in the form of pay or profit.We also sacrifice time (and money) to perform and host rites. This returns to us in the form of blessings from the gods.

An important point to remember. Modern astrophysics states that the aggregate amount of energy in the universe is unchanged from the moment of the big bang. This energy can niether be created or destroyed, simply transformed from one state to another. But the net amount of energy in the universe remains constant.