Runes and other symbols have been horribly appropriated and used as emblems of hatred and violence. I differentiate myself and my runes and other symbols from people who use them to signify anything like that. My artwork about runes and the Web of Wyrd or any other symbol is not intended in any way to express or represent any sentiment of hatred towards anyone or anything.
Everybody has the right to thrive and be themselves, regardless of their various backgrounds, nationalities, religions, races, abilities, languages, dietary needs, genders and orientations.
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Web Of Wyrd Interpretation
The runes are a language which includes a lot of symbolic meaning of various kinds. They are used to represent a wide variety of phenomena and situations.
Languages are often evolving and updating themselves as people use them. Runes and bindrunes are getting a lot of contemporary use.
This page is mostly about looking at what shape the runes might be geometrically in relation to the Web of Wyrd symbol:
I wanted to use runes in my artwork as symbolic language and as text, so I needed to decide how to make them first. I had read ubiquitous paraphrasings of the idea that the runes can be formed upon the Web of Wyrd symbol. I tried drawing a few different variations of the Web Of Wyrd symbol with lines in different places and on different angles, of varying lengths and drawn upon different grids, with the runes drawn along the lines of the symbol in a few different places, of different sizes, different angles and variations. I tried the Elder Futhark, the long-branch Younger Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon-Northumbrian Futhorc.
A rectangle composed of 2 ╳ 4 squares can be used to draw this variation of the Web of Wyrd symbol:
When I made these Web of Wyrd GIFs I arranged the 3,3,3 lines that compose the Web of Wyrd symbol into 3 groups of 3 lines in a particular way. They look like a forward button, the Hagall / Ior rune ᛡ and a backward button:
The past / present / future overlapping can be represented with these shape combinations. The forward and backward shapes can be used to point to the past and the future. The Hagall / Ior rune ᚼ shape points in many directions simultaneously stemming from the centre, so it can represent the present / omnipresent when used in this context. The Stan rune ᛥ is formed when the forward / backward shapes overlap. It can be used to symbolise a long duration.
The Web of Wyrd symbol can function as a larger/smaller repeating fractal pattern. It can be zoomed in or out and repeated infinitely. It can also be repeated infinitely beside itself:
THE WEB OF WYRD UPON THE WEB OF WYRD:
THE web-of-wyrd recurring:
THE EIGHT W-O-W PATTERN:
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I decided that I would use an expanded variation of this Web of Wyrd symbol. It is the Web-of -Wyrd Pattern / the W-O-W Pattern. It begins at a crosspoint in the centre of a diagonal square grid. A central vertical line and every second vertical line is added. The pattern can repeat indefinitely:
THE W-O-W PATTERN:
THE W-O-W TESSELATION PATTERN:
THE EIGHT W-O-W PATTERN UPON THE W-O-W PATTERN:
THE W-O-W pattern WITHOUT THE EIGHT W-O-W PATTERN:
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The runes fit on the Web of Wyrd symbol when some of them are scaled to different sizes and slightly altered. It seemed incomplete to me, and I really wanted to add some more lines to the symbol to make the runes align.
The runes aligned closely on a variation of the W-O-W Pattern that had twelve extra diagonal lines added to the Web of Wyrd symbol. I named it The 3,9,9 W-O-W Pattern, because it has three vertical lines, nine diagonal lines in one direction and nine diagonal lines in the other direction:
THE 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN:
THE 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN upon the web-of-wyrd:
THE twelve extra diagonal lines in the 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN:
The runes that I formed upon the 3,9,9 W-O-W Pattern can alternate between the W-O-W Pattern, letters in text and geometrically consistent bindrunes without changing the angles or the proportionate scale.
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THE ELDER FUTHARK FORMED UPON THE 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN:
When making the Elder Futhark on the W-O-W Pattern, Dagaz ᛞ and Gebo ᚷ had to be either twice as wide or half as tall as the other runes. It was a hard decision but I chose to use the smaller variations, and to keep the W-O-W Pattern rectangular. Othala ᛟ was an interesting shape. To keep the angles and make it the same height as the others, I had to change the length of the segments. It worked but I decided to keep the segments the same length as the others, so I made Othala ᛟ 3/4 height.
THE names of the elder futhark runes:
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THE long-branch YOUNGER FUTHARK FORMED UPON THE 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN:
When I made the long-branch Younger Futhark I tried adding circles to the grid to make the curved lines in the runes. I decided to keep all of the lines straight so that the bindrunes can interlock seamlessly.
THE names of the long-branch younger futhark runes:
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THE ANGLO-SAXON-NORTHUMBRIAN FUTHORC FORMED UPON THE 3,9,9 W-O-W PATTERN:
Some of the runes in the Anglo-Saxon-Northumbrian Futhorc have smaller segments that almost seem like other runes had their segments bent in half.
THE names of the anglo-saxon-northumbrian-futhorc runes:
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References:
Ager S 2023, Anglo-Saxon runes (ᚠᚢᚦᚩᚱ/Futhorc/Fuþorc), Omniglot, viewed 28/10/2023, <https://www.omniglot.com/writing/futhorc.htm>.
Crawford J 2017, Writing English in Runes, viewed 19/08/23, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A271ohcO7Yc>.
Eugene B 2022, Writing in Runes Revisited- What we can learn from Tolkien, Mine Wyrtruman, viewed 28/10/23, <https://minewyrtruman.wordpress.com/2022/01/13/writing-in-runes-revisited-what-we-can-learn-from-tolkien/>.
Foster J, Norse Bindrunes, Galdrastafir.com, viewed 2/12/2023, <https://galdrastafir.com/bindrunes.htm>
Galdr Verbal Rune Magic, Sunnyway.com, viewed 2/12/2023, <https://archive.org/details/galdr-verbal-rune-magic/mode/2up>
GermanicMythology.com, RunatalsÞáttr Oðins _Odin´s Rune-song, viewed 08/08/2023, <http://www.germanicmythology.com/works/ThorpeEdda/thorpe07.html>.
Kaldera R 2004, The Futhorc Runes, Northern-Tradition Shamanism, viewed 2/12/23, <https://www.northernshamanism.org/the-futhorc-runes.html>
Harger A 2023, The Web of Wyrd, Whispers of Yggdrasil, viewed 08/08/23, <https://arithharger.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/the-web-of-wyrd/>.
Heilung 2015, In Maidjan, Bandcamp, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://heilung.bandcamp.com/track/in-maidjan>.
Hopkins J & Fountain LE 2020, Web of Wyrd, Mimisbrunnr.info, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://www.mimisbrunnr.info/ksd-web-of-wyrd>.
Marius 2023, Old Norse Concept of Fate and The Web of Wyrd, Vikingr.org, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://vikingr.org/magic-symbols/web-of-wyrd>.
Oldnorse.org, Runes, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://oldnorse.org/what-are-runes/>.
Renet 2019, Ancient Symbols, Valhyr, viewed 08/08/23, <https://valhyr.com/blogs/learn/the-ancient-symbols>.
Skjalden 2020, Norns are the personifications of the past, the present, and the future, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://skjalden.com/norns/>.
Vikingrune, How to Write in Old Norse With Futhark Runes: The Ultimate Guide, The Viking Rune, viewed 09/09/2023, <https://www.vikingrune.com/write-in-futhark-runes-old-norse-guide/>.
Unicode, Runic, viewed 08/08/2023, <https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U16A0.pdf>.
Alison Lobbe 
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