Rúnar Munt Þú Finna (Runes you shall/must find)

This has to be the one of the most (if not) THE MOST ambitious, important and unique projects I have ever worked on!!!
I have never put some much blood, sweat and love into a single image or a graphic design project. I have basically made this for personal enjoyment and learning back in 2019, but also to spread around the profound knowledge, wisdom and the (possible) meaning of the runes and to clear some missconceptions. I say possible, because there are countless of interpretations out there (in books and around the internet), but among them there are also those that make much more sense in many respects. The one I'm presenting here is certainly of the latter. I say this with a hand put on on my chest, because I´ve spent a full week (from Monday to Friday, with breaks of course) to design, write and edit the text, adjust the colour schemes, think about a more unique design, fonts, shadows, etc., (well it's a lot of work, but it pays off in the end), and also contemplate about each rune and its meaning. All the names of the runes are in proto-Norse reconstruction, so that that might spare some confusion for anyone studying and dealing with Runology. Some people in the field of studying the pre-Christian Pagan beliefs of our ancestors, the myths, the history and our traditional ways of thinking just cannot grasp and accept, that knowledge doesn't always has to come from high above the academic pyramid or to require "the academical" approach and having to present sources and credentials. Some knowledge lies beyond the boundaries of any establishment, organisation or individual. Hippies and Runic enthusiasts are also right most of the times. Why can't we accept that already? Especially about the oral tradition and folk beliefs and rituals of our ancestors. I am not against academia at all, and scholarly learning and knowledge, because it is obviously very, very necessary to uncover and study what we don't know, but we cannot always rely on some high-brow scholar with a PhD title written after his name claiming to know more than some man or woman without an university degree studying the runes on their own. I myself am such a person and I have written and did alot in the field of Runology and the esoteric aspects of the Runes. We live, we learn and we study, we often make mistakes and we learn from our mistakes, and then we continue to spread the knowledge we have acquired so that other people can do the same and live a better, more richer and more honourable life. So the cycle keeps rolling and rolling until infinity! :

Thank you all, and please share your thoughts in the comment field below, share the link to my design in other places around the web, and feel free to contact me regarding questions, commissions and other topics related to runology and paganism. Please also consider purchasing the original file, because that will help me continue to produce such splendid graphic designs in the future.

A high resolution image can be downloaded at:
https://www.deviantart.com/thenewoath/art/Runar-Munt-Thu-Finna-809896769

Rúnar munt þú finna ok ráðna stafi,
mjök stóra stafi, mjök stinna stafi,
er fáði fimbulþulr ok
gerðu ginnregin
ok reist hroftr rögna.

(Hávamál stanza: 142)

High quality print of this graphic is available for purchasing, along with a higher resolution png file upon request.

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗩𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗦𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗘𝗧𝗦

Óðinn hanged himself in the tree of sacrifice and hung there for nine nights before he fell down and picked up the runes. He learned in the same process nine magic songs from Bölþorn, the mistletoe, and drank the mead that taught him the art of poetry. The belief that the deity/man visiting Hel learn something special in the realm of the dead was very strong. We see the same from our fairy tales, where a person travels to a special place and learn or becomes something special. In the fairy tale about Mother Holle (i.e. Hel) the main character is herself turned into, or rather covered in gold. The prince kissing Sleeping Beauty (Nor. Tornerose "thorn-rose") also learns something special, because the thorn is a symbol of Bölþorn, the mistletoe, and the rose an ancient symbol of love, intimacy and secrecy (as seen in the latin proverb sun-rosa, associated with Freyja. We see the same reverence for the secret knowledge in the Greek mystery religions, that one acquired in the mystery chamber. The brought different objects with them inside, and were allowed to see and sometimes participate in in religious plays. In these plays, the deities (i.e. masked priestesses and priests impersonating the deities) gave the audience a feeling of having learned, something important, described by the Romans "mysterium tremendum, facinans et augustum" - the solemn that brings forth tears and trembling.

The word rune translates as "secret knowledge" or just "secret", and the runes are most often identified as characters on par with the Latin alphabet. Originally they were sacred symbols intended to help the