Rune of the Week: Wynn

This week's rune is Wynn. It means "joy".

The poem for it is:

Bliss he enjoys who knows not pain,

sorrow nor anxiety, and himself has

prosperity and bliss and a good enough house.

As with most runes there's a darker edge to everything. We see in the poem that because of the perspective of the narrator, the definition of the rune for joy, takes on a jealous tone. It seems to read, bliss is for one who has the good fortune not to have been screwed over too many times.

There's also a strange reference to having a roof over your head in the final line. This rune stands for being free from pain, and enjoying the finer accouterments of what you have. Perhaps asking us to take stock of what we have, put aside our pains, sorrows, and anxieties, and revel in whatever prosperity we have. These are the conditions of to meet joy.

Incidentally, this completes the first set of runes. The first eight runes are Freya's eight.

Which if you are scoring at home:
Freya

"The daughter of NJORD, and the beautiful twin sister of FREYR, she is — to put it in modern vernacular — a bit of a goer. She did marry a God called OD, causing much confusion amongst academics and historians who have confused him with ODIN leading to further confusion by confusing her with FRIGG. (This is why you need Godchecker.) But OD was a bit of a goer himself and nipped out one day for pastures new.

This caused much weeping of golden tears, but as usual FREYA made the best of a bad job and really went off the rails. She ran wild with Gods, mortals, giants and dwarves.

The stories and allegations of how she gained possession of Brisingamen, the golden amber necklace of desire, are scandalous. Especially the one about her bedding four dwarves in turn before they would give it to her. But this sort of thing is just titillation. In any case, the necklace was stolen by LOKI and — although it was rescued by HEIMDALL — we don't think she got it back.

Being a strong-willed warrior maiden, she joined and then led the VALKYRIES — so that she could have first pick of the slain battlefield warriors. Most of the slain go to VALHALLA, but the good-looking heroes go straight to her palace for rest and recuperation.

But FREYA does have a softer side — she loves romantic music and bunches of flowers. Her daughters are the beautiful HNOSS and the equally beautiful GERSEMI."