Runes

[mizstorge]

No: HPFGUIDX 122160


Finwitch:

Runes - well, to me, they're simply ancient letters used by Vikings
and/or the Druids. The sort the can be more or less easily carved.
You know, while the Romans (and christianity, mainly the catholics)
was occupying England/Wales and even Ireland, Scotland had been
subjected mainly to the Vikings (who travelled to America centuries
before Columbus was born) and their own Druidism.

They're no more occult than any other non-Latin method of writing.
And Runes are easy to *carve*, whereas Chinese, Japanese or Ancient
Egyptian was *painted* on a papyrus/paper, or a wall...

It's just that they're ANCIENT and UNKOWN that ticks people off.


Nah- if some priest complains about the 'occult', I'd say it's just
some nasty propaganda to get rid of *competition*. Including all the
stuff they say about Harry Potter, anything about things they know
nothing about etc.

Mz Storge here:

Finwitch, nice summary. I'm a Scandianvian/Germanic 
Reconstructionist. We're sometimes known as Heathens or Asatruar, 
from the Icelandic version of the religion Asatru. To us, the Runes 
are a source of wisdom and understanding obtained by our god 
Odin/Wotan when he sacrificed himself by piercing himself through 
with a spear to the trunk of the World Tree for nine days. Each rune 
is a symbol in and of itself, but can also be used to make larger 
symbols or conventional words. There are to my knowledge at least 
three versions of the runes, sometimes called the Futhark for the 
first few character (like we sometimes call our alphabet the ABCs). 
There are historic survivals of 'bindrune' charms in Britain and the 
Scandinavian countries.

Having established that, I thought JKR depicted the Runology class to 
be an academic alternative to Divination - Hermione dropped 
Divination, but was still taking Runology and Arithmancy. I don't 
have the books in front of me, but think Hermione made a reference to 
Runology and Arithmancy being more reliable than the things Trelawney 
taught, perhaps because Hermione likes dealing with concrete facts, 
and a rune isn't really open to interpretation any more than a number 
is.

Perhaps because the Runes are a legacy from the pagan past, they 
could be more objectionable to Christians than other methods of 
fortune-telling. Interestingly enough, I'm reading Robin Lane 
Fox's 'Pagans and Christians" and he discusses the methods of fortune-
telling acceptable to the first Christians in Roman territories. 

I personally think it would be cool if the mark on Harry's forehead 
did turn out to be a protective Rune placed ther by Lily, but I 
really think not since JKR seems to be going out of her way *not* to 
offend any particular religious tradition.