Rune Study Group: Tiwaz The First of the Final Aett

Tiwaz
"tea-wawz" ( Tyr, the sky god.) Looks like a spear.

1: Stability, and the Ordering force.

2: Self sacrifice, personal strength, honor and courage.

3: Polaris (the North Star), a guide [for sailors], an indication of direction, which keeps you from getting lost; a complement to Raidho.
The compass of social strength.

4: The rune of Socio-Religious law (justice, duty, and moral strength). The central lodge (tent) pole [which keeps our clan together, giving it strength].

Troth, trust, justice in the face of hardships. Victory for wisdom. Ethics practiced are rewarded. Be methodical.
Analysis and mathematical principals are indicated.

As a merkstave, paralysis by analysis.

As a person, a scientist or Academian.

History time: “The rune Tiwaz is similar to Eihwaz and Elhaz in that it shows forth the central column of the world; but where Eihwaz shows melding of the lowest and the highest and Elhaz shows communication, Tiwaz represents the separation of the heavens and the earth. Thorsson [Edred] identifies the rune Tiwaz with the Saxon Irminsul, the great pillar holding up the heavens. Odhinn is essentially bipolar; Tyr is essentially unipolar, as shown by his one-handedness-a literal sign that Tyr is bound to a single course of action, as opposed to the ever-changing Odhinn.” Teutonic Magic, Kveldulf Gundarsson

Tiwaz

BIG smile ! Why ever did you sight Teutonic Magic, By Kveldulf Gundarsson??? Thank You **runehunt** P.S. I appreciate it!

Tiwaz Analysis I: Etymology and Onehandedness

I am going to save the analysis of the rune poems until after I meditate. However, this post will likely help illustrate the problems that the interpretation of this rune provides.

Etymology

The Pgmc *Tiwaz becomes ON Tyr and OE Tiw (and hence Mod. Eng Tuesday) and comes from PIE *Dyeu ("To Shine"). Cognate to Sanscrit diva ("By Day"), L. dies ("day"), Gr. Zeus (though Zeus is more like Indra or Thorr myth-wise), Welsh Diw ("Day"), Arm. Tiw ("Day"), etc. The concept of *Tiwaz appears to arise from one of two PIE roots that gave rise to words for "day." The root *Dyeu gives rise to many words for day, but also many names of gods and specific groups of gods. Thus one can see why people assume the derivation meant "Sky god."

Myths and Onehandedness

Dumezil goes on at length about the meaning of Tyr being a sky god and ends up largely elimitating the main options. He is not a sky god in the sense of Zeus (Thorr is a better fit here), nor in the sense of Uranus (no such equivalent among the Norse, as the sky was made from Ymir's skull). Instead the association seems merely to be one of sovereinty.

Most of the problems in interpreting this stave have to do with the fact that we don't know how old the story of Tyr losing his hand really is. If Gundarson posits that being onehanded (most interpretations hold that he lost his *right* hand) means he is unipolar, good, and honarable, this is both unsupported in the myths and in the comparative methodology that Dumezil offers. The problem is quite simply that Tyr loses his hand as a result of his involvement in a scheme to deceive Fenrir, the wolf and thus bind him until the end of the world.

The basic story is that the Aesir had the dwarves make a tether that would hold Fenrir, and then tried to trick Fenrir into letting them tie him with it. Fenrir was afraid that some trickery was afoot and said he would only do it if Tyr would place his hand in Fenrir's mouth as a hostage, so to speak, if something went wrong. Tyr agreed. Fenrir was successfully teathered, and Tyr lost his hand. So much for Tyr's imeccable honor... And so much for a benevolant interpretation of law in Norse myths too.

Dumezil compares this story with a Roman legend in which Markus (henceforth called the "Left-handed") intentionally maims his hand as a way of deceiving an invading army into believing that an army of equally determined warriors were on their way. Again, the loss of a hand is connected with an act of deception.

The main problems are:
1) Tyr is likely to have had a more minor role in Norse myth than he had previously, and some of his functionality (particularly those related to kingship) may have been userped by Odhinn later.

2) We don't know whether the migration age Germanic peoples saw Tiwaz as a god maimed in an act of deception.

We can however say for sure that Tiwaz was a god of law. So this runestave would likely refer to this concept of law, but whether it is a benevolant, reconcilliatory law or one based out of brutal necessity is an open question.

So unfortunately a cursory study into this rune reveals more questions than answers. Hope this helps. Tomorrow, I will analyze the rune poems in my next posting.

Tiwaz analysis II: Rune poems

The OERP appears to refer to Tiw as a star that is steady on its course and never fails. This would clearly refer to the North Star, as it does not appear move substantially throughout the night (and hence is very important to sea navigation). I believe that this association is the primary one that Thorsson associates this rune with the Yrminsul, as the North Star is essentially the axis on which the sky appears to turn.

The ONRR and the OIRP both refer to Tyr's onehandedness, and the OIRP also states that Tyr is the leavings of the wolf and the master of the temple. Again these refer to the betrayal of Fenrir out of necessity for the Gods and point to a view of the law based on the necessity of binding primordial aspects of the world at all costs.

The ONRR also cryptically states that the smith must blow often. The smith uses bellows to ensure that the coal, coke, or charcoal (depending on the time and technology used) is burning hot enough to effectively forge the blade. It is possible that this is also a reference to the welding stage in Iron-age pattern welding where the pieces of the blade are heated up to the hottest point in the process and hammer-welded together. It could also connect this stave with the necessity of maintaining the proper temperature of the forge when working, and that this maintenance means effort. THis maintenance would be a parallel process to the way laws work in maintaining a viable society.