Tyr - the slayer rune - opens Wardruna's album Ragnarok

The album Ragnarok (2016) finishes Wardruna's trilogy Runaljod (sound of runes). In three albums Einar Selvik and his band interprets the 24 runes of the elder futhark (the old rune alphabet). Prior to Ragnarok, they have released Gap var Ginnunga (2009) and Yggdasil (2013), and in each album, they present melodies interpreting eight runes - plus extra melodies, like the popular Helvegen (the road to Hel).

John Snow aka Terje Hillesund (to the right) at Eidsivablot
waiting for Wardruna to play.

In Norse mythology, Ginnungagap is the name of the deep chasm or gap in which the world was created. Yggdrasil is the name of a huge ash tree, the world tree, and Ragnarok is the end of the world; the final battle in which gods and humans will perish.

Tyr is the name of a rune and the title on the first song in Wardruna's last album. Tyr is originally a Norse god of war. He put his right hand in the mouth of the wolf Fenrir who bit the hand off after the gods had bound him with an unbreakable ribbon.

Einar Selvik from Wardruna interprets the rune Tyr in Ragnarok,
the third album in the Runaljod trilogy.

The Old Icelandic Rune Poem says about the Tyr rune, that "Tyr is a one-handed god / and a wolf's leftover / and the temple's chief." In The Lay of Sigrdrifa (in The Poetic Edda) Sigurd the Dragonslayer wakes up a valkyrie, Sigerdrifa, who starts giving him words of wisdom and advice. In the sixth stanza of the lay, she tells Sigurd how to use the Tyr rune:

Victory-rune you must cut if you want to have victory,
and cut them on your sword-hilt;
some on the blade-guards, some on the plates,
and invoke Tyr twice.

In my book The Slayer Rune, this is exactly what the young hero Sigurd Haraldson does. Sigurd (who is later called Sigve the Awful) carves Tyr on his sword-hilt and gives it magic powers, but without knowing the consequences. Tyr, of course, is the slayer rune.

Wardruna, Jara, and the New Year

The old rune Jara (or Jera) symbolizes the year, and in their melody Jara the Norwegian band Wardruna celebrates the new year or more presicely: the coming of the sun. A recurring line in the song is "soli vendar" which literary means "the sun turns around". In the middle of the cold and dark winter, the sun returns with longer days and hopes of a warm summer and a rich harvest.

Jara is one of the melodies on the CD Runaljod - gap var Ginnunga, and typically the song comes just after the frightening and disturbing tunes in Heimta Thurs and Thurs, the songs about the rune of giants.  As Norse Mythology itself, Wardruna's music is full of contrasts; between light and darkness, growth and destruction, birth and death. Even the jotnir or the thurs, the giants, are ambiguous. First of all they represent the destructive forces of nature but at the same time they posses wisdom and sources of life. Also in the optimistic Jara melody, the Wardruna singer has to call upon the norns and pray for "ár og friðar" - growth and peace. The singer very well knows that in life nothing is certain.

Eg såg og eg tydde,

da soli snudde.

Jarteikn for fe og heim.

Solhov.

Svart natt.

Soli har venda,

i haustinga ligg håpet.

Solrik sumar

og allgroande åkre.

Til norne tri,

vi ber dei spinna liv

i åker og i eng,

i barm og i bringa.

Er ár og friðar,

når kornet stig or jordi.

Om vordane lokka sin lokkesong.

På tidleg sådd åker

kan ikkje nokon lite.

For mangt veit eg om vålyndt vêr.

Gro gro, lisle spire,

dager gryr og mørket svinner.

Sól har snudd

og hjulet det har venda.

Sola vendar hausten sendar

graset gulnar, blada fell

lyse dagar er på hell.

Til vordar og vettar,

vi takk gjev med vår song

for ár og friðar.

Ár og friðar.

Wardruna playing in the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo.

Wardruna - the sound of Vikings

Wardruna in an outdoor concert

The Norwegian group Wardruna has a project called Runaljod - "the sound of runes". It is a project that goes far beyond the staves of the runes. To understand their deeper meanings, Wardruna examines the old runes in their mythological context. In their music we can feel Odin's pain when he pierces himself with his spear and hangs himself from Yggdrasil, the world tree, in order to get the ultimate insight. In Wardruna's  music we hear ravens croak, hooves of horses pulling the sun, and a pack of wolves baying behind, indicating that Ragnarok is inevitable.

Wardruna has gone further. The members - Einar Kvitrafn Selvik, Linda-Fey Hella and Gaahl - have realized that runes have to be interpreted as a specific kind of practise. Their music is inspired by heavy metal and traditional Nordic folk music, and to reach a genuine feel of runes, the Wardruna members have reconstructed old instruments and uses frame drums, ceremonial drums, harps (Viking-fiddles), mouth harps, and a variety of flutes in their music. Their sound is truly unique: it's both genuinely Viking and very modern at the same time. No wonder it is used to create atmosphere in Vikings, the TV-series.

I'm sorry I didn't discover Wardruna before. Their first CD (in a trilogy) - Runaljod - Gap var Ginnunga - came in 2009 and the second - Runaljod - Yggdrasil - in 2013. In the same period - and much longer - I have been interested in Norse mythology and Old Icelandic literature, and last year I published the two first books in a Vikings series: The Slayer Rune and The Lethal Oath. As the titles suggest, the first has the magical powers of runes as an action-driving theme, and the second deals with the dangers of breaking sacred oaths.

In my stories seidr, galdr, rune magic, and shape-shifting are no fantasies but hard facts of reality. The life of Sigve the Awful is weaved by the Norns, but Sigve's luck and  prosperity depends on his own courage and ability to make his fate. But, like all others, Sigve depends on Thor's strength, Freya's erotic powers, and Odin's cunning and support. I addition to telling exciting stories, in my books I'm trying to give a modern interpretation of life in the Viking Age. In this ambition I feel very much in tune with Wardruna and their music. I would have wished, however, like the producers of the TV-series Vikings,  that I could have put Wardruna's sounds to my stories.