F (fehu) - means cattle, wealth and all that is without limit, cattle could be 20 cows, or 124 cows or 3 cows, who knows? The same goes for "wealth" - and isn't it a bit strange that a rune representing an unlimited plural, also represents the number 1?
And the second rune - Urur's - name means "original" and why shall the original rune be the second rune in the alphabet?
If we continue in the alphabet, why is the third rune (THE MOST SACRED NUMBER) represented by something as bad as the Giants - ThurisaR?

I could continue forever, but I think I have made my point, and now I like to present the U Þ A R K theory, in which the fehu-rune is moved and placed at last instead of first, letting the urur-rune become the first rune, perfect if we consider what it's name means - original.
Then the Giant-rune is represented by number 2 - since long ago known as a demonical number and the sacred rune 3 - is now belonging to the sacred Gods themselves.
And now the last rune, f - is representing unlimited plural where is fits the best - in the end...

This thesis was presented in the 30's by the Swedish rune-scientist Sigurd Agrell and he said that the alphabetical order was inspired from the Mithras cult practised by the Romans. This cult had a strong ground in the later Classical Antiquity, but Christianity beated them, one of the reason swere that also women were welcome in Christianity in comparison to the Mithras cult, which were a warrior cult for men alone, strongest among the Roman mercenary soldiers, where many Germans were doing a living...
I will keep all this at an easy level, so let's start now before I confuse things even more.

• -But why are all fuþark-inscriptions starting with the fehu-rune if it should be in the end?
• -Sigurd Agrell said that it was to confuse the people who only knew of the runes as a method of writing, because then the people who would try to use them wouldn't be able to, all uneven numbers would be even and the other way around. I have one more thing to add to the discussion, could it be a way of linking together the end and the beginning, to close the circle of life and time with a rune representing plural without limit, nobody knows how much or how little that link contains? Just one of my own theorys...

2. ThurisaR - The Thurs rune

I hope you know what a Thurs is... it is a Giant! This particular rune represents all of the Giants, especially Ymir - the first of them. Isn't it suiting that this rune follows urur, as the Giant family followed the Ourcow in the development of Time and Universe?
Thurs is like a Giant, a strong destructive power, not really evil, but the dark energi that works along with the creating one.
Good and evil are both needed to complete oneanother. Sometimes the destructive power of Thurs is needed to destory the harmful and give space for something new...
This was also the wild and strong power that were essential for creating the Universe.

3. AnsuR - The As rune

This is the third rune, and it represents the Æsir - three is a very sacred number within the Æsir cult, together with the number nine, which is 3 × 3...
This rune represent wisdom, power, strength and knowledge, well, all good things that could be said about the Gods - which are a lot!
It is exciting to note that the rune of the Gods follows the rune of the Giants - two separate powers, and it might be that this rune is here to "steal" the bad power of the last one. The Gods were also created after the Giants in the Myth about all thing's beginning.

4. Raiðu - The Wagon rune

This is the rune of the As-god Thor and represents the wagon, the journey and communication. It also symbolizes the Thurs-killing lightening of Thor, which gives it the symbolic of order, the four corners of the world and the four elements among others.
Raiðu is from the same origin as the Old English word rad - ride, which present pronunciation was formed by the Scottish accent long ago.
It's meaning is therefore travel, ride, direction, movement, journey, wheel - it stands for the four wheels in Thor's wagon.

5. Kauna - The Fire rune

This rune symbolizes the spiritual creating energy, the heat of life. It symbolizes a hand holding a torch.
It is the protection towards the horrible creatures of Outgard, which are all kept away by the fire in peoples' homes.
It represents the heat, boiling water and blood in form of wounds, open wounds and other openings.
Just beneath The Secret of the Runes I told you about Sigurd Agrell's uthark-theory and that he said it was inspired by the Roman's Mithras cult - which could be discussed...
But within that cult, the number five represented the Heaven-God, also in the ancient Persian religion and many more.
Kauna symbolizes the God of Heaven, the oldest of the Gods - Tyr - the original God which name means "God".
The Greec equivalent is Zeus, who is quite similar to Thor as they both send thunder-lightenings.
If we could go back to the ancient grey beginning of Time, I think we might could have found some connection between these two Divinities. Maybe Thor was a new form of Tyr?

6. Gebu - The Gift rune

Also called Gifu - a rune of harmony and balance, it represents the gift and the positive happenings and is number six in the fuþark - symbolizing the four directions of the World, and also up and down. That is why it is the rune of balance.
It is not only a rune of gifts for you, but a rune of gifts from you to the gods, an offering rune.
The rune is a cross, it points to the four corners in the Universe and in the middle is Midgard, the place where the balance and harmony is.

7. Wunju - The Joy rune

This word is the same as the Old English word wyn which means joy and happiness. It is the divined joy and pleasent, it is the sacred power and love which comes from the balance, as this rune follows Gebu above.
If we add the sacred number three (DIVINED) to the more Earthly number four (SEASONS, DIRECTIONS) - we get seven - the good of both Worlds, united in the Joy rune.
This is a rune for the life-sense and the strenght to live and a rune of love and friendship.

8. HagalaR - The Hail rune

This is the rune of the As-god Heimdall, the Sky God who guards the bridge Bifrost (THE RAINBOW) which connects the Humans' and the Gods' worlds.
The word hail originally ment a "cristallic stone" and the belief was that jewels were solidified ice which had fallen down from up above.
HagalaR reminds us that something unexpected can happen whenever.
In the Mithras cult, which I told about above - the eighth sphere of the Universe belonged to the stars - and in the traditional runic mythology this rune represent the skull cap ()SKY) on which the stars are placed.

9. NauðiR - The Need rune

This is the rune representing the very sacred number nine - the number of the nine worlds - and is one of the most powerful runes. It can be used to give strength to a charm, a spell, a cursing or similar.
It stands for the need and the necessaryness - which impacts our life through the threads of destiny which rules the living. In this way, the rune is connected to the Norns - the Godesses of Fate, and their weave which covers all of the nine worlds.
The number nine have been a sacred number in many, many religions since the beginning of time, and it is not only in Scandianvia as this number have been used when a man has wished really bad to have his wish fulfilled.

10. IsaR - The Ice rune

The Ice-rune represents stagnation, solidation, ice, freezing and winter. As it represents frozen water, it represents stagnation of energy. Therefore, this rune can be used a tieing-rune, which can be used for sealing a magic charm or to "tie" other cursings, so that they won't be able to harm.
This rune might also be connected to Hel - the Godess of Death, who rules over the dead, "tied" in the fetters of death.
In daily life it stands for coldness between people, for emotional difficulties.
It stands for the difficulty of letting go of old stuff, and to see new things the right way, lack of flexibility. Stagnation in someone's or something's development.
It can also mean that one should retire, take it easy and rest, away from the world for a while, to then be able to face oneself again.

11. Jara - The Year rune

This rune represents the year with its four seasons, the changes and the different harvests - it is a close fertility-rune, and therefore tightly connected to the Vanir, Gods of fertility, both males and females. In that way, it stands for the sexuality of both sexes. It is the rune of the two famous fertility Gods - Frey and Freya.
It could be used to get help if a couple seem to have difficulties in begetting children.
It is also symbolizing the harvests in form of fruits, both the fruits of the tree, but also the fruits of one's work the whole year, the reward of one's pains. It tells us that we will reach our goals if we try hard enough.
On the other hand, it represents the year in the form of a circle which have to be closed before the harvest is ready to be reapen, that we need patience and that all have its time - do not try to fasten a process which could need its time.

12 or 13. IhwaR - The Yewtree rune

This rune later got to represent the God Ull, but in the beginning is was most probably the rune of the World tree - Yggdrasil, which is told to be an ash tree, but let us take a look at Völuspá from the Poetic Edda...
The old seydwoman (VÖLVA) says that she can remember nine worlds, in Icelandic: níu íviði - Íviði means yewtree.
The God Ull lives in Ídalar - the dales of the Yewtrees, where he hunts with a bow and arrows.
-All with Nordic blood in your veines, you know that a really good bow was made by the yewtree, right?

The highest God in the Greec mythology is Zeus - the Heaven God, which up North is represented (ORIGINALLY) by Tyr - who's name means "God" and was the original God, before Odin took his place. Zeus has a brother called Apollon, and he also carries a bow around wherever he goes, just like Ull. The God Ull weren't worshiped in Denmark as much as in Sweden, in Sweden many places with -ull- can be found, while -tyr- is the similarity in Denmark, Ull might very well be a Swedish name for Tyr, and then Ull can be looked upon as an aspect of the highest Heaven God too.
Most naturally, the highest God in Heaven and the Great Tree holding together all Worlds in the Universe have a strong relationship...

13 or 12. Perðo - The Stone rune

The symbolic of this rune is unclear, but if we lean to the Mithras cult's affection to the runes symbolic, the Head-God, Mithras himself, was born out of a cliff called Petra.
Many elements in this myth have big similarities with the myth about the birth of Christ, there is a strong star shining and three priests hurries to his birth-place, just like the three wise men and Bethlehem.
Hum, that is out of the subject, let's stick to good ol' Nordic mythology here...
;-)

The reason why I have written 12 or 13 above is that both kinds have been found in fuþark inscriptions. These two numbers are in the center of the rune row, and if both are representing a Head-God, it might not be such a big deal to confuse them.

The men worshiping Mithras in the Mithras cult also worshiped a stone called P E T R A    G E N E T R I X - the stone giving birth. So, this rune should be looked upon as a female rune - she who gave birth to Mithras.
What do we have here, in the center of the runic alphabet?
Well, an aspect of the highest divined God couple: The Heaven God Ull/Tyr and the Southgermans Godess of Earth - Berchta, also referred to as Pertha.

14. AlgiR - The Elk rune

This rune have the appaerence of an elk-horn, with some good intention and some imagination.
Sigurd Agrell sais that this rune represents twins, from the Greec and Roman mythology called Dioskurer. The German's similarity to these divined twins could be Frey and Freya, and the Germanic people connected a star concellation with the twins - and called it the Elk.
This rune is a strong protective rune, a protection to black magic, like seyd and other, and it could also look like a hand in need of help.
Because of the big horns of an elk, he always have a lot of space around his head, nothing can get to close, and with help of the algiR-rune, you can keep clear from evil, at least keep it at a little distance, like the elk-horns.
Twins are a common divined subject, and in the ancient Indoeuropean religion, such a couple were referred to as the proposer of the Sun's daughter. Note which the following rune is - the Sun rune...
It seem as deer-animals and the Sun have much in common, next is the Sun-rune and here is part from the Sun-song, Sólarljóð:

Sólar Hjørt leit ek sunnan fara hann teymdu tveir saman; fœtr hans stóðu foldu á, en tóku horn til himins.

The Sun's deer came from the south, I heard. He was tamed by two together. Feet his, stood on fast earth, and touched with horns, heaven.

15. Sowilo - The Sun rune

The Sun-rune is of course the rune of the Sun and the summer-time, the life-giving good powers of the sun beams. All positive energies. But as every rune has a dark side, sowilo has one too: it sends light on and shows us also the dark and bad things in the world.
This is the fifteenth rune, and in old Persian religion, the fifteenth day in the month were the day of the good sun-god Ahura Mazda. In Babylonia, the same day belonged to the King, who according to their belief was the brother of the Sun and the Moon.

If we read verse 160 in Hávamál - The Poetic Edda, it says:

Það kann eg ið fimmtánda, er gól þjóðrerir dvergur fyr Dellings durum: afl gól hann ásum, en álfum frama, hyggju Hroftatý.

That can I for the fifteenth, it sang Thjodhrerir, the dwarf, (be-)for Delling's door; power sang he (for) the Æsir, for the Elves success, clear mind (for) Hroptatyr.

Hroptatyr is another name for the God Odin.
This verse contains kennings, which meaning is explained in the runic glossary within this section. I will explain the kenning within this verse here:

• Delling's door - Sunrise, Delling means Dawn, and the door, the beginning of dawn is the sunrise.

16. TiwaR - The Tyr rune

This is the rune of the Heaven God and highest God - Tyr. Tyr simply means "God" and he was the original God worshipped in Scandinavia before Odin "stole" his foremost place.
This is the rune of the spiritual warrior, he who faces tha dangers without fear, he who are happy to interfere in hard situations - and who isn't afraid to beat his own dark sides.
This rune represents strength, courage, victory and thruth. It was used in battle, on shields and weapons - both to harm and to protect, the two opposite sides of every rune.
As Tyr is the highest male God - he is the complement of Mother Earth and these two creates order and balance in both worlds when united - divined and earthly.
This rune represents the highest law and order - whenever a Thing was held - Tyr was called for as protector.

The rune pictures a spear edge, which means that this weapon originally belonged to Tyr, later Odin replaced Tyr as the highest God in Heaven and also took his sign - the spear Gungnir.

17. Berkana - The Birch rune

This rune, as well as the Birch tree, belongs to the Godess Frigg, wife of the highest God in heaven, Odin and the protector of the Germans' art of childbirth. This rune represents earthly, female power.
The rune have the shape of a pregnant woman, with her belly and breast.

This rune is also connected to Freya, the Vanir similarity to Frigg - and Freya stands for the womens' sexuality and fertility. These two Godesses' both have a necklace as her emblem and both are connected to the biological and emotional aspects in life. In one way, they are both mother-godesses, one from the Æsir - one from the Vanir, the other divined God-race.

This rune is used for giving fertility to women, and protect the expecting, the rune symbolizes the cosmic female - married to the Heaven God.

18. EhwaR - The Horse rune

The horse-rune represents the magic horse who carries a person the another world, like when Hermod rode Odin's horse Sleipnir to Hel, when he wanted to bring Baldur back to life. So, in one way, this rune is Odin's - as sleipnir is his magic horse with eight legs and who is able to galopp through air and on water.

19. MannaR - The Man rune

This is the rune of the human and of the man - it represents a well balanced and good man.
In the late Classic Antiquity, the number 19 represented man, who was a copy of the cosmos and in the ancient Babylonia, the number 19 was a unition between the 12 sign of the zodiac who decided mens' fate and the 7 planets who decided over mens' soul, according to their belief.
The rune symbolizes knowledge about oneself.

In the Nordic mythology, we find a connection between man and the number 19 in the Saga about Gångerolf, who is lost in the forest while out hunting. He meets a Troll-woman and she will help him if he helps her first... Her problem is her daughter, who is suffering bad as she can't deliver her Troll-baby, and she has been in agony for 19 days, but Gångerolf succeeds in helping her and both her and the baby survives.
There it is: Only a man can help after 19 days!

20. LaukaR - The Water rune

This rune's name means both Onions (LAUKAR) and Water (LAUGAR) - as the k- and the g-sound are represented by the same rune.
This is another rune connected to the Vanir, who are tightly connected to the water, as it gives life to everything, and the Vanir themselves are a divined race of Fertility-gods. Also the onion is a symbol of life and spring and fertility.

This rune stands for the life-giving water, it represents intuition and the effects of the moon, which controlls the tide.

21. IngwaR - The Ing rune

The Ing-rune is representing the ng-sound and the power of the Fertility-god Frey - one of the Vanir.
Another name for Frey was Ynge-Frey or Inge-Frey, and there is the connected between the name of the rune and the God.

There is a little place in the south of Sweden called Ingelstad, where an old barrow is situated with a round stone at the top, decorated with ornamental art in a circle. This cairn has the name Inglinge barrow and cairn and in the middle of that little ornamental-circle is a rune, almost identic to the 21:st rune...

22 or 23. ÐagaR - The Day rune

This rune symbolizes the dawn, the day, the light and the insight of something. The Daylight exposes and transformes, it bring life and awakening. The positive side of this rune is what I just said, that is shows something which have been in darkness with the daylight, it represents a turn of something, to the better.

23 or 22. Oþala - The Inheritage rune

This rune stands for agriculture and culture, for the family, the home, the land and country one lives in. It stands for relatives and forefathers, inheritage and real property.
This rune also symbolizes free men, like yeomen and other farmers who worked with their own soil which they had inherited and which they owned.

This rune is the last but one in the alphabet - and in symbolizes real property in comparison to the last:

24. Fehu - The Cattle rune

This is the last rune, it represents "f" and does almost look like an f-letter of today.
This rune sumbolizes tamed cattle, property and wealth, all things which is good and in plural without limit. This "tamed cattle" could mean 5, or 26 or 374 oxen, who knows - in comparison to Oþala right above here - which represents real property, countable...

This rune also represents perfection - as it is the last and carries number 24, so it also represents all the other runes, the entire alphabet.
It is the summary of the cosmology the runes symbolizes, from the very beginning and the ourcow Audhumbla(VIA THE FEHU-RUNE), and then on with the creation of Giants and then the Gods(VIA THE URUR- AND ÞURISAR-RUNE), and then continuing with all things which will garanti that the people are happy,fire, gifts, joy, trees, help, sun, horses, wealth and cattle among others.
It garanties that the people will live in perfect balance with their surroundings and with themselves - the idealic within the Nordic tradition - which have lingered on in Scandinavia until this very day, called just right or enough. This "balance/harmony-thing" is very important in our society, and is found in all shapes everywhere, but had an even more important role in those days:
Ars og Friðr - Prosperity and Peace.

Well, now it is up to one and each of you to decide for yourself what to believe..
Either you belong to the people seeing runes as a way of writing, and nothing more - or if you belong to the people seeing runes as something magical - nobody can decline that they were used in magical purposes and that the people saw them as a gift from the Gods...
But that was long ago, today they are here for us to enjoy and excite, and they are truly a great and very thrilling inheritage from our ancestors to carry on and keep alive...