Runes · Týr’s ætt
Mannaz
Sound: m · The name: man, human being
- humanity
- the self
- community
What the old rune poems say
The Old English poem: ‘The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen’, and yet every man must one day fail his fellow, since all must die. The Norwegian poem: ‘Man is an augmentation of the dust; great is the claw of the hawk.’ The Icelandic poem calls man ‘delight of man and augmentation of the earth’, and the one who adorns ships.
How it is read today
Modern rune readers take Mannaz as the rune of the human being: oneself and the people around one. The modern books speak of knowing yourself, of community and of the limits every life has. This is a modern reading, close to the poems’ own mixture of warmth and mortality.
Reversed
Modern books read it reversed as feeling cut off from others, or being hard on yourself. That is a modern device.
As your rune of the day
Be good company for someone today.
Be as patient with yourself today as you would be with a friend.
Reading runes as an oracle is modern, from Guido von List (1908) and Ralph Blum (1982); the people who carved them, Vikings included, used them for writing, names and charm words.