Divination: Rune Study - Mann

 Dear Reader,

As we pick up the threads that got dropped over the last month and a half, we return to the Rune Study series with an important rune for humanity: Mann/Mannaz

Now, before I go into the history and interpretation of this rune I must pause to clear up some semantics about it. There are many people who look at this rune and think it only talks about masculine people. The assumption is that the modern word 'man' is the same as the ancient one. This is incorrect. Mann refers to humanity at large. The Anglo-Saxon term for masculine people used the prefix (or suffix, depending on the conjugation of the word) -wig. Their term for feminine people used the prefix (or suffix, again depending on the conjugation of the word) -wif. The word 'wife' is derived from 'wif' and it is believed that both are pronounced the same way. It is reasonable to think that other Germanic and Norse cultures had similar distinctions.  The word Mann is related to '-were' (think werewolf which translates to man-wolf), which again refers to humanity at large.

With the tendency to condense and simplify language over time, Mann was shortened to man and because of social politics it became associated with the masculine gender within the English speaking world. I'm not entirely sure (because my resources are limited) what changes were made with respect to this rune and the word it is associated with in other cultures that used it. You'll note on my rune card I spelled it "man" this is to reflect the modern use of "man" to refer to humanity in the general sense. This is not a patriarchal thing but a reclaiming of the gender neutral meaning and putting it to the modern usage.

The version of Mann that is presented here is from the Elder Futhork and the Anglo-Saxon Futhork. The Younger Futhork presents Mann with the Algiz rune in direct orientation. (This can lead to some confusion in reading these runes depending on the system of interpretation you are using.) There are three rune poems about this rune. I will link to Wikipedia where there is a good translation of all three of them. In general, all of the rune poems agree that a person is the joy of their kinsmen and doomed to die. There is some variation as to the third element of the rune poems from each culture. The general trend is to describe some trait that humans engage in that is distinctly of their nature (i.e. the adornment of ships).

In interpreting this rune, I look at the querent's relationship to people at large or their kinsmen if this rune comes up in connection with Othala. A direct orientation indicates a relatively positive relationship and an indirect orientation bespeaks a negative one. As relationships change and are in flux all the time, this is a relatively fluid rune and requires others to place it into context.