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Rune 13 of 16

bjarkan – The Bjarkan rune

Sound
b, p
Meaning
birch

The Norwegian rune poem

Bjarkan er laufgrønstr líma; Loki bar flærða tíma.

The birch is the greenest-leaved of branches; Loki bore the luck of deceit.

The Norwegian rune poem is from the 1200s and has one verse per rune. The original is in the public domain; the translations are our own.

Commentary

The birch is the first tree to come into leaf after a Norwegian winter, and stands for growth. Loki in the second line is the poem’s habit: one bright image, one dark.

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