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Rune 6 of 16

kaun – The Kaun rune

Sound
k, g
Meaning
ulcer, sore

The Norwegian rune poem

Kaun er barna bǫlvan; bǫl gørver nán fǫlvan.

The sore is the children's bane; misfortune makes the corpse pale.

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

One of the darkest verses in the poem, and a reminder that child mortality was the norm. The rune poems do not romanticise.

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