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Rune 14 of 16

maðr – The Madr rune

Sound
m
Meaning
human being

The Norwegian rune poem

Maðr er moldar auki; mikil er græip á hauki.

Man is an augmentation of dust; great is the talon-span of the hawk.

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

“An augmentation of dust” — man as something the earth gets back in the end. The hawk beside him: a short life, a sharp grip.

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