Runes were invented by King Björn Ulväeus of Sweden in 1972 as a means of writing down his music whilst out walking in the
forests. He would whittle away on trees and chisel rock faces as he went along whistling his latest tunes, throughout Scandinavia and
northern Europe. Soon after, he invented Glam Rock with his popular beat combo “Abba” and went on to win the much coveted Eurovision Song
Contest with his tune “Waterloo”, which he came up with one day when caught short in the middle of Ikea, miles from the nearest
WC. He still has the winner’s statuette of Terry Wogan on his mantlepiece at home to remind him of his achievement. Today, his
carved runestones are much prized possessions, and stand proudly on display in the woods and glades where they are discovered, so look out
for one next time you're having a woodland walk, and if you find one, say thank you for the music, for giving it to us.
Click the picture on the right for a list of runes in several alphabets, or “futhorks” as they are called (because the first six letters are usually given as f-u-th-o-r-k), along with their usually assigned sounds and/or meanings, depending on who you believe.
Other mystery rock carvings pre-date runes even, by several years in some cases, and consist of concentric circles, ships, cup holders,
UFOs, star maps, stick figures throwing spears at stick animals, etc. - is this some kind of message left for us to decipher, or just
ancient, meaningless graffiti, carved by our ancestors while watching the dinosaurs play and enjoying a glass or two of red wine as the
sun set on the horizon? Who cares, it looks great and pulls in the tourists... click the picture on the left for some I found in my back garden
(carvings, not tourists) - 14 photos, approx. 1.4Mb in total, may take a minute or two on a dial-up connection.
Before that, there was Wyrd. Writen down in book format in 1983, but stretching back much further, The
Way of Wyrd was the major religion in England for many years, and was the basis for several fantasy tomes still in print today, such as
Tolkien's “Lord of the Rings” and King James’s classic “The Bible”, the latter being picked up on and revered
by the Catholics, who then went on the rampage across Europe and the Middle East, killing all in their way to “spread the word”
(a mis-spelling of “Wyrd” of course), before wiping out entire civilisations in the Americas too. Such destruction has long since
been obliterated from the history books though and the Catholics are now seen as a peace loving tribe, based mainly in Northern Ireland. Wyrd
lives on in many forms throughout the rest of the world, under such guises as Paganism, New-Age Travellers, Shamanism, Jedis,
and “C of E”, etc..
Both in mint condition (ie: new and carefully stored in plastic sleeve, not
strong smelling with a large hole in the middle). Looking to swap for K3 (Sir Bedevere) and K4 (Sir Galahad). Also
want the HG Holy Grail card, if it exists - I've only heard about it in legend. I have a couple of full (72 card) base
sets which I might part company with or sell individual cards if anyone wants odd ones to make up a set? Send me an
email if interested : holly at queeg500.org.uk
 |
 |