| The first rune of the Elder Futhark is "Fehu". It's sound is "F". As the primary rune of the first aett, Fehu symbolizes beginnings. It's literal meaning is "cattle", the same meaning as the first letters of the Hebrew, Greek, and Gothic alphabets. In Norse mythology, Audhumla, the primal cow, at the dawn of existence licked a block of salt from which emerged Buri, the father of the human race. On the earthly level, Fehu signifies movable wealth, for the herdspeople of ancient Europe measured their wealth in heads of cattle. Today, Fehu refers mainly to money and credit. In principle, Fehu is thus the power we need to gain worldly wealth, and to keep it, making it a rune of power and control. However, wealth brings responsibilities, as is stressed by a Norwegian rune poem: "Wealth causes friction between relatives, while the wolf lurks in the woods." Having wealth can lead to greed and envy, which divide society. Fehu is one of the few runes still present in the English language, in the word "fee", meaning a payment. It can also be found in "Jack and the Beanstalk", in which the wealth-loving giant begins his well-known refrain "Fee, Fie, Fo, Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman!" with the runic "fee" refering to his riches. |