NAUTHIZ
n
Aett: 2nd Aett, Hagall’s Aett
Position within the Aett: 2
Position within the Futhark: 10
Meaning: Need, “The Present”
Concept: Wyrd
English Letter Value: N
Sound: N
Pronunciation: Nah-theez
Other Names: Anglo-Saxon: Nied, Nyd
Armanen: Nauth
Germanic: Nauthiz
Gothic: Nauths
Icelandic: Naud
Norwegian: Naudr
Younger: Naudh
Element: Fire
Associations:
Polarity: Neutral
Element: Fire
World: None
Galdr: Naaaaahtheeeeeezzz
Rune Poem(s)
Norwegian Rune Rhyme
[Need] makes for a difficult situation
the naked freeze in the frost.
Icelandic Rune Poem
[Need] is the grief of the bondmaid,
and a hard condition to be in,
and toilsome work.
trouble ON níflungr, “descendant of the dead?”
Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
[Need] is constricting on the chest
although to the children of men it oft becomes
a help and a salvation nevertheless,
it they heed it in time.
Level One Meaning(s)
Nauthiz is the rune of need; as in I need food, I need water, I need shelter or I need companionship. It has nothing to do with a person’s wants; such as I need (want) the latest DVD or I need (want) the latest CD. The n-rune’s energies deal with the basic needs of any creature; whether that creature is animal, human, jotan, etc. One of the lessons of this rune, and, probably, the most important one, is to attend to the needs of the now and not to worry about the needs of the future. The future needs will be taken care of if you take care of your needs of the present. In other words, it is the idea that within the n-rune that the release from need can be found. It should also be remembered that this rune always has a sense of great urgency associated with it.
It is also the rune of restrictions. Because of having to take care of your needs, your choices are restricted, confined to a select few that deal with your needs. The more the taking care of your needs become a priority the more restricted are your choices of what you can and cannot do. Nauthiz also represents the obstacles that we have created as well as the obstacles that are placed in front of us by others and life itself.
Nauthiz is also a rune of warning. It can warn you that certain needs are not being taken care of and that if they are not taken care of soon, then tragedy will surely follow. If the warning is heeded, then the will to survive will kick in and will try to prevent the tragedy from coming into being. Along this line, the n-rune can be used to restrict the actions of others; especially to “restrict” their ability to cause you “need”. But this type of action should only take place if there is a need to do so.
The nauthiz rune is closely associated with the ancient ritual of the “need-fire”. The need-fire, which was lit by a chaste boy and girl who rubbed two pieces of wood together in two different locations, usually on the tops of two hills (they probably used a bow to create friction on the other piece of wood thus creating a fire; note how the shape of the rune is suggestive of such a method of creating fire). Once the fires were lit and going well, cattle were driven between the two fires to cleanse sanctify and bless them. More especially, to ensure their fertility for the coming year. Those who were ill or needing the blessings of the gods (especially in the matters of fertility) would also pass between the need-fires. The need-fire was also lit during times of lack, drought or disease; but it was also lit at the quarter festivals (i.e.: the solstices and the equinoxes).
The n-rune can also represent that sudden burst of strength that comes forth when the need arises to save the life of another (known today as an adrenaline surge or “Hysterical strength”). It was probably the ability to tap into this strength at will that made the berserkers nearly invincible and so feared in battle. Thus, it can be said that nauthiz can not only represent the trials that life sets in front of us, but the ability, the inner strength, to over come those trials.
It is said that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Since meeting your needs is a necessity for life, nauthiz can be considered the rune of necessity. As such, that old saying fits the aspects of the n-rune all to well. The rune, therefore, also represents the human drive to be inventive and forces us to work to survive, forces us to find better ways to harness the forces of nature to our benefit. However, on the negative side of this equation, it left unfettered, the force of nauthiz can bring about our ruin by letting us become complacent in a false sense of security. A false sense of being in control of the forces around us and of being superior and above the forces of nature. Whenever this happens, nature has a way of reminding us of just who the real boss is. Within the n-rune is both the warning of this and the solution to the problem. Also, within nauthiz is the principle of the necessity to endure. It is that stubborn will to succeed even in the face of overwhelming odds. It is the resistance of the human will to the idea of giving up without a fight, even when there is absolutely no hope of winning.
As such, one of nauthiz’s aspects is resistance. Not just the resistance to the forces from without, but also the one that come from within. Those forces that prod you to ignore the taking care of needs and the ones that try to push you away from your wyrd and honor. It is also the rune of friction. Resistance to movement of any kind cause friction; in the physical world as well as in the “spiritual” and cosmological worlds. Thus, nauthiz is also the rune of earthquakes. An earthquake, as we know, is the release of energy caused by the build up of pressure (resistance to movement) between two sides of a fault and the “need” to release this pressure. This association with resistance would also associate nauthiz with geysers and volcanoes since it is the resistance to flow that causes both geysers and volcanoes to erupt (although volcanoes would be more closely associated with fehu due to their association with primal fires [the magma that they spue forth in one form or another]). This association with earthquakes is also supported by the lore; in the prose ending of the Lokasenna we find out:
And after that Loki hid himself in Franang's waterfall in the guise of a salmon, and there the gods took him. He was bound with the bowels of his son Vali, but his son Narfi was changed to a wolf. Skathi took a poison-snake and fastened it up over Loki's face, and the poison dropped thereon. Sigyn, Loki's wife, sat there and held a shell under the poison, but when the shell was full she bore away the poison, and meanwhile the poison dropped on Loki. Then he struggled so hard that the whole earth shook therewith; and now that is called an earthquake.
[BELLOW’S TRANSLATION]
According to this it is the constraint (Nauthiz) and torture of Loki that earthquakes happen.
Associated Deity(ies)
Loki: See above
© 2005
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