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DIVINATION. 283
of these characters, this supposition is strengthened,
and even passes over into a certainty.
Of the employment of runes in sorcery as magic
characters, we have before spoken ; that they were
also applied to the art of divination, so nearly allied
to sorcery, can hardly be doubted. Each runic
character has a name denoting some object of im-
portance in life, something to be desired or feared,
concerning which it might, therefore, be desirable to
consult the Gods. Thus, for instance, the name of
the character A is ar, a year, fruitfulness ; I is is,
ice ; F is f6, cattle, money, (pecus, pecunia), &c.
Moreover, all runes are formed by a combination of
right lines, whence no doubt their name stafir, sing.,
stafr, a staff, stave. Thus, when a number of straight
sticks were thrown up, they might very easily fall
in such relative positions toward one another, as to
form runic characters, and from the significant
names of these figures a prophecy could be traced
out. No doubt an improvement was afterward
made in the matter, by carving a rune upon each of
the sticks. By scattering them and afterward
either blindly picking them up one by one, after the
manner of the Germans, or by viewing their rela-
tive positions as a whole, it was easy to fabricate
a prophecy quite satisfactory to the superstition of
the times.
Such was, beyond all doubt, the nature of the
divination by blotspdnn employed by the heathen
Northmen. That they also invoked the Gods
thereby, and sang magic songs and incantations,
like the Germans and Alani, is highly probable.