When we look at our oldest rune stones, we clearly see ancestral cult in its most poetic forms. One of these many rune stones was found at the farm Eggjum in Sogn og Fjordane in Norway.
Like most old farm names in Norway, we recognize the landscape in the farms name itself;
Eggjar, pl. of Egg f., Egg means ridge of stone/mountain or mound/of soil. The farm name comes in two versions of the second syllable, namely -jar or -um. Both relate to the Norse Heimr (home/yard/state/dimmention).
The ancestral grave of Eggjum is told to be a grave found in 1917, and that it was poor in regards to items inside. Well, many of these graves are, due to the fact that the items were taken out of the graves during inititation rituals and passages of allodial heritage from ancestors. They have been concluded "poor" in regards to precious items and weapons by scholars. The belongings of the ancestors were collected by the decendants (the ancestor re-born), and more so than of later "Christian" grave robbings, for sure.
The Eggjum grave itself is dated back to the 600s, with the longest inscription of runes in proto-Nordic compiled of at least 180 runes.
The grave is a "flat grave" (on flat ground) and the runes were turned down in the soil - into the realm of the dead. The scholars have not been able to detect all of the almost 200 runes, due to wear and tear of the last 1 500 years. The runes and the rows they have been able to identify have through the years been the foundations of several and numeral intepretations and translations - from poor litteral translations, to speculations if Óðinn himself once came in persona to the Eggjum farm! (Yes, you read that right, seriously, and from "real" scholars....).
The most official version of the translation of the preserved runes would in English be;
"The place is not searched by the sun and the stone not carved with iron. None will expose it under the waining moon. Not will men astray remove it. It was stenched in blood by the man, carved by it the oar post in her tired carried boat. As whom came Óðinn by boat here to the land of the Goths. Like the fish, swimming out of the river of fear, like the bird screaming"
Among the runes we also find the totem animal - the horse, the symbol itself for the spritual passings, from realm to realm, from heimr to heimr, from life to death, and back again.
As the preserved translated rune rows clearly show us; they do not tell of an historic event that Óðinn came in his boat to visit Eggjum. They show us ancetral cult, animism and re-incarantion in poetic forms, in kennings and heiti;
The grave is more or less hidden, and the runes are hidden, down in the realm of the dead. They are hidden under the waining moon, away from the rays of Sól, like in the winter cave, like the realm of Hél, as in the womb of a mother. No unauthorized should find it, or remove it. It is carved and prepared and directly translated "stenched in "the sea of the corps" carved by it the oar post (the ability to row/move) in the boat of the carrying mother (the womb). The grave and its dweller are prepared to be re-born. Thus, who will it be - Óðinn rowing the boat - your ancestors accumulated - to be re-born? Who will it be - coming out like a fish from the river of fear (the birth itself)? Who will it be, coming out screaming - like the falcon (the symbol above all for the ancestor re-born)?
It is believed that you can figure the symbolism here out for yourself by now...
It is truly beautiful, all of our Norse pre-Christian pagan runes, kennings, heiti, riddles and honorable, life celebrating traces of a heritage to continiue. One could only imagine the legacy we would have, if not the destructions and the spiritual devestations of Abrahamism never had reached our shores. It is our true duty to find our true legacy again. It is not lost. It is only hidden under the waining moon....