100 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
Executable file
100 lines
3.1 KiB
HTML
Executable file
<title>Othala</title>
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<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Runic_letter_othalan.svg"><img src="../img/runes/othala.svg" alt="Othala rune" title="Othala rune"></a></p>
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<h1>Othala</h1>
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<p>Traditional meaning: homeland</p>
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<p>Meanings when upright:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>your home and all you own</li>
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<li>inheritance</li>
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<li>lawful ownership</li>
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<li>stability and protection</li>
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<li>true freedom in having a secure base</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Meanings when inverted:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>a need to reevaluate one's actions and priorities</li>
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<li>reconnect with the source of your strength</li>
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<li>homelessness</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Othala can be useful for:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>ancestral work</li>
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<li>maintaining order</li>
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</ul>
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<hr>
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<p>Anglo-Saxon rune poem:</p>
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<blockquote>Eþel byþ oferleof æghwylcum men,<br>gif he mot ðær rihtes and gerysena on<br>brucan on bolde bleadum oftast.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>An estate is very dear to every man,<br>if he can enjoy there in his house<br>whatever is right and proper in constant prosperity.</blockquote>
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<p>There is not a Norwegian rune poem for Othala.</p>
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<p>A modern poem:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>I fear I am being driven mad<br/>
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by forces I do not understand,<br/>
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have no hopes of coming to terms with,<br/>
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much less explaining to kin and kith<br/>
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this world that I belong to,<br/>
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these spirits I must be in league with.</p>
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<p>For this is<br/>
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the inheritance<br/>
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of my blood,<br/>
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this homeland I carry everywhere I go<br/>
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and cannot ever hope to escape from.<br/>
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These three errant and conflicting strains<br/>
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each with its own legitimate claim<br/>
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over my body, my heart, my soul.</p>
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<p>There's a fourth that dormant within me resides,<br/>
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but it hasn't reared its head in a very long time.<br/>
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Neither do I miss it, no blessing it could give<br/>
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but instead the curse of a biological imperative<br/>
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that I would sooner from me excise.</p>
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<p>Unlike my siblings of lives long gone by,<br/>
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I do not accept that it is my duty<br/>
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to create a world and in the process die.<br/>
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What is the point, if at the end,<br/>
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I am not still living?<br/>
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What is the point of fulfilling it when,<br/>
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if I perished in the process, you could never be happy?</p>
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<p>If one of them could awake from oblivion<br/>
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and on this gnarly life of mine pass judgment,<br/>
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what would they say?</p>
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<p>"How well you retained a sense of individuality.<br/>
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Tell me, Lethe, would you consider yourself among the happy?<br/>
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Was it worth the sleepless nights, the gut twists, the migraines,<br/>
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all to your duty as a Meridian abdicate?"</p>
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<p>And to that, I would take my lover's hand<br/>
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and whisper, "Yes, I think the aches<br/>
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in my bones will be worth the wait.<br/>
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Maybe you never knew this, sibling.<br/>
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Maybe you never understood<br/>
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homes don't have to be built by sacrifice<br/>
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and <i>I don't think they should.</i><br/>
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I don't know what gave birth to me<br/>
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or if of life they'd still think me worthy,<br/>
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but I care not. My lover<br/>
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is the only standard<br/>
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I recognize,<br/>
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and this new world built by these<br/>
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hands of mine<br/>
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the only homeland."</p>
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</blockquote>
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