Let’s talk calendars. We have as a community developed research and concepts that help us to reconstruct a fully heathen calendar. Some camps choose to follow a lunisolar system, while others focus on the Misseri calendar that is based on the earlier weekly system. Both of these are perfectly valid, and both have been described by scholars as having ancient origins. These calendars are useful in helping us to understand precisely when we are to perform the holy Veizlas or festivals. With them we can calculate the correlation between our months, the celestial bodies, and our sacred events.
But what about the years? Did our ancestors have a way of calculating the years as they passed? Indeed they did, but this method has been overlooked because they have been making comparisons to the Gregorian Calendar and looking for fixed points by which such a calculation can be made. However, not all yearly systems are built upon fixed points. Others are calculated by cycles, and given the polytheist view on cyclical time it would only seem fitting that our ancestors maintained this.
The Chinese calendar is built upon a 60-year cycle, combining the following elements:
• Ten Heavenly Stems (e.g., Jia, Yi, Bing, etc.).
• Twelve Earthly Branches (associated with the Chinese zodiac animals, e.g., Rat, Ox, Tiger).
• Each year is named by pairing a stem and branch (e.g., 2025 is Yisi, the Year of the Snake). The cycle repeats every 60 years.
The ancient Germanic calendar was cyclical as well, based on what is called The Metonic Cycle. The Runic calendar, as exemplified by the Nyköping staff from the 13th century, is a perpetual calendar based on the 19-year Metonic cycle, which correlates lunar and solar cycles. Each year in this cycle is associated with one of 19 “Golden Numbers,” represented by runes or symbols. The first 16 years typically use the runes of the Younger Futhark, while the remaining three years (17–19) are assigned special runes created for the calendar. To determine the rune for the current year, the following equation is utilized:
Golden number= [(year/mod 19+1)]
Where \(\mod\) is the modulo operation (remainder after division).
2025 \div 19 = 106 \text{ remainder } 11 \quad \text{(since } 19 \times 106 = 2014, \text{ and } 2025 – 2014 = 11\text{)}
2025 divided by 19= 106/ remainder 11 Since 19×106 = 2,014 + 11= 2025
Golden Number= 11+1=12.
For Golden Number 12, the corresponding rune is ᛏ (týr).
Thus, 2025 corresponds to Golden Number 12 in the Metonic cycle and is the Year of Týr.
The Runic calendar uses the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark for Golden Numbers 1–16, and three additional special runes for Golden Numbers 17–19.
• The Younger Futhark runes, in standard order, are:
1. ᚠ (fé)
2. ᚢ (úr)
3. ᚦ (þurs)
4. ᚬ (óss)
5. ᚱ (reið)
6. ᚴ (kaun)
7. ᚼ (hagl)
8. ᚾ (nauð)
9. ᛁ (íss)
10. ᛅ (ár)
11. ᛋ (sól)
12. ᛏ (týr)
13. ᛒ (bjarkan)
14. ᛘ (maðr)
15. ᛚ (lögr)
16. ᛦ (ýr)
The additional runes are (17-19), and were made specifically for the calendar. These were Árlaug (combining the runes Ár and Lögr), Tvímaðr (Two-men), and Belgþor (Bellows-Þórr?). These special runes were documented by Ole Worm in 1636 in his work Runir seu Danica literatura antiquissima, though their use dates back to at least the 13th century with the Nyköping staff. Later calendars (e.g., 1498 Breviarium Scarense) replaced runes with Latin letters and Arabic numerals for weekdays and Golden Numbers, respectively.
The Nyköping staff, believed to date from the 13th century, is the oldest known Runic calendar and uses this system. It marks days with runes from the Younger Futhark and additional symbols for the Golden Numbers to track the lunar cycle within the 19-year Metonic cycle. Therefore, we can use these staffs to mark the years and reconstruct the Metonic Cycle in our yearly calendars. Not based upon fixed dates, but upon the cycles of nature and the movement of celestial bodies. The calendar staffs are very late and are believed to contain a mix of heathen and Christian elements.
For instance, several markers are made for Jól and Disting, which predate Christianity in Northern Europe, and runes are obviously adapted from our ancestral faith. So, while we take the origins of this with a grain of salt, we can adapt it to our tradition, as it is the best information we have available in rebuilding our yearly markings.
We plan on publishing this calendar in the year to come.
– Mark Puryear
