If you open Wiki or other common resources here and there, you would probably find that Odal is the rune number 24 or the last rune of the Elder Futhark. However, that’s not so certain. If you already have basics on the rune topic and are not just a first-time visitor or occasional explorer, you would probably already heard that some solid experts in this field, and particular Norse writers would say that Dagaz should be the last rune of Elder Futhark. Let’s do small research toward this topic to understand the nature of the question better and to make some conclusions that could make common sense.
Kylver Stone | Grumpan bracteate |
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There are not many artifacts known that have complete Elder Futhark in the order we suppose to see it. One of the major references would be Kylver Stone dated by the 4th century AD, which has Elder Futhark placed exactly in the order we know it nowadays. On the stone, we could find that Dagaz is placed under the number 23 while Odal finishes the Futhark as the last rune under the number 24. According to research, that stone was used for funeral purposes. However, there would be another solid artifact dated by 6th AD and known as Grumpan bracteate where we would see Dagaz to be at the end of the Elder Futhark. So as we can see, two authority sources, but the ending runes are different.
According to the author of this topic, it’s not principal as far as users understand the nature of the Dagaz and Odal runes and have a clear idea when each of them has to be used to fulfill the use case. Let’s quickly review on the nature of Dagaz and Odal runes.
(ᛞ) Dagaz rune by its nature and shape represents a cycle, which conceptually never ends. So when one cycle is finished it just pushes a new one to start and this is a never-ending manifestation process. By putting Dagaz at the end of the runic formula, the user triggers a never-ending manifestation process that keeps going considering the context of the runic formula.
(ᛟ) Odal rune on the other hand represents something that has its final point or finish state. Something that could lead to some development state and stop. In the example with Kylver Stone, it was used as the funeral stone which perfectly symbolizes the ending point of human begins. Old Norse believed that passed away may return back as sort of zombie which they called draughrs, therefore in order to prevent this they used Elder Futhark which was considered a magical force where Odal was placed as the final rune to ensure that the dead had passed away forever and won’t restore to disturb alive.
While the author of the article is not pretending that the final point of true, it almost seems that it’s not that principle which rune would be the last Odal or Dagaz as far as the user understands the key concept. So something needs to be finalized Odal rune probably would be the better choice, but if it continues manifestation consider using Dagaz rune.
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