III. The Discovery
Five large, decomposing, but reinforced, wooden chests were discovered in the Far Forest of England along with caches of weapons and coins during an archeological dig. Each chest was labeled with a different rune and filled with scrolls and drawings. Although obviously of different ages the overall dating puts the chests and their contents from around 1000 B.C. (B.C.E.). With the help of Professor Emeritus Radek Novotny and with rehabilitation efforts from Altier Restoration the scrolls in each of the five chests were translated, becoming the five books of the Far Forest Scrolls fantasy series.
Book One:
Na Cearcaill was found in the chest with the rune, Jera. Symbolizing the first book in the series, the rune Jera represents the insensate passage of time. Whether acknowledged or spurned, it is always a season of change. Na Cearcaill is a cyclical pattern of evil, spreading chaos around the world.
Book Two:
Hourglass of Destruction was found in the wooden crates with rune, Hagalaz. Book Two is represented by the rune of revolutionary change, Hagalaz. It denotes disruption, catastrophe, and unavoidable distress. For Verngaurd, and those in Book One, it symbolizes a seismic shift in the reality of world order rumbling through every facet of life as the mysterious time of Na Cearcaill ensues. {Aside about runes: The rune engravings found carved in the chests from Far Forest are from the Elder Futhark (the oldest runic script). The Elder Futhark is divided into three Aettir or “families,” each one consisting of eight runes. Each Aett of eight runes is named for a god associated with the first rune in the family. Both Jera (from Book One) and Hagalaz (from Book Two) are from the second Aett known as Hagal’s (or sometimes Heimdall since little is known of the Norse god of weather–Hagal).}
Book Three:
Rise Above the Storm was discovered in a chest with rune Uruz on the outside and Reverse Uruz under the decrepit lid. Rune Uruz represents the brutally raw and untamed struggle coiled to encase the world within the ferocious power of a world at war.
Reverse Uruz symbolizes the monumental missed opportunity Verngaurd had to avert disaster and come together. This failure upsets the precariously balanced equilibrium of primal power and intellect/reason.
Book Four:
Earth on Fire Ocean of Blood was discovered within a chest with Teiwaz and Reverse Teiwaz. Named after the Norse god, Tyr, who volunteered to lose his hand in order to bind the savage wolf Fenrir. Teiwaz is the rune of sacrifice and courage. It represents the power of sacrifice given freely. It epitomizes the warrior spirit offered up by soldiers in a time of battle. War, with its insatiable appetite for the blood and spirit of the combatants, is always happy to oblige the leaders sending orders to march and die.
Reverse Teiwaz (from the underside of chest four in the Far Forest of England) speaks to the questionable causes of this war as deceit weaves its disruption through the leaders of Verngaurd. (Aside on Norse mythology: wolf Fenrir was the 3rd child of god Loki. The other gods, considering Fenrir dangerous, wanted to bind him. Fenrir, suspecting a trick, refused to be bound in the chain forged by the dwarves {out of the sound of a cat’s footsteps, the beard of a woman, the breath of a fish, the roots of mountains, the sinews of a bear, and bird spittle}. Fenrir agreed to be bound only if a god would place their hand in his mouth. Tyr freely did so, and when the dwarf chain called Gleipnir bound the wolf, he chomped Tyr’s hand off).
Book Five:
Tattered Shred of Eternity was unearthed within the last crate, and the first with two different runes on it: Eihwaz and Ingwaz.
Eihwaz comes from the warrior’s (or Heimdall’s) second Aett. This complex rune represents the League’s quest, and the perseverance required to see it to completion. It also symbolizes the battles ravaging Verngaurd. Even if we live ten thousand lives all things end. Eihwaz represents rebirth: whatever happens to the League and the wider scope of ravaging battles, the entire world shall be renewed–it is just a matter of how.
Rune Ingwaz comes from the third Aett (Tyr’s or Heaven’s). The intricate Ingwaz represents the completion of our journey and, as endings tend to do, sings forth the promise of a new beginning. One phase concludes and we find ourselves on the sword’s razor edge, the tipping and turning point of Ingwaz, swaying in the wind from old, to new life energy after the wintery depths of a cold, and at times heartless, journey.
