According to shared Germanic tradition preserved in the Hávamál, Wodan discovered the runes through an act of self-sacrifice — hanging on the world tree for nine nights, wounded by a spear, to seize the secret of the sacred letters.
Germanic Runes and Norse Runes represent the same sacred alphabet. The Norse tradition preserves the most detailed mythology of runic origins through the Eddas, drawing on shared Germanic beliefs about Wodan/Odin's self-sacrifice.
In the Sigrdrífumál, after Sigurd awakens Brunhild on Hindarfjall, she teaches him the lore of runes — victory runes, ale runes, birth runes, wave runes, speech runes, and thought runes — making her one of the tradition's key transmitters of runic wisdom.
Among the Runes, the Thurisaz rune (þ) bears the thunder god Donar's name and power. The Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem describes the thorn as "exceedingly sharp" and harmful to any warrior who grasps it, invoking Donar's protective force against hostile beings.
The Norns score marks upon the wood of Yggdrasil, carving the fates of all beings into the world tree itself — binding destiny to the runes that order the cosmos.
Sigurd gained runic knowledge from two sources: he learned the speech of birds after tasting Fafnir's blood, and Brunhild taught him the deeper lore of runes on Hindarfjall — victory runes, ale runes, wave runes, and thought runes — as recorded in the Sigrdrífumál.
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