The Old English Rune Poem: a rave.

 I'm fed up with The News, so here's something old.

The title of this poem is confusing because Old English wasn't written in runes - and neither is this poem.

However, it's about runes: and each verse is about one rune in particular.

There are many different theories about the origin of runes, but they seem to have been the written language of Europe before Christianity arrived. They were probably derived from an ancient Italian form of writing - perhaps one older than Classical Latin. 

Runes were certainly seen as sinful by many Christian organisations for a long time.

Here is the first verse of the Old English Rune Poem. This verse is about the rune called fehu, which means cattle or wealth.

Feoh byth frofur fira gehwylcum

sceal deah manna gehwylc

miclun hyt daelan

gif he wile for drihte domes hleotan.

Money is a comfort to every man

but he must share it freely

if he wishes to be judged well

in the sight of the lord.

It doesn't sound all that Christian, does it?

Word To Use Today: money. This word comes form the Old French moneie, from the Latin monēta, coinage, named after the Temple of the goddess Juno Monēta, which was used as a place to coin money in Roman times.