...A written selection from the Eddas, tells of the rune discovery.

Odin hangs for nine nights upon the world tree, wounded and without food or water. . Finally, he sees the reflection, or vision of the runes in the water below.

Rune poem," written around 1000 C.E as told in the Eddas.

"Wounded I hung on a wind-swept gallows
For nine long nights,
Pierced by a spear, pledged to Odhinn,
Offered, myself to myself
The wisest know not from whence spring
The roots of that ancient rood.

They gave me no bread,
They gave me no mead,
I looked down;
with a loud cry
I took up runes;
from that tree I fell."