runesong

English

Alternative forms

• rune-song
• rune song

Etymology

rune +‎ song

Noun

runesong (countable and uncountable, plural runesongs)

1. A poem or song, especially one with mystical or mysterious overtones; a spell or an incantation; magical or esoteric poetry.
   • 1875, Rasmus Bjørn Anderson, Norse Mythology, II. i., page 254:

     Odin himself says in his famous Rune-song in the Elder Edda: I know that I hung / On a wind-rocked tree.

   • 1882, [Eliza Keary], Memoir of Annie Keary, page 127:

     Ere one verse was done / The deer in the pine wood forgot how to run. / Oh! the strong / Power of rune song! / Chased, they forgot how to run.

   • 1896, Bernard Fredrik Godenhjelm, Handbook of the History of Finnish Literature, page 12:

     The old rune-songs may, however, still be heard on both sides of the border-land in Finnish and in Russian Carelia, as also on the shores of Lake Ladoga, in Ingria, and in the neighbourhood of Kajana in Osterbotten.

   • 2022, Michael Moorcock, Stormbringer: The Elric Saga, part 2, page 381:

     Into this the four plunged, weaving with their runesongs fresh and original psychic patterns which had the effect of healing wounds.