I hope this is an okay question to ask, but I don’t know where else to bring this question. My friends went to Iceland last summer and they sent me a photo of some bindrunes that they saw in a shop window.
I wanted to put images of some of these runes on mugs that I make in my pottery studio… but before I did, I wanted to check in to make sure I’m not about to do a cultural appropriation?
For the record I’m American of British, Irish, Welsh, French and Scandinavian origin. So I can’t claim to be Icelandic at all.
What is the consensus? Are bindrunes okay to put on mugs even if I’m not Icelandic, or should I find something else to use for decoration?
by JustSpitItOutNancy
7 comments
Honestly I do not know a single Icelandic person who cares about these kind of runes, except for maybe the “Fuþark” alphabet, I at least have never even seem these.
They seem to me as just some tourist stuff someone made up, but I don’t know anything about it.
All things considered, even if those are legit historical runes, you are definently clear to use them without offending anyone so have at it.
First thing to keep in mind is that “cultural appropriation” is more or less a homegrown American concept and does not apply very well internationally.
I don’t think anyone would have a problem with you using Norse runes for your pottery if you did so respectfully and weren’t trying to add some loaded meaning to them.
That being said I think these are just some made up nonsense for tourists, I’m no historian so take this with a grain of salt but I have never seen these before look nothing like any Norse or Icelandic runes I have seen.
As long as you’re not using them for white supremacist reasons I don’t think people will care. It’s a bit odd imo that you would want to use runes if you have no connection to them, but it’s not cultural appropriation.
No one cares, these runes are nonsense
This has a distinct air of something created on an idle afternoon to sell to tourists, rather than any sort of historic or cultural artifact–though I could be mistaken.
I’m assuming that these are [same-stave bindrunes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bind_rune), which are a sequence of individual runes strung together along one vertical stroke. Is there anyone here who knows their Scandinavian runes and might hazard a guess at the transliteration and translation of these figures?
(Or it’s possible that the creator went one step further, and just created something that looks rune-ish in style, with no particular semantic content at all…but again, I can’t comment.)
I don’t think you will get any anger in Iceland, this part of history is not very accepted by majority of Icelanders. You can ask on r/Pagan or look at [https://galdrasyning.is/en/galdrar/](https://galdrasyning.is/en/galdrasagan/) for specific and accurate ways to use them. There are also people in iceland who live by this, maybe Ásatrúarfélagið is a good start, even if these stavs are mixed with christianity.
Oookay. Well I suppose I need to decide if I want to use touristy nonsense on my work. I really appreciate the insight and responses I have received and thank you for the time you each took to respond.