Hail & Change
Hagalaz is the hail that falls unexpectedly from the sky – a rune of sudden upheaval and trial. Yet the hail melts to water that nourishes: what breaks open now clears and makes room for the new. Meet change with composure, for it has its purpose.
‘Hagall’ is hail – the grain of ice that falls from the sky. Hagalaz opens the second group of eight and stands for sudden upheaval and the rough forces of nature.
The Old Norse poem calls hail ‘the coldest of grains’. The Old English adds to the image: hail is white, rolls from the sky, is driven by the wind – and in the end turns into water.
Hail destroys the harvest in minutes – yet the ice melts and becomes water that nourishes new growth. Hagalaz carries this double sense of destruction and transformation.
In some orderings, Hagalaz is regarded as the ‘mother rune’, from whose form the other runes can be conceptually derived.