from runes to housemarks.

 

These house brands of the fishermen's houses in Vitt on Rügen, Germany, appear to be descended or perhaps even part of a runestave or bindrune tradition, but their purpose was specifically used to denote familial property. This would include objects and cattle in addition to land and houses.

The following are from Hiddensee, Germany:

The practice of using these house marks was also extant in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, all areas that used a runic set of letters.

I've used a bindrune of my initials to mark the top of my yard's "runestone" and less lethal launcher, and it would be cool to see this revived and NorsePlay'd back into practice. It really beats that 1970s CE disc stamping plastic label gun with its weaksauce glue backing for ancient/medieval cred.

[first photo by Chron-Paul.]

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Guillermo Maytorena IV knew there was something special in the Norse Lore when he picked up a copy of the d'Aulaires' Norse Gods and Giants at age seven. Since then he's been fascinated by the truthful potency of Norse Mythology, passionately read & studied, embraced Ásatrú, launched the Map of Midgard project, and spearheaded the neologism/brand NorsePlay. If you have employment/opportunities in investigative mythology,  field research, or product development to offer, do contact him.