Oooh some more Norwegian, or whatever creepy language he kept using all the time. Helena wondered what could those words mean, and, as professor Christiansen was speaking, she scribbled absent mindedly the words on the parchment she was going to use to take notes.

But she suddenly stopped, as she heard a question. "The runes have meanings because each of them could have a... magical effect?" Yes? No? "And everyone should know what every rune is used for, I think," the girl said with her hand raised. "Runes were also used for writing, so the meanings are used to understand the myths, culture and lifestyle of the ancient people who used them to write."

And hopefully that made sense.

Well why did runes have meanings and what are they used for? She thoguht, listening to Professor Chistriansen's accent was almost hard for her...but then again she wasn't one for accents which was why she always tried to hide her own.

"Well, could you say that the runes have meanings because it was one of the ways people knew what you were speaking of - as without a meaning no one would understand eachother and with understanding you could have a vast amount of confusion" well that was a simple enough answer. "And as was already said the runes are used for writing - but they were also used for verbal and vocal communications - and with writing used for magicks."

William is hoping the class starts real sooon because he likes it.

'Well...it's like an alphabet, so it is used in divination and communication...I guess.', Gwen said. The girl tryied thinking of something else to say about runes, but that was all she knew.

God kveld, Barn? ... Jamie could not process the meaning of that whatsoever, so he let it slide away from his brain. It was the question that he had to work out. Meaninks.... Meanings? Oh. Raising his hand lazily, the boy thought he'd take a stab at it. "Because there would be no point to them if they didn't have meanings." They would be something that some old dude doodled on a rock, which people looked at with no expression. Ya.

Even though he certainly did attend last lesson, Jamie couldn't remember what Runes were even used for. Meanings or not, he still found them useless. "They are used as an alphabet, aren't they?" All he remembered was something called the 'Runic Alphabet'.

"I thought runes were just an Ancient way of writing..." She had missed the first lesson and was a little confused. "Maybe the runes are a way of gaining power over something? Like if... I'm not sure." she trailed off.

Penny thought about the question for a few minutes..."Professor are Runes used to like give a explanation or story of the thing they are placed on?".... she remembered reading somewhere, but wasn't sure..

"I thought that they were like a kind of alphabet," Rachel said, putting up her hand.

"Well runes are all the different alphabets of ancient civilizations. Each rune has a different meaning given by the civilization it came from.", Chloe responded with her hand raised high.

"Oh, no no wait," Rachel said, realizing what she had said, "No, they are lots of different alphabets, each thing goes with the civillisation it came from, I think." She said, blushing, she had never done that before.

Hehe... God kveld, barn. So cool! For this Evan liked having foreign teachers--because they were foreign and brought something new to each class. Then, with a smile, he listened to the man eagerly, only for his smile to fade and look like i was plastered on his face. What was he saying?! The previous class had been easy, because the man talked less, but now... Evan looked with lost eyes. No, he decided he didn't like foreign teachers. They were hard to understand. He could observe their culture by going there himself, no need for them to try to teach him!

"Oh, WHY runes have meanings!" he exclaimed out loud as he understood the original question after a minute or two. Oh. That wasn't supposed to be so loud. Looking around as if to see who exclaimed so loudly, he said, hand in the air, "They have meanings because they have a special effect... Or maybe their meaning came before their magic..." No, that wasn't the answer. Evan could judge by the other answers.

Eastley had a hard time understanding his rather odd professor. For a minute, he thought Professor Christiansen was talking about minks. What... he thought. Fortunately, he overheard from his classmates what the professor actually meant. Meaning huh?, Eastley thought. He thought about it for a while and let the others answer it first. Suddenly, he raised his hand and said, "Each rune represent differnet kinds of things that are valuable to Germanic peoples. It is also said that each rune is connected to a specific Norse god/godesses, and thus possesses unique powers." He paused and continued, "And as what others had said, runes were used as some sort of an alphabet system. But the runes, and their meanings, were also used for magic and, recently, divination.

Oh Merlin's socks. This man had an accent, making a hard class even harder.

Sophia paused for a moment before she raised her hand. She had read this (three times) earlier before class so she would have SOME sort of idea what was going on, and not get lost in here.

"Well, Professor," she began. "Runes are similar to hieroglyphics used by the Ancient Egyptians. Those were used for communication, and possibly even spells. So Runes serve the same purpose - they have meanings because they're like a way to communicate. Like others have said, they're also used in Divination, so they might have the ability to predict certain aspects of the future."

What else had the book said? She was trying reeeally hard to remember... but something just wasn't coming to her. "It's all theoretical though, 'cause it's based on the ancient scripts of magic. So like, maybe the first textbooks ever written containing spells and potions used Runes. And those Runes held some sort of power, like they do or don't today."

Maybe that would work? Ugh. Stupid class.

William raised his hand." Runes meanings interpet things in the past present and future about your life" William told the professor.

Uh...Samira had no clue. The fact that this man's accent made it hard for her to understand a word of what he was saying didn't help at all either. "Um, aren't they like hieroglyphics, or have a certain number connected to them?" She was probably wrong, and Samira was sure it was Arithmancy she was thinking about.

"Ja ja... runes are alphabet ja..." He said nodding and glaring that the ravenclaw that made fun of his accent. "Ze runes are beink used for divination by muggles because zey do not know better. You must understand, runes do not predict future. Zey provide an overall view. Future iz like moon... ever changink. So meaninks are there to guide us to vat should be done to reach preferable outcome."

He breathed. He hoped they all understood.

"Now... Ve discuss runes. Tell me a rune and then tell me meanink, Ja?"



ooc: So he's telling you that because the future is a changeable thing, the runes merely provide a guide to an obtainable outcome. He's also asking you all to tell him a rune, and it's meaning. One rune per student please.

Was he... glaring? Not at Helena, she hoped. No, she didn't do anything wrong to deserve a glare, right?

Anyway. Back to the lesson.

Helena found it pretty interesting, that professor Christiansen was comparing the future with the moon. Of course, she noted that down, and pretty much everything the man was saying. She didn't want to miss anything.

Alright. A rune. "There's berkana, from the third aett," the girl said with her raised hand. That was the first rune that came in her mind. "It means birch, and also health, growth, fertility and new beginnings." Riiiight?

Eino struggled to understand the explanation so much that he hadn't even realized the professor had asked a question until he saw other students raising their hands. "One of the runes is Laguz," he said after raising his hand and been granted permission to speak. "and it's the rune for water. It is related to emotions, fears, the unconscious mind, the hidden, revelation, mysterious, dream, the underworld, renewal, and so on. It has mostly bad meanings, including death..." That seemed unusual to Eino but apparently water used to be the source of many deaths, mostly in the sea, so it made sense to him. "I think the rune for Laguz is the letter L in our alphabet and it looks like the number one backwards."

She didn't know why she kept coming to this class now. Why she thought she'd be able to understand him better this time was beyond her! But she tried. Ohhhh she tried, and succeeded mostly. Something about runes not predicting the moon's future or something.

She got that last question though. Tell a rune and their meaning. She got this! "There is the Thurisaz rune, professor." she said after raising her hand. "The word itself has several meanings, or translations, like a thorn or the god Thor as well as his hammer, but it mostly means a warning or something evil such as a magical power, chaos, or temptation." But, that doesn't really make it an evil rune. It just makes it awesome.

Spike stared, his forehead wrinkled almost into a frown. He didn't mean to, and certainly not in a bad way, but it took an awful lot of concentration to understnad runes as it was. Not alone with the accent. He'd so far caught something about muggles, divination and the moon. Which sounded more like astronomy or astrology. But oh well.

A rune? He got that. And it was something he knew about too. He'd actually looked some of their meanings up when he'd written his name for homework.

"Ehwaz," he said, raising his hand. "It's related to transportation. Literally horses. But could mean any form...so like a broom." He grinned at the fact he remembered something useful. "Or less literally, movement in the right direction or progress."

Simon took notes of any new stuff being learned inbetween listening to what was being said as a whole. You never knew when you would be reminded of information you may have forgotten or had mixed up. At the professor's question, the seventh year thought back to what he knew trying to decide on a specific rune which to mention. The boy finally raising his hand when one came to mind.

"There's the Kenuz rune," he supplied before lowering his hand, having been sort of a fan of that one in particular. "And it means learning knowledge and discovery and soemtimes various types of transformation." he added providing the second half of what was being asked.

Oakey put his hand in the air. There is the Dagaz rune,sir. Oakey liked this one during first class in this subject he came across the rune and enjoyed it's meaning. It translates to "Day". More specifically it could mean to have a new dawn or to have a radical change, I guess in a way it means every day is a new beginning.

Kurumi had her eyes narrowed at the man again as she tried to understand what he was saying - but it wasn't easy. If fact, she completely missed what he had first said...but she thought that she had somewhat figured it all out. She was suddenly reminded of an animated film she had seen when she was younger. It was an older film from the 1990's, but her mother had a collection of older films that she had inherited from her grandmother. In one of them, there was a talking candle - or something like that - who spoke similar to this professor.

At least, Kurumi thought so.

It really was only after Kurumi had heard a few other people speak that she figured out what they were supposed to do next. "There is also Othala," she said with her hand raised. "It literally means 'homeland' or 'ancestral lot'." She had to stop herself before she mentioned another rune in her explanation. She couldn't help it! Othala paralleled meanings with another rune. "It can also mean 'inheritance', 'estate', and 'noble'."

Aurora stared ahead, she had no idea and just jotted down the other student's suggestions.

Penny pondered for a few minutes, then tentatively put her hand in the air.."Sir, 'ehwaz' is the rune for 'e' and I think it means horse"..