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Galdr (plural galdrar) is one Old Norse word for “spell, incantation”; these were usually performed in combination with certain rites.[1] It was mastered by both women and men.[2] Some scholars have assumed they chanted it in falsetto (gala).[2][3]

[…] The Old English forms were gealdor, galdor, ȝaldre “spell, enchantment, witchcraft”, and the verb galan meant “sing, chant”. It is contained in nightingale (from næcti-galæ), related to giellan, the verb ancestral to Modern English yell; compare also the Icelandic verb að gala “to sing, call out, yell” and Dutch gillen “to yell, scream”.

[…] It is also mentioned in several of the poems in the Poetic Edda, and for instance in Hávamál, where Odin claims to know 18 galdrar.[1] For instance, Odin mastered galdrar against fire, sword edges, arrows, fetters and storms, and he could conjure up the dead and speak to them.[8][9]

Source: Galdr – Wikipedia

A troll cat (also milk rabbit, troll ball) is the familiar of a witch in Scandinavian folklore. Either in the shape of a cat or a ball, troll cats sucked milk from cows and spat it out in the witches’ milk pails, and went into homes to lick up cream. Related creatures are milk hares and milk rabbits.

Source: Troll cat – Wikipedia

A thyle (OE þyle, ON þulr) was a member of the court associated with Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon royalty and chieftains in the Early Middle Ages, whose precise role is uncertain but probably had to do with the preservation of knowledge of the past and the judging of present statements against it. […]

The Old English term is glossed as Latin histrio “orator” and curra “jester”; þylcræft means “elocution”. Zoëga’s Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic defines þulr as “wise-man, sage,” cognate to Old Norse þula (verb) “to speak” and þula (noun) “list in poetic form”. The Rundata project translates þulr as “reciter”. From this it appears that the office of thyle was connected to the keeping and reproducing of orally transmitted lore like the Rígsþula, “Lay of Rígr”.

[…] Unferð holds the role of thyle in the poem Beowulf; it has been suggested that he was also the scop who is mentioned reciting poetry at the feast.[4] It might be seen as a legitimate function of a guardian of the knowledge of the past to challenge boasts, judging them against the heroic past.[5] This may have played a role in preserving the luck of the group.

Source: Thyle – Wikipedia

Paul C. Bauschatz in 1976 suggested that the term reflects a pagan ritual which had a “great religious significance in the culture of the early Germanic people”.[1]

The ritual according to Bauschatz was always conducted indoors, usually in a chieftain’s mead hall. Symbel involved a formulaic ritual which was more solemn and serious than mere drinking or celebration. The primary elements of symbel are drinking ale or mead from a drinking horn, speech making (which often included formulaic boasting and oaths), and gift giving. Eating and feasting were specifically excluded from symbel, and no alcohol was set aside for the gods or other deities in the form of a sacrifice.[8]

Bauschatz’ lead is followed only sporadically in modern scholarship.

Source: Symbel – Wikipedia

The symbols represent the runes Ansuz, Laguz, and Uruz. The origin and meaning of the word are matters of dispute, though a general agreement exists among scholars that the word represents an instance of historical runic magic or is a metaphor (or metonym) for it.[1] It is the most common of the early runic charm words.[2]

[…] Raetian North Etruscan dedicatory votive objects have been discovered featuring alu where the term means “dedication”. Connections have been proposed between these objects and the term alu found on runic inscriptions. Theories have been proposed that the term was loaned into Runic usage from this source.[3]

Source: Alu (runic) – Wikipedia

They are associated with the early European Chalet culture, where it was presumably used to intimidate predators, frighten supernatural enemies, and convene council meetings.

The neverlur, as a natural horn, thus has no fingerholes or valves. Normally, a player can play 10 tones from the natural scale on the instrument. In the modern era, the neverlur is primarily a cultural curiosity, used for the occasional fanfare.

Source: Birch trumpet – Wikipedia

Posy rings, the name deriving from poesy (‘poetry’), are rings with inscriptions that express affection, friendship and love. Rhyming or cryptic inscriptions were fashionable from around 1200-1500, and were written in Latin but more commonly in French, the language of courtly love. Both these languages were spoken and understood fairly widely by the elite in medieval Europe. The repetition of particular inscriptions suggest that goldsmiths had reference books of stock phrases; the more unusual inscriptions perhaps indicate a client’s individual request. The circular hoop could be engraved both inside and out; until around 1350 the style of lettering took the form of the rounded capitals, known as Lombardic script, and from that date until after 1500 lettering was in the spiky script known as Gothic.

Source: Ring | V&A Search the Collections

In its quadruple interlaced form, it is referred to also as the ‘Web of Matarax,’ a reference to an ancient Quatrian legend about the origin of that people having been via a tunnel or web woven by that mythical spider as they escaped the destruction of their prior world. For this reason it was commonly used as an apopotraic device to ward off the influence of malevolent spirits which threatened the harmonious patterns of life for early ancient Quatrians.

Source: The Knot of Quatria – Quatria – Medium

Historically, the runic alphabet is a derivation of the Old Italic scripts of antiquity, with the addition of some innovations. Which variant of the Old Italic family in particular gave rise to the runes is uncertain. Suggestions include Raetic, Venetic, Etruscan, or Old Latin as candidates. At the time, all of these scripts had the same angular letter shapes suited for epigraphy, which would become characteristic of the runes. […]

The name comes from the Germanic root run- (Gothic: 𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌰, runa), meaning “secret” or “whisper”. In Old Irish Gaelic, the word rún means “mystery”, “secret”, “intention” or “affectionate love.” […]

Similarly in Welsh and Old English, the word rhin and rūn respectively means “mystery”, “secret”, “secret writing”, or sometimes in the extreme sense of the word, “miracle” (gwyrth). […]

There are no horizontal strokes: when carving a message on a flat staff or stick, it would be along the grain, thus both less legible and more likely to split the wood. … Runic manuscripts (that is written rather than carved runes, such as Codex Runicus) also show horizontal strokes. […]

The stanza 157 of Hávamál attribute to runes the power to bring that which is dead back to life. In this stanza, Odin recounts a spell:

I know a twelfth one
if I see up in a tree,
a dangling corpse in a noose,
I can so carve and colour the runes,
that the man walks
and talks with me.[21]

Source: Runes – Wikipedia

A historiated initial is an initial, an enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture. Strictly speaking, a historiated initial depicts an identifiable figure or a specific scene, while an inhabited initial contains figures (human or animal) that are decorative only, without forming a subject.

Source: Historiated initial – Wikipedia