2009
Some of you may have noticed the addition of some red to my new blog template. I’ve made the border beneath the post titles red, and the blockquote border is also red (so are the hyperlinks in the post text). This is falu red.
The reason for this is that red, in olden times, was the color used to color the runes. As Odin says in the Hávamál, “So do I write / and color the runes.” We know the color because in Guðrúnarkviða II, Gudrun says “In the cup were runes of every kind / Written and reddened, I could not read them”.
Some color was also retained on old rune stones, so we have more than literary evidence for their painting. In fact, the epigraphical evidence supports not just through any color remaining but the words themselves: A runestone in Södermanland says “Here shall these stones stand, reddened with runes”, and a second runestone in the same province says “Ásbjörn carved and Ulfr painted.”
So it seems fitting that some red should appear on what is, after all, a Heathen blog. I did not make the text itself red because of readability issues, but there were other ways to work some appropriate color in to the scheme.
I chose Falu red because it’s a lovely color and because it is apparently used in Scandinavia these days to colors runes. It’s a well-known color – Sweden is famous for its Falu red houses and barns. And it is perfect for my uses because it is neither too dark nor too light, but adds just the right amount of contrast to the page without taking attention from the content. In all cases, the color it replaced on this template was so faint as to be barely noticeable (including, I thought, the hyperlinks, which were originally a sort of rose).
I considered trying to work some runes into the background but so far haven’t decided on an approach I like that won’t disrupt the harmony of the design. I tried adding an image border to the post titles but could not make the css accommodate this (apparently there are some issues there with what css can and cannot do).
So this small change is my paean to the blood red runes. I hope you find it appealing.
These are its color coordinates:
Hex triplet #801818
RGBB (r, g, b) (128, 24, 24)
HSV (h, s, v) (0°, 81%, 50%)
The red is cool. I like that.
I voted no on your poll, then I got thinking about it and changed my mind. I don't see how you could be a pagan and not be an environmentalist at least.
Thanks for commenting Uzza. I kind of wish I'd reworded that particular poll. Not sure exactly how I could have done it – but like you, I tend to include environmentalism as a part of the Pagan package.
Ah, Falu Red. An excellent choice.
Sounds like a wine doesn't it, Brainwise?
What kind of background and runes were you considering? Maybe I could play around in Photoshop to see if I can try some patterns for you if I know what you're thinking.
Red is good…..so many meanings. It goes well with black.
Ærinndís, I really don't know at this point, after my failure with the image border. I did play around in Photoshop myself – I always toy with templates to see what I can do with them before I used them – but didn't come to any conclusions. Initially I was going to do something different with the header image but I decided any kind of rune or valknot or hammer would reduce the blog title in size and I didn't want to do that with the length of it. It's definitely something I'll be thinking about more.
Stu, yes, red is a great color. I just don't like the bright ones. And it does go well with black, but then I worry about those nasty Nazi associations, especially if some white creeps into the picture. The falu red though…it's dark enough that it might look very nice with black and not summon up those associations.