Julie raised her hand and said " It was originated from the Norse Mythology which started in Muspell, the realm of fire. When Surt, a Fire Giant, guards Muspell's border, armed with a flaming sword wanted to destroy all the gods and their world with fire at the end of an era". Julie paused the said "Professor the story if very long, but if you want me to say i can continue"

Jessica couldn't help passing the Professor a faint smile. Hmm...she thought. The Story. What had it been now? Her hand shot up in the air at once.

"Muggles believed that the Greek Myth Hero Kastor invented the Runic Alphabet to convey messages to his army when fighting the Titans. According to these Myths, due to the mighty power of the huge Titan army, it was quite impossible to send messengers to warn theie hometowns and their allies of coming danger. So, they scratched the runic alphabets in boulders and other likely places, even on trees, so their allies or people headed that way would be wanred. As the Titans knew nothing of the Runic Alphabet, it was quite a safe way of communication," she paused for breath before continuing.

"Some Muggle Myths argue. They relate that it was Poseiden, the Sea God, who created the Runic Alphabet. The Runic Alphabets would be carved on, or out of, corals and other sea stones and his sea creatures would carry them to his armies, who would then be able to decipher his messages and carry out his commands." She stopped, her head spinning. Their was more she knew, but she wasn't so sure about it. She had already said too much.

"Was the runes story about the Greeks?Who creared there own alphabet around Gods, mythical Gods?."Ryan thought.

Tom Hurried into the classroom hoping no one would notice her, she sat down on the desk nearest the door and took out her books and started to take notes.

Christy had caught up in her notes and was racking her brain trying to remember. She thought she had heard it before, but it was lost to her at the moment. Muggle Mythology...Muggle Mythology... Christy raised her hand as she remembered an old myth:
"According to Muggle mythology, it was Odin, the god principally associated with war and battle, who "gained" the runes by performing a ritual of self sacrifice. First he gashed his body with the point of his spear and then bound himself by the ankles to Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life. For nine days he refused all food and drink. Finally, it is said, he peered down into the very depths of his being where he saw the runic characters and "seized" them."

As Tom sat down she noticed that there were not so many people in the classroom She was not late afterall she sighed and looked at the proffessor and smiled then looked down in the book and started to read again

adam was sitting down next to davina and he was taking notes without saying a word

Noel listened to what the other students were saying, but the stories sounded so different she didn't write anything down until Professor Opteryx (ooc: I apologize for spelling on that no one said the name on this page) said anything. She put her elbows on her desk and craddled her head in her hands.

Selena eyed the Ravenclaw who seemed to hope she was invisible by the way she entered. Selena gave the girl a look then went back to staring at the professor. "He's kinda cute." Selena thought to herself

Haefalaswen scribbled everything that has been said.
She thought about the question for a moment, then frowned slightly.
Slowly, she raised her hand. She remembered having read something about a Scandinavian myth and a guy named Odin... "Professor, I believe its a Scandinavian myth. Yggdrasil, the tree of life, is a sacred tree, located in the centre of the earth in a place called Midgard. Yggdrasil has three roots, which connect the three cosmic levels. The first root, source of destiny is located in the heavens where Asgard is. The second one can is located in the h*** of Niflheim. And finally the third one is the source of wisdom, and can be found all the way in Mimisbrunn, in the world of giants, Ginnungagap, where Odin will gain all the knowledge. He will have to make a sacrifice, he will have to hang himself for nine days on one of Yggdrasil's branches with his spear pierced in his flank (sp?). After he makes that sacrifice he will gain all the knowledge thus all the runes science."
She smiled slightly happy with her answer.

As Alanna listened to the myth, she thought Yikes! That sounds gross. I wonder why Odin wanted the runes in the first place, and how did he know where to find them?

Emma had no clue to this question, so she just glanced at Alanna beside her, who also seemed to have no clue of the answer.

brenda walk slowly into the class room and took the closes seat she could and sat down to take some notes.

"Excellent," Professor Opteryx said. "I see we've got a few people on the right track. The Norse myth of Odin and the World Tree is credited with being the central myth surrounding the creation of the Elder Futhark runic system. There were other alphabet systems that resembled runes such as the Greek, Latin and Italic systems, but they have their differences.

"Let's move onto some background on the magical aspects of Ancient Runes. While runic alphabet was widely used as a writing system, the earliest inscriptions were simple markings on various artefacts. These markings could have been the name of the artefact's owner, but sometimes the meaning of the runes was a mystery. It's more than possible that these runes were carved by wizards or witches for magical purposes, most possibly as charms or for divination. The name 'rune' itself is derrived from the word 'runa', which means 'secret, something hidden'."

Professor Opteryx looked at the class, eyes bright with enthusiasm. "So, what do you all think differentiates runes used for magical purposes than runes used as a writing language? Why aren't the long runic texts considered to be as 'magical' then short phrases engraved on artefacts? I don't want the answer from the textbook here, I'd like you all to think about this a bit."

"Ryan thought, "Proffesor, could it be, that a long inscription, with the magic in it, would have to give magic to the whole inscription, making it less powerful, yet a few words, it would have more power." Ryan said confused.

Emma did think as hard as she could. "Maybe because... like spells, a short quick phrase gets the point across quickly and can be said with force and power, but if you say a long speech type thing, you can't put as much power into your words, or in this case, runes." This complete guess made some sense to Emma, but she wondered if it made sense to anyone else in the class.

taylor sat there pondering the questiom for a few min.then raised his hand.
"Professor, wouldnt longer inscription require so much magic that its power would be less. Therefore, shorter ones would have longer inscription."

Christy thought ardly about this question, Why aren't the long runic texts considered to be as 'magical' then short phrases engraved on artefacts? Think Chris..think!

Christy finally reached a opinion and raised her hand "The fact that the runes were each given meaningful names confirms that they had some magical or religious significance to their users. But if each tribe had their own pronunciation and writting for the runes, wouldn't longer inscriptions be more difficult to understand and use for magical purposes than the short ones?"

still trying to think of a better anwser brenda raisied her hand and said doubtfully "is it that longer inscriptions would to hard to remember and they might say a word wrong and so that shorter ones would be much easier and wouldn't be suspected by muggles."

Noel raised her hand, "Perhaps certain runes that were used in writing could also be used in magic, and therefore only those magical beings clever enough to find them could use them. Like subliminal messages in paintings and other artwork," Noel suggested, he asked for them to really think about it.

Alanna thought about the question, then said: "A long line of runes would be difficult to read and might not get the point of the magic across. A shorter line of runes would be less confusing and to the point."

Jessica thought hard for a second before raising her hand.

"A-short-phrase-might-be-said-more-swiftly-which-is-said-to-increase-power. It-may-also-help-to-convey-a-point-more-quickly-and-will-of course-be-easier-to-remember-and-make?" she rushed, without pausing for breath at all.

Rosa thought about it for a while, then she raised her hand. 'If you have a story, some words are irrelevant. I'm not sure if the runic languages had articles, but you can imagine that the word 'the' wouldn't tell you anything about the artefact at all. Texts are bound to have some words in them without any real importance, except keeping the story understandable. short phrases wouldn't have to be understandable, as long as they had power. Also, stories and those short phrases might be written differently. A story is usually written in past tense and those short phrases would be more usufell in the future tense, if they were supposed to do something with an artefact.'

Emma's head ached very bad, she wasn't sure if she was in the right class anymore, there was so much to remember, nevertheless, she tried to answer, she raised her hand before answering. "professor, I'd like to use an exemple from the lives of today if that's alright" she went on "When your parents give you a speech when you do something wrong and you simply don't want to here about it, it takes away the whole prupose because in the end, your bored and annoyed. Now, if your parents took 1 minute or two to explain why it was wrong and what you could do next time, you wouldn't have the time to get bored and you would have learned what is the right thing to do! I think it might be the same with magic." She finished hoping the professor wouldn't reject the answer that he might think to be completely off the topic.

g_g simply took down notes and listened intently. she was thinking hard too.