UPDATE:
This is not conspiracy theory. Every link I provide is to a mainstream source. I resent the (bannable) CT accusations and “this is just like Q.” Questioning my reasoning is fine - I’m human and regularly make mistakes, jump to assumptions. If anyone can present evidence to the contrary I am listening and WILL publish a diary retracting my claim if that happens.
None of that is the case for this diary. I have years of research into peer-reviewed sources of Pre-Christian Northern Europe. The ADL and many law enforcement agencies recognize the Odal rune as being a symbol used by Neo-Nazi organizations - and I provided links and photos. Under this update I will post another damning photo. Some of the other photos with Nazis apparently wearing this symbol are RE-ENACTORS. This photo has context — although I cannot definitively prove this was an original 1941 photo.
As I write this, historians are publishing more information on Twitter confirming the uniquely Nazi form of the rune. I have conversed with two authors who publish peer-reviewed books and papers on early Anglo-Saxon art, symbols and weapons. Neither of them is comfortable saying definitively that NOBODY but the Nazis used the Odal with “branches” or serifs — but both agree there is NO early Medieval/Iron Age usage of that symbol. I told them I would not name them because I was using them as a sanity check — not as academic authorities who have researched this specific question.
New Photo:
A soldier of 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" (mainly ethnic Germans from the Balkans) with a Czech made MG 26(t). That is a Czech MG 26 — not a German MG 34 or 42. Per Ian McCallum at ForgottenWeapons.com the MG-26 was adopted by the Waffen-SS because the Wehrmacht received all MG-34’s early in the war. The Wehrmacht NEVER used the MG 26.
Please do not accuse me of conspiracy theory.
That stage does NOT resemble a Nazi symbol — it is EXPLICITLY a Nazi symbol.
Let me walk you through how I came to this conclusion.
The Odal/Othala Rune
The Odal/Othala rune is one of the letters of the Elder Futhark alphabet. This is an alphabet in use from roughly 100CE to about 650CE. The earliest known Elder Futhark inscription probably comes from the Vimose Comb dated to 160CE. Basically it says a name: HARJA.
The Vimose Comb. By Nationalmuseet, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47259396
Elder Futhark is named for the first six letters of the alphabet (Fe, Uruz, Thurs [Þ], Ansuz, Raido, Kaunan). Odal is the 23rd and second to last letter of the Elder Futhark alphabet. The associations — not meaning — of the Odal/Othala rune are:
heritage, estate, possession
All of the scholarly writing I have seen on this suggests that the emphasis in the Iron Age was on property, land, physical goods — not ‘ethnic heritage’. I would not be surprised, given the importance of family and ancestors in this culture if it did not have a family history connotation but I have not seen that in any scholarly analysis that I have encountered.
The Odal rune. NOTICE THE BASE OF THE RUNE — FLAT FEET.
We have very few Elder Futhark inscriptions — only about 350 are known to archeology. However, we can see something distinct about the Odal/Othala rune from the Iron Age. The “feet” of the rune are straight lines with no embellishments. Runes were meant to be CARVED. Grab a scrap of wood, carve your message and done. So the shapes tend to be very simple and almost always straight lines.
See that very first rune at the top left of the horn? That is Odal. This is a reproduction (the original horns were stolen and melted down in 1802) of the first of the two Golden Horns of Gallehus. These horns are dated to the 5th century CE.
Again, the first rune on the top piece is Odal. The Thorsbjorg chape with Elder Futhark inscription. Dated to 200CE. The chape is the bit at the end of a sword scabbard. This inscription says either “"Wolthuthewaz is well-renowned," or "the servant of Ullr, the renowned." It is REALLY hard to interpret Elder Futhark inscriptions.
Before the Vikings showed up (750CE or so) Elder Futhark fell out of use and was replaced with the simpler, 16 letter Younger Futhark Alphabet in Scandinavia. The Anglo-Saxons went the other direction with the 33 letter Futhorc alphabet.
Odal, in its original form, HAS been hijacked by Neo-Nazis
The Odal rune on a flag from the 2017 Unite the Right rally, Charlottesville, VA.
BUT THE CPAC STAGE IS MUCH, MUCH WORSE.
What makes the CPAC stage worse? Well, look at the two bottom legs. Unlike the original Odal rune, those legs are not just straight lines. They have ‘branches’ extending from the base of the rune. Like this:
Flag of the 7th SS Freiwillingen-Gebirgs — Division Prinz Eugen, a Volksdeutsche Waffen-SS division operating in Croatia during World War II
The Germanic tribes and their Viking ancestors NEVER* carved those extra ‘branches’. I have seen images of EVERY PUBLISHED Elder Futhark carving/engraving known to archeology. NONE of them have those extra branches.
That symbol on the CPAC stage originated with the Nazi Schutzstaffel — the criminal mass murderers of the Nazi SS. Probably started as a logo for the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt (the SS Race and Settlement Office) which policed the racial purity of the SS itself.
See for yourself:
Same image as at the top, turned upside down and the lines that form the rune are in white.
This symbol in Nazi ideology represented:
kinship, family and blood unity
The CPAC stage is a Nazi symbol. Period. Full Stop. Sources:
Findell, Martin. Runes. The British Museum Press. 2014. p. 72 (print book)
Enoksen, Lars. The History of Runic Lore. Scandinavian Heritage Publications. 2011 (print book)
*Okay, you can’t say never in science and archeology is no exception. But I will say that it is as likely to find Odal/Othala carved with the extra branches as it is to find platypus bones inside of a Viking grave. Possible, but EXTREMELY unlikely. Is that better?
