This article examines the rúnatal stanzas (5–19) of the Eddic poem Sigrdrífumál, particularly as they reflect conventions for deploying runic literacy in Iron Age Europe, the dynamics behind those conventions, and the light they shed on runic origins. Sigrdrífumál represents the insertion of a knowledge message into a framework crafted from the staging, diction, and materials of an inherited Indo-European motif-index.