Rune meanings: the 24 Elder Futhark runes, from the sources and in practice
The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark were letters, and every letter carried a name. Those names are where rune meanings come from: wealth, aurochs, thorn, hail, ice, sun, horse, home. Three medieval poems describe the names one stanza at a time, and nearly every rune meaning you will read online traces back to them.
This page gives all 24, in the order they were carved, in three rows of eight. Each rune gets two lines. From the sources is what the old poems actually say, with the source named. In practice is how the rune is read today, which is modern work, and we say so.
Read it straight through, or find the one rune you drew and stop there. Nothing here asks you to buy anything, and nothing here tells you what your practice should be.
Two layers for every rune
- Three poems, not one The Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems each describe the rune names, and they do not always agree with each other.
- From the sources That line reports what a dated poem says about the name, in our own words, so you can check it yourself.
- In practice That line is how people read the rune today, which is modern work built on the old name, not an old meaning.
- The names are reconstructions The sound each Elder rune stood for is secure; the Elder names below are scholars' reconstructions from the later rows.
Where rune meanings come from
Three poems survive that go through a rune row name by name. The Old English Rune Poem covers 29 runes of the Anglo-Saxon row, which includes a counterpart for all 24 Elder runes. The Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems describe the shorter 16-rune Younger Futhark, so eight of the 24 below have no Norse stanza at all.
All three are printed and translated together in Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge, 1915). That book is the source behind the "From the sources" lines here.
The poems do not give keywords. They give pictures. The aurochs has great horns and roams the moor. Hail is the whitest of grains and turns to water. Ice glistens like glass and is fair to look on. When you read a stanza you are reading a thing, not a definition.
Two honest notes. The Old English poem was written down in Christian England and several stanzas name God; we keep that as it stands rather than quietly cutting it. And the poems sometimes flatly disagree: the Old English sixth rune is a torch, the Norse one is a sore. Where they differ, we say they differ.
The runes in dates
Tacitus describes marked slips of wood
In Germania chapter 10 (translated by Church and Brodribb, 1868), Tacitus describes cutting a branch from a nut-bearing tree into slips, marking them with signs, scattering them on a white cloth and reading three. He does not call the marks runes, and they come a century before any surviving runic object.
The earliest runes on an object
A comb from Vimose in Denmark carries a short Elder Futhark inscription. Finds like it, dated to the second and third centuries, are the oldest runic writing we have.
The whole row, written out in order
The Kylver stone on Gotland carries the full 24-rune row in sequence. This is how we know the order the runes were taught in.
Three groups of eight
A gold bracteate found at Vadstena in Sweden shows the row divided into three groups of eight. Later Icelandic tradition calls such a group an aett, which is why modern books speak of three aettir.
The row shrinks to 16
In Scandinavia the Elder row gives way to the 16-rune Younger Futhark. The Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems describe that shorter row, not the 24.
The Old English poem saved in print
George Hickes printed the Old English Rune Poem from a manuscript in the Cotton library. That manuscript burned in the fire of 1731, so the printed text is what every later edition rests on.
All three poems in one book
Bruce Dickins publishes Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples, with the Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems and translations.
The blank rune appears
Ralph Blum's The Book of Runes adds a 25th blank stone and a reading order of its own. No old row has a blank rune.
The first eight: Fehu to Wunjo
Rune characters below may look slightly different depending on the font your screen uses. The sound each one wrote is given in brackets.
- Fehu ᚠ (f), cattle, wealth. From the sources: the Old English poem calls wealth a comfort to everyone, and says a man must give it freely if he wants honor before the Lord; the Norwegian and Icelandic poems call it a cause of strife among kinsmen (Dickins 1915). In practice: earnings, what you own and what you owe, wealth that can move.
- Uruz ᚢ (u), aurochs. From the sources: the Old English poem gives a fierce wild ox with great horns, a bold roamer of the moor; the Icelandic poem reads the name as drizzle, the weeping of the clouds (Dickins 1915). In practice: raw strength, stamina, a force that is not tame.
- Thurisaz ᚦ (th), thorn or giant. From the sources: the Old English poem calls the thorn exceedingly sharp and cruel to anyone who rests among them; the Norse poems name a giant instead, a torment to women (Dickins 1915). In practice: a defense that hurts to grasp, a warning, a sharp conflict.
- Ansuz ᚨ (a), mouth, or a god. From the sources: the Old English poem reads the name as the mouth, the source of all speech and a support of wisdom; the Norse poems read it as a river mouth, and the Icelandic one as Odin (Dickins 1915). In practice: speech, a message, teaching and learning.
- Raido ᚱ (r), riding. From the sources: riding is easy for a hero indoors, says the Old English poem, and hard going for the one on a strong horse on the long road; the Norwegian poem says riding is worst for the horse (Dickins 1915). In practice: travel, the road, moving a plan along.
- Kaunan ᚲ (k), torch or sore. From the sources: the Old English poem has a torch with a pale bright flame, burning where nobles sit indoors; the Norwegian and Icelandic poems have a sore or ulcer, a bane of children (Dickins 1915). The two readings do not reconcile, and this is the clearest case of the sources disagreeing. In practice: light, making, craft work.
- Gebo ᚷ (g), gift. From the sources: the Old English poem says generosity brings credit and honor, and is help and sustenance to those who have nothing. There is no Norse stanza, since this rune is not in the 16-rune row (Dickins 1915). In practice: a gift, an exchange, a partnership with something given both ways.
- Wunjo ᚹ (w), joy. From the sources: joy belongs to the one who knows little of sorrow and pain, and who has enough, says the Old English poem. No Norse stanza (Dickins 1915). In practice: ease, a good stretch of things, contentment rather than triumph.
The second eight: Hagalaz to Sowilo
- Hagalaz ᚺ (h), hail. From the sources: the whitest of grains, whirled down from heaven and tossed by the wind, and then it turns to water, says the Old English poem; the Icelandic poem calls it cold grain and a sickness of snakes (Dickins 1915). In practice: a hit from outside, weather you did not order, damage that passes.
- Naudiz ᚾ (n), need. From the sources: need lies narrow on the breast, says the Old English poem, and yet it can turn into help if it is heeded in time; the Norwegian poem says need leaves little choice and the naked freeze in the frost (Dickins 1915). In practice: constraint, a lack, the thing that has to be dealt with first.
- Isa ᛁ (i), ice. From the sources: very cold and immeasurably slippery, glistening clear as glass, a floor made of frost and fair to look on (Old English poem); the Icelandic poem calls it the bark of rivers (Dickins 1915). In practice: a halt, a pause, something held where it is.
- Jera ᛃ (j), year, harvest. From the sources: a joy to all when the earth gives its fruits to rich and poor alike, says the Old English poem; the Norse poems read the name as a good season (Dickins 1915). In practice: the turn of the year, the return on work already done, timing.
- Eihwaz ᛇ (ei), yew. From the sources: a tree with rough bark, hard and fast in the earth, keeper of flame and a joy on the land (Old English poem). The Younger Futhark has no rune in this slot, so no Norse stanza matches it exactly (Dickins 1915). In practice: endurance, the long spine of a thing. One safety note: yew is toxic to people and to pets, so it is not a wood to carve a set from or to keep where an animal chews.
- Perthro ᛈ (p), meaning unknown. From the sources: the Old English stanza describes something that brings recreation and amusement where warriors sit together in the hall, and nobody knows for certain what the object is; guesses include a gaming piece or a dice cup (Dickins 1915). This is the most uncertain of the 24, and anyone who tells you otherwise is filling a blank. In practice: chance, what is still hidden, the unknown factor.
- Algiz ᛉ (z), elk-sedge. From the sources: the Old English poem describes a sedge that grows mostly in the marsh, waxes in the water, and wounds and bloodies the hand of anyone who grabs at it (Dickins 1915). The shape was taken up by 20th-century German nationalist groups and still appears in far-right use; the old poem's picture is simply the marsh plant that cuts. In practice: this is the rune most often used for protection today, read as a guard that is unpleasant to grasp.
- Sowilo ᛊ (s), sun. From the sources: a hope to seafarers when they cross the fish's bath, until the sea-steed brings them to land (Old English poem); the Icelandic poem calls the sun the shield of the clouds and the destroyer of ice (Dickins 1915). Two of these drawn together were used as an SS insignia in the 1930s and 1940s; the single rune of the poems is the sun that sailors are glad to see. In practice: light, energy, a thing coming good.
The last eight: Tiwaz to Othala
- Tiwaz ᛏ (t), the god Tyr, or a guiding star. From the sources: the Old English poem describes a sign that keeps faith well, always on its course above the mists of night and never failing; the Icelandic poem names Tyr, the one-handed god, and the leavings of the wolf (Dickins 1915). The rune was worn as a badge by 20th-century German organizations and still turns up in far-right use; the old picture is a star that holds its course. In practice: justice, a straight aim, a decision held to.
- Berkano ᛒ (b), birch. From the sources: the Old English poem says the birch bears no fruit yet puts out shoots without seed, and stands laden with leaves, high in the air; the Norse poems name the birch as the leafiest of branches (Dickins 1915). In practice: growth, a beginning, the care of a household.
- Ehwaz ᛖ (e), horse. From the sources: the horse is a joy to nobles, proud on its hooves and a comfort to the restless, says the Old English poem. No Norse stanza (Dickins 1915). In practice: partnership, steady movement, two working as one.
- Mannaz ᛗ (m), man, a person. From the sources: the Old English poem says a man is dear to his kin, and yet every one of them must fail the others, since the Lord commits the body to the earth; the Icelandic poem calls man the delight of man and the increase of the earth (Dickins 1915). In practice: people, yourself, the human part of the question.
- Laguz ᛚ (l), water, sea. From the sources: the sea seems endless to those who venture on a rolling ship, the waves terrify them and the sea-steed does not heed the bridle (Old English poem); the Icelandic poem gives an eddying stream and the land of the fish (Dickins 1915). In practice: feeling, what flows, what you cannot stand on.
- Ingwaz ᛜ (ng), Ing. From the sources: Ing was first seen by men among the East Danes, then departed eastward over the wave with his wagon running after, and that is how the men named the hero (Old English poem). No Norse stanza (Dickins 1915). In practice: a seed set aside, something gathering before it shows.
- Dagaz ᛞ (d), day. From the sources: the day is the Creator's light, dear to men, a hope and a happiness to rich and poor, and of use to all (Old English poem). No Norse stanza (Dickins 1915). In practice: daylight on a matter, a turn, a clean break between before and after.
- Othala ᛟ (o), inherited land, home. From the sources: an estate is very dear to every man if he can enjoy there, in his own house, whatever is right and proper, in constant prosperity (Old English poem). No Norse stanza (Dickins 1915). A winged version of this rune was used by an SS division and is used by far-right groups today; the old rune has no wings and names a home. In practice: the household, what is handed down, what you keep.
One note on order: inscriptions do not all agree on the last two. The Kylver stone row ends with Dagaz and then Othala, and some other rows put Othala first. Either order is defensible, so pick one and stay consistent in your own book.
What the rune poems do not cover
A lot of what sits under "rune meanings" online has no old source behind it. That is not a reason to drop it. It is a reason to label it.
- Casting runes for a reading. No old text describes drawing from a bag of 24 stones. Tacitus, writing around 98 CE, describes marked slips of wood from a nut-bearing tree, and he never calls the marks runes. Reading runes as we do it now is modern practice.
- Reversed meanings. The poems have no reversals. Nine of the 24 look the same upside down, which is a practical problem the system never solves. Use reversals if you like them, as a modern choice.
- The blank rune. It comes from Ralph Blum's The Book of Runes, 1982. If your set has 25 stones, that is why.
- Correspondence tables. A color, a crystal, a herb, an element and a god for each rune are 20th-century additions. The poems give a sedge, a hailstone, a horse, a hall.
- Labels that do not exist. There is no such thing as Celtic runes. The Vegvisir is an Icelandic stave known from a manuscript of the 1860s, not a rune. Bind runes are real as ligatures in inscriptions, but most of what is taught about them today is new.
Where a book will not tell you which is which, that is the thing to be wary of, not the modern practice itself.
How to use this chart tonight
Pick three runes, not 24. Copy each one into your own book by hand, with its name, its sound, one line from the poem in your own words, and one line of what you make of it. Date the page. Next week, three more.
When you draw a rune and reach for a meaning, read the old picture first and the modern keyword second. The picture is what keeps a reading honest: a sedge that cuts the hand says more than the word "protection" does, and it tells you what kind of protection the old name is talking about.
If you want the full row kept on this same two-layer plan, our workbook Runes, Sigils & Magical Alphabets gives every rune From the sources and In practice, with the sigil methods, bind runes and the ten-point check for writing a name correctly before anything is made permanent. For the meanings in your hand while you read a draw, The Rune Companion keeps one rune per spread.
Neither of them, and no book, decides your practice. The row is 24 letters with names. What you do with them is your own work.
