Runoscript · Runes (academic)

The Elder Futhark: a reference to the 24 runes (glyph · name · pronunciation · meanings)

⚠️ Disclaimer (read BEFORE the table)

This reference brings together two distinct layers for each rune; they must not be mixed:

The historical layer — the reconstructed / historical meaning of the rune's name (from names & reconstruction of the 24 runes). Reconstructions ≠ attested. In the Elder Futhark inscriptions themselves (~2nd–8th c.) the rune names are not written down — the proto-forms (fehu, ūruz …) are restored by the comparative method from the rune poems (the rune poems (Dickins 1915)), the Gothic letter names, and comparative Germanic linguistics. The asterisk * = a reconstructed, unattested form.
The esoteric layer — the meaning per Thorsson (“Futhark,” 1984, from Thorsson — Futhark (1984)). This is a 20th-c. revival (Edred Thorsson = Stephen Flowers) — a reconstructed esoteric system, NOT antiquity and NOT proven magic. Each such meaning = revival-claim (what the author asserts), not a historical fact. The esoteric layer expands/reinterprets the historical core, sometimes going beyond the reconstruction.

The pronunciation guidance below is approximate. The runes were not made for English; the notes give the standard runological transliteration (the Latin-letter value used in the scholarly literature) plus an informal hint. Most runic sounds (þ, w, h) are in fact native to English — it is the contested or unfamiliar ones (ï, ʀ, ŋ) that need a note (see the “Sound” notes). The stress shown in the name forms follows the reconstructed Proto-Germanic stress (usually on the first syllable) — this is a teaching convention, not an attested pronunciation.

Row order. The standard futhark row is given, 3 ættir of 8. The tail of the row (nos. 23–24) is given in the attested order (Kylver): …ingwaz, dagaz, othila, i.e. d before o. Part of the teaching literature gives the alternative order o before d — these are different ordering traditions, not an error (see names & reconstruction of the 24 runes).

New to readings — or wondering what's genuinely old? See the rune divination FAQ: honest answers on whether Vikings divined with runes, whether the meanings are ancient, and whether readings are accurate.

Summary table (quick overview)

No.	Name (reconstr.)	Pronunciation hint	Sound (translit.)	Historical meaning (brief)	Esoteric meaning — Thorsson (brief)
Ætt I (Freyja’s / Freyr’s)
1	*fehu	FEH-hu	f	cattle, wealth	“eternal becoming,” mobile force, fertility
2	*ūruz	OO-ruz	u	aurochs (wild ox)	“the mother of manifestation,” shaping force, might
3	*þurisaz	THU-ri-saz	þ (≈ th, see ↓)	thurs, giant / monster	Ása-Thor, thorn, protection, life–death polarity
4	*ansuz	AN-suz	a	(pagan) god, an Áss	Odin of the Æsir; word, song, ecstasy, inspiration
5	*raidō	RY-do	r	riding, road, journey	cosmic law/order, ritual, journey
6	kaunan / kenaz	KOW-nan / KEH-naz	k	“sore/ulcer” or “torch” (disputed)	controlled fire, torch, creativity, will
7	*gebō	GEH-bo	g	gift, present	exchange of gods and humans, union, sacrifice
8	*wunjō	WUN-yo	w (lip-rounded)	joy, bliss	harmony of beings from a common source
Ætt II (Hagalaz’s / Heimdallr’s)
9	*hagalaz	HA-ga-laz	h	hail (precipitation)	“the cosmic ice-egg,” pattern, protection
10	*naudiz	NOW-diz	n	need, constraint, hardship	need-fire, will, “from distress, deliverance”
11	*īsaz	EE-saz	i	ice	“world-ice,” stillness, the ego
12	*jēra-	YEH-ra	j (= y)	(good) year, harvest	cycle, the solar year, fruition
13	ī(h)waz / eihwaz	EE-(h)waz / AY-hwaz	ï (disputed, see ↓)	yew (tree)	the tree of life/death, Yggdrasil (reconstr.)
14	perþrō / pertra	PER-thro / PER-tra	p	unknown (disputed)	“the pattern of becoming,” the Norns, time, karma
15	algiz / elhaz	AL-giz / EL-haz	z (late ʀ), see ↓	“elk” or “protection” or “sedge” (disputed)	protection, valkyries, the sacred grove
16	*sōwilō	SOH-wi-lo	s	sun	the sun-wheel, will, success, honor
Ætt III (Tiwaz’s / Týr’s)
17	*tīwaz	TEE-waz	t	the god Tiwaz / Týr	the god Týr — law, justice, self-sacrifice
18	*berkanan	BER-ka-nan	b	birch (birch-branch)	the earth-mother, birth, shelter
19	*ehwaz	EH-waz	e	horse, steed	the horse–human pair, loyalty, marriage, Freyr
20	*mannaz	MAN-naz	m	human, man, the human race	“the perfect human,” divine structure
21	*laguz	LA-guz	l	water, moisture, lake	water, life-force, purification; leek/laukaz
22	*ingwaz	ING-waz	ŋ (= ng)	the god/hero Ing / Ingwaz	the earth-god, fertility, sex-magic
23	*dagaz	DA-gaz	d	day	the light of day, synthesis of opposites, victory
24	ōþila- / ōþala-	OH-thi-la / OH-tha-la	o	inheritance, ancestral estate, patrimony	ancestral inheritance, ancestors, the sacred enclosure

The transliteration is in Latin script per runological convention (þ = th, ŋ = ng, z/ʀ = the late sibilant). Details of pronunciation and notes on disputes are in the per-section cards below.

Per-rune cards

Card format: no. + glyph · name (pronunciation hint) · sound (translit. + note) · history (history/reconstruction) · esoteric (esoteric per Thorsson, revival-claim) · note on dispute (where there is one) · rune image.

Ætt I — Freyja’s / Freyr’s (runes 1–8)

1. *fehu — “FEH-hu”

Sound: translit. f (a direct equivalent; word-initially it may have been the bilabial /ɸ/ — close to “f” but made with both lips).
History: cattle, wealth, movable property. The meaning is stable (cf. Old English feoh, Gothic faihu). historical-fact
Esoteric (Thorsson, revival-claim): “the rune of eternal becoming”; a mobile, expansive force/energy, wealth, fertility, “the fire of the cosmos”; the projection and transfer of the soul and of magical force from person to person.

2. *ūruz — “OO-ruz”

Sound: translit. u (long /uː/, the “oo” in “food,” drawn out).
History: aurochs / wild ox (aurochs). The Old English poem gives “aurochs”; the Norwegian/Icelandic poems diverge (“slag/dross,” “drizzle”). historical-fact (with divergence in the poems)
Esoteric (revival-claim): “the mother of manifestation”; the shaping force (but not the form itself), the motherhood of manifestation, order, structure; associations — the aurochs, rain, the primal essence; strength, health, courage.

3. *þurisaz — “THU-ri-saz”

Sound: translit. þ (th). þ = the voiceless dental fricative (≈ English “th” in thing); the tongue-tip between the teeth. Native to English, so no special note is needed for an English speaker.
History: thurs, giant / monster. The meaning “giant/thurs” is stable in the Scandinavian tradition. historical-fact (The dispute over the origin of the grapheme itself — from Latin D or Raetic Θ — does not bear on the meaning.)
Esoteric (revival-claim): “the strong one/giant”; Ása-Thor as the enemy of unfriendly forces, the hammer, the thorn on the branch; “cosmic phallic force,” the life–death polarity, regeneration and fertilization; protection.

4. *ansuz — “AN-suz”

Sound: translit. a (short /a/; nasalization ~/ã/ is possible, “a through the nose”).
History: (pagan) god, an Áss (cf. Old Norse áss). The Anglo-Saxon poem reinterpreted the name as “mouth/speech” (Os). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): “god, ancestral god”; Odin of the Æsir; the reception–transformation– expression of spiritual force/knowledge; word, song, poetry, the galdr-incantation (galdr); ecstasy, inspiration, ancestral magical power.

5. *raidō — “RY-do”

Sound: translit. r (a trilled “r”).
History: riding, road, journey. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): the cosmic law of rightness and archetypal order; right action, ritual, rhythm, the journey through the Nine Worlds; spiral development, the cycles of existence.

6. kaunan / kenaz — “KOW-nan” / “KEH-naz”

Sound: translit. k (a direct equivalent).
History: ⚠️ a disputed rune — two competing reconstructions:
- kaunan → “sore, ulcer, boil” (resting on the Icelandic poem kaun*);
- kenaz → “torch, splinter-light” (resting on Old English cēn). These are different etymologies with different semantics*, not spelling variants. [unverified]
Esoteric (revival-claim): controlled fire; cremation; the ideograph — a torch; regeneration through death/sacrifice, creativity, sexual drive, the will to create. ⚠️ Thorsson takes only the “torch/fire” branch and ignores the “ulcer” branch — an interpretive choice, not a fact.

7. *gebō — “GEH-bo”

Sound: translit. g (a hard “g,” as in “good”).
History: gift, present. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): that which is exchanged between gods and humans; gift, giving, union, sacrifice; the crossing of two rays / the interaction of two forces; the “brother/sister-lover,” psychosexual force.

8. *wunjō — “WUN-yo”

Sound: translit. w = the labial-velar approximant (English w in water); the lips are rounded, the teeth take no part. Native to English; note that it is not the lip-teeth “v” sound.
History: joy, bliss. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): the harmony of beings that come from a common source; joy, happiness; the bond of clans and tribes.

Ætt II — Hagalaz’s / Heimdallr’s (runes 9–16)

9. *hagalaz — “HA-ga-laz”

Sound: translit. h = a light breathing /h/ (English h in house).
History: hail (atmospheric precipitation). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): “the cosmic ice-egg” — the seed of primal cosmic life and pattern; completion, union, evolution within bounds, protection; association — the Nine Worlds of Yggdrasil (the number 9).

10. *naudiz — “NOW-diz”

Sound: translit. n (a direct equivalent).
History: need, constraint, hardship. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): need, distress; “making deliverance out of distress”; the self-made fire (need-fire); the will directed toward action; resistance as a necessary force.

11. *īsaz — “EE-saz”

Sound: translit. i (long /iː/, the “ee” in “see,” drawn out).
History: ice. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): ice (“world-ice”), “antimatter”; concentration, stillness, the absence of vibration; the “ego” / the individual self.

12. *jēra- — “YEH-ra”

Sound: translit. j = “y” (as the y in “yes” / j in German ja; not the English “j” of “jam”).
History: (good) year, harvest (Old English gēr/ger). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): cycle; the solar year (the number 12), the “twelvefold cycle”; growth, fertility, reward, fruition.

13. ī(h)waz / eihwaz — “EE-(h)waz” / “AY-hwaz”

Sound: translit. ï (also æ, e²) — the value is disputed. ⚠️ The phonetic value of the sign is highly contested: it may have been a diphthong, it may have been a monophthong somewhere between a front and a back vowel (≈ “ee”/“eh”/“ay”). There is no settled equivalent precisely because there is no agreement on the sound. [unverified]
History: yew (tree) — the meaning of the name is stable, unlike the sound. historical-fact (the meaning) + [unverified] (the phonetics).
Esoteric (revival-claim): the tree of life and death — the yew, Yggdrasil; the cyclical nature of the multiverse, “the mystery of the eternal circle”; restoration/rebirth, spiritual endurance; a protective stave.

14. perþrō / pertra — “PER-thro” / “PER-tra”

Sound: translit. p (a direct equivalent).
History: ⚠️ the meaning is NOT recovered (“not established”). The darkest rune; the form of the name is also unstable (perþrō / perþ- / *pertra). Speculative guesses: “dice-cup / lot,” “pear tree,” “vulva” — all without support. Looijenga (1997): possibly a variant of the sign b. [unverified]
Esoteric (revival-claim): “the great pattern of cosmic becoming”; time, the laws of the Norns, cause–effect, evolution–change; synchronicity; “the principle underlying Germanic customary law,” associated with Sanskrit karma. ⚠️ The historical name has no support — the “history ↔ esoteric” divergence is at its maximum here; this is pure 20th-c. revival.

15. algiz / elhaz — “AL-giz” / “EL-haz”

Sound: translit. z (late ʀ). z/ʀ = a late voiced/voiceless sibilant that evolved toward “r/z”; in the Elder Futhark it denoted a special sibilant (somewhere between “z” and “r”). [unverified]
History: ⚠️ the name and meaning are disputed. “The original name is unknown, surviving only in a distorted Old English form” (eolh(x) “elk-sedge”). Reconstructions: algiz/elhaz (“elk/deer”). Proposed meanings: “protection/defense,” “sedge” — but “none occurs in the rest of the runological literature” (Wikipedia). [unverified]
Esoteric (revival-claim): protection; the valkyries, a tie to chosen heroes (hugrún); the sacred place/grove, cosmic deer gnawing at the world’s needles; Bifröst, the force of hamingja, “a protective law.” ⚠️ Thorsson fixes one disputed branch (“protection”) as a given + the esoteric superstructure.

16. *sōwilō — “SOH-wi-lo”

Sound: translit. s (a direct equivalent).
History: sun. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): the sun-wheel; magical will, force, success, honor; the feminine nature of solar energy; the path through Yggdrasil; a code of honor.

Ætt III — Tiwaz’s / Týr’s (runes 17–24)

17. *tīwaz — “TEE-waz”

Sound: translit. t (a direct equivalent).
History: the god Tiwaz / Týr (Týr) — a theonym (cf. Old Norse Týr). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): the god Týr — law and justice; the sky-god, self-sacrifice, “the rune of kings and great leaders”; justice, war (invoked for victory); the “world-column” / Irminsul.

18. *berkanan — “BER-ka-nan”

Sound: translit. b (a direct equivalent).
History: birch (birch-branch). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): the earth-mother; birth, the life–death cycle, “containing/gestating,” the embodiment of ideas; protection, concealment, shelters (caves, “earth-houses”).

19. *ehwaz — “EH-waz”

Sound: translit. e (short /e/, the “e” in “bed”).
History: horse, steed (cf. Latin equus — an Indo-European cognate). historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): paired gods/heroes in equine form; harmonious dual unity, the bond of human and horse, loyalty, trust, lawful marriage; fertility, travel between worlds; associated with Freyr.

20. *mannaz — “MAN-naz”

Sound: translit. m (a direct equivalent).
History: human, man, the human race. historical-fact
Esoteric (revival-claim): “divine structure” / the divine link within the human; intellect, the androgyne, the initiate; the archetype of the male/female principle, “the perfect human,” the tie to the gods.

21. *laguz — “LA-guz”

Sound: translit. l (a direct equivalent).
History: water, moisture, lake. An alternative reading “leek” (laukaz?) — rarer. historical-fact (with a rarer alternative branch)
Esoteric (revival-claim): water; life-force, the life/death passage; water-magic, rituals of purification/renewal; “leek” (leek) / laukaz (growth, well-being); wisdom, emotions. ⚠️ Thorsson merges both branches (water + laukaz); in the historical layer they are kept apart.

22. *ingwaz — “ING-waz”

Sound: translit. ŋ (ng) = the velar nasal /ŋ/ (the “ng” in “gong”; a single sound, not “n”+“g” separately).
History: (the god/hero) Ing / Ingwaz — a theonym; the form of the name is restored from the theonym Ingwaz. The sign itself is rare in the inscriptions. historical-fact (the name — a reconstruction from the theonym).
Esoteric (revival-claim): the earth-god; potential energy, gestation (carrying), sex-magic; “the husband-ally of the earth-mother,” the fertility ritual, the cycle of energy, the recovery of strength.

23. *dagaz — “DA-gaz”

Sound: translit. d (a direct equivalent).
History: day. historical-fact (⚠️ In the alternative row order it stands AFTER othila — see the disclaimer.)
Esoteric (revival-claim): the light of day; polarity, synthesis/syncretization, “the paradox of unity”; sunrise and sunset, the morning/evening star, the moment of the mystical synthesis of opposites; victory.

24. ōþila- / ōþala- — “OH-thi-la” / “OH-tha-la”

Sound: translit. o (short /o/, the “o” in “off”).
History: inheritance, ancestral estate, patrimony. The meaning is stable; the form of the name fluctuates ōþila- / ōþala-. historical-fact (⚠️ In the alternative order it stands BEFORE dagaz.)
Esoteric (revival-claim): immovable hereditary property; ancestral/spiritual inheritance, the bond with the ancestors, “the runic imprints of the ancestors’ virtuous deeds”; the sacred enclosure, preserved freedom, prosperity; the passage from egocentrism to collective centrism.

A note on the “difficult” sounds (no exact everyday English equivalent)

translit.	What it is	Note for an English speaker
þ	the voiceless dental fricative (English “th” in thing), tongue between the teeth	native to English — the “th” of thing
w	the labial-velar approximant (English w in water), lips rounded	native to English; not the lip-teeth “v”
h	a light breathing (English h in house)	native to English — the h of house
ï	the sound is disputed (diphthong? monophthong between front and back?)	no agreed equivalent — `[unverified]`
z / ʀ	a special sibilant, later → “r/z”	between “z” and “r” — no exact equivalent `[unverified]`
ŋ	the velar nasal (the “ng” in “gong”)	“ng” as a single sound