Wunjo
Trouble Absent, and Enough
The w-rune, meaning joy, glossed only by the Old English poem, which defines it as the absence of trouble.
The reconstructed name is wunjo, joy; the Old English form is wynn. As with the gift-rune, the Younger Futhark had no w-rune, so the Old English poem is the only medieval gloss this letter has. Its definition is negative and very concrete: bliss is enjoyed by the one who knows neither suffering, sorrow nor anxiety, and who has prosperity, happiness and a good enough house. Joy is what remains when trouble is absent and there is enough. The rune outlived the alphabet in England, where scribes borrowed it into the Latin script as wynn to write the w sound and kept it for centuries.
Light
Contentment defined by what is missing: no suffering, no sorrow, no anxiety, and sufficiency in the house. A modest and durable happiness rather than an elated one.
Shadow
A condition dependent on circumstances holding. The poem's joy has prerequisites, prosperity and a good enough house among them, and names a state that trouble removes rather than one that survives it.
