Norse & Germanic
Symbol · The Runes
Fehu
Cattle, and the Quarrel
The f-rune, named for cattle and so for movable wealth, and for the discord that wealth breeds among kin.
What it meansThe Old English poem calls wealth a comfort that must be dealt out freely to earn honour. The Norwegian and Icelandic poems answer flatly: wealth is the strife of kinsmen. Three near-contemporary glosses, and two of them treat property as the thing that divides a family.
Symbol · The Runes
Uruz
One Rune, Three Glosses
The Elder Futhark rune of the wild aurochs, symbolizing raw physical vitality, untamed endurance, and health.
What it meansAurochs in the English poem, slag from bad iron in the Norwegian, a shower of rain in the Icelandic. The three traditions do not agree on what the rune even names. Any single confident meaning offered for it is later than the sources, and chose among them.
Symbol · The Runes
Thurisaz
Sharp, and Evil to Grasp
The th-rune, named for the thurs or giant, and renamed thorn by the Anglo-Saxons, who called it evil to touch.
What it meansThe English poem gives a thorn: exceedingly sharp, evil to grasp, harsh to anyone sitting among them. The Norse poems give a giant, and the Icelandic calls it torment of women. Both readings agree on the essential point — a thing that injures whoever handles it carelessly.
Books and texts 1
Teachings 1
Symbols 27
- ÆgishjálmurNorthern European Folk
- AlgizThe Runes
- AnsuzThe Runes
- BerkananThe Runes
- DagazThe Runes
- EhwazThe Runes
- EihwazThe Runes
- FehuThe Runes
- GeboThe Runes
- HagalazThe Runes
- IngwazThe Runes
- IsazThe Runes
- JeraThe Runes
- KaunanThe Runes
- LaguzThe Runes
- MannazThe Runes
- NaudizThe Runes
- OthalaThe Runes
- PerthThe Runes
- RaidoThe Runes
- SowiloThe Runes
- The Web of WyrdNorthern European Folk
- ThurisazThe Runes
- TiwazThe Runes
- UruzThe Runes
- WunjoThe Runes
- YggdrasilNorthern European Folk