Is

The eleventh futhorc rune, transliterated i. Its name means "ice", and no runic tradition has ever disagreed about it.

U+16C1transliterated i/i/, /iː/ætt 2c. AD 400 – 1100

At a glance

Rune: ᛁU+16C1
Unicode name: RUNIC LETTER ISAZ IS ISS I
Alphabet: Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
In use: c. AD 400 – 1100 (Early medieval England and Frisia)
Position: 11, ætt 2
Transliteration: i
Sound value: /i/ , /iː/
Name: is: iceAttested

Names

How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.

Form	Language	Meaning	Evidence
is	Old English	ice	Attested

An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.

Etymology

Continues *īsaz. Along with hail, ice is one of the two rune names about which no tradition has ever disagreed, which makes both unusually secure reference points for reconstruction.

AttestedPage 1999; Barnes 2012

Sound value

Short and long /i/. A single vertical stroke, as in every runic alphabet.

Historical use

Common, and the same practical difficulty applies here as elsewhere: on a worn or damaged surface a single vertical stroke is very hard to distinguish from accidental damage.

AttestedPage 1987; Page 1999

Rune-poem evidence

The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.

The Old English Rune PoemIs · Old English · Anglo-Saxon Futhorc

Is byþ ofereald, ungemetum slidor, glisnaþ glæshluttur gimmum gelicust, flor forste geworuht, fæger ansyne.

Ice is very cold, immeasurably slippery; it glitters glass-clear, most like gems, a floor wrought by frost, fair to look upon.(our translation)

Attested in

Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.

Thames scramasaxRiver Thames, London · 10th century
Eleventh in the inlaid row.

Signatures follow the Scandinavian Runic-text Database so you can look each inscription up directly. Each name links to the object's own entry.

Modern meaning

Why this entry has none.

None is given here. Modern rune divination is built almost entirely on the Elder Futhark, and no established modern tradition reads the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc separately. Inventing a reading for Is to fill the space would be exactly the kind of fabrication this site exists to flag, so the field is left empty rather than filled. Its Elder Futhark ancestor is linked further down and does carry a modern reading, labelled as modern. How modern rune meanings were arrived at is a separate discussion.