Ansuz
The fourth Elder Futhark rune, transliterated a. Its reconstructed name *ansuz means "a god", one of the Æsir, though the Old English poem replaced it with the Latin word for "mouth".
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚨU+16A8
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER ANSUZ A
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 150 – 800 (Roman Iron Age to the beginning of the Viking Age)
- Position
- 4, ætt 1
- Transliteration
- a
- Sound value
- /a/ , /aː/
- Name
- *ansuz: a god, one of the ÆsirReconstructed
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| *ansuz | Proto-Germanic | a god, one of the Æsir | Reconstructed |
| os | Old English | mouthReinterpreted as Latin ōs, "mouth", in the Christian-era poem. | Attested |
| óss | Old Norse | a god (Icelandic) or river-mouth (Norwegian) | Attested |
| *ansus | Gothic | a godNo singular is attested in Gothic. Jordanes gives the Latinised plural anses for Gothic demigods, and the Gothic letter name recorded in Codex Vindobonensis 795 is aza, not this form. | Reconstructed |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
The Icelandic tradition is the clearest: its rune poem keeps the god, and identifies him as Óðinn (one of the Æsir, the family of gods to which Þórr also belongs) through the by-name Gautr and the titles ruler of Ásgarðr and lord of Valhǫll, though it never uses the name Óðinn itself. The Gothic evidence is more equivocal than it is usually made to look: the letter name recorded for Gothic a is aza, which has been read as *ans "god" and also as a word for the ash tree, and a rival reconstruction takes the rune name from a word for an ear of corn instead. *ansuz is the majority reconstruction rather than an uncontested one.
Sound value
Short and long /a/. In the Younger Futhark the sound shifted and the rune became ó/á; in the futhorc the same shift produced the new runes ac and æsc to cover the vowels that split apart.
Historical use
Extremely common, since /a/ is a frequent sound. The Nordendorf fibula from Bavaria carries the names of gods written in the Elder Futhark, which is among the strongest direct evidence that the script was used for religious purposes on the Continent.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Os byþ ordfruma ælere spræce, wisdomes wraþu ond witena frofur and eorla gehwam eadnys ond tohiht.The mouth is the origin of all speech, the support of wisdom and a comfort to the wise, and to every noble a blessing and a hope.(our translation)
Here os is Latin ōs, "mouth": a learned reinterpretation of the inherited name *ansuz, "a god". The stanza is evidence for Christian-era wordplay, not for the rune's original meaning.
Óss er flæstra færða fǫr; en skalpr er sværða.The river-mouth is the way of most journeys; but the scabbard is that of swords.(our translation)
Here óss means "river-mouth", not "god": the Norwegian poem has taken the homophone. The Icelandic poem, by contrast, keeps the god, and its kennings identify him as Óðinn.
Óss er algingautr ok ásgarðs jöfurr ok valhallar vísi.The god is the ancient Gautr and the ruler of Ásgarðr and the lord of Valhǫll.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: Jupiter and oddviti ("chief"). Unlike the Norwegian poem, the Icelandic poem keeps the old association of this rune with a god, and says which god, though never by name: Gautr is a by-name of Óðinn, and the ruler of Ásgarðr and lord of Valhǫll can be nobody else. The name Óðinn itself does not occur in the stanza. Do not lean on the Latin tag for that identification, though. Jupiter here stands for the chief god rather than for Óðinn specifically: the conventional Roman equivalent for Óðinn is Mercury, which is why his day is Wednesday, dies Mercurii, while Jupiter conventionally answers to Þórr. The glosses in this poem are ad hoc: the same list gives Saturnus for þurs.
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
- Nordendorf fibula IBavaria, Germany · c. AD 600
Reads logaþore wodan wigiþonar, apparently three divine names. One of the few inscriptions that plainly names Germanic gods.
ek hlewagastiʀ holtijaʀ horna tawido, "I, Hlewagastiʀ of Holt, made the horn." The best-known complete sentence in the Elder Futhark.
Eight a-runes in a row, in the middle of a text that begins as ordinary language and then stops being it. The clearest case anywhere of this rune used for something other than its sound.
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
How this rune is read in contemporary divination, which is a separate question from what it meant historically.
Upright
Modern practice associates ansuz with speech, inspired language, learning and messages, often tied specifically to Óðinn as the god of poetry.
Reversed (modern practice calls this “merkstave”)
Deception, miscommunication, or bad advice. A modern convention.
Where this comes from: The "communication" reading owes as much to the Old English poem's "mouth" substitution as to the older "god" name. Two different traditions have been merged into one modern meaning.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this rune that circulate widely and do not hold up.
Ansuz is not "the Odin rune" in any historical sense. *ansuz means "a god", generically. The specific link to Óðinn comes from the 15th-century Icelandic poem and from modern practice.
The same rune in other alphabets
Runes descended from the same original character, so you can follow it through time.
The rest of ætt 1
Sources for this entry
Full references are on the sources page. If you think something here is wrong, our corrections policy explains how to say so.