Fehu
The first rune of the Elder Futhark, transliterated f. Its reconstructed name *fehu means "cattle" and by extension movable wealth, the same word that gives English "fee".
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚠU+16A0
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER FEHU FEOH FE F
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 150 – 800 (Roman Iron Age to the beginning of the Viking Age)
- Position
- 1, ætt 1
- Transliteration
- f
- Sound value
- /f/
- Name
- *fehu: cattle; movable wealth, propertyReconstructed
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| *fehu | Proto-Germanic | cattle; movable wealth, property | Reconstructed |
| feoh | Old English | wealth, money, cattle | Attested |
| fé | Old Norse | livestock, money, wealth | Attested |
| faihu | Gothic | possessions, moneyThe ordinary Gothic word, attested in Wulfila's Bible. Careful with what that covers: the name recorded for the Gothic letter in Codex Vindobonensis 795 is the shorter fe, and faihu is the form usually reconstructed behind it. | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
The name is reconstructed from a well-attested Germanic word for cattle that came to mean wealth in general: the same semantic shift visible in Latin pecū "cattle" giving pecūnia "money", and surviving in English "fee". Cattle were the standard measure of movable property, so "cattle" and "wealth" were effectively the same word.
Sound value
A straightforward /f/. In later Scandinavian inscriptions the same rune also does duty for /v/, since the two sounds were positional variants of one another.
Historical use
Fehu opens the futhark and gives the alphabet the first letter of its name. It is common throughout the older corpus, and it appears in the standard futhark rows on the Kylver stone and the Vadstena bracteate.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Feoh byþ frofur fira gehwylcum; sceal ðeah manna gehwylc miclun hyt dælan gif he wile for drihtne domes hleotan.Wealth is a comfort to everyone; yet every person must share it out freely, if they wish to be granted glory before the Lord.(our translation)
The moralising second half is characteristic: the poem repeatedly turns a rune name into a Christian lesson.
Fé vældr frænda róge; føðesk ulfr í skóge.Wealth causes strife among kinsmen; the wolf is reared in the forest.(our translation)
Fé er frænda róg ok flæðar viti ok grafseiðs gata.Wealth is strife among kinsmen and the fire of the flood-tide and the path of the serpent.(our translation)
Followed in the manuscripts by the tags aurum ("gold") and fylkir ("leader"). Both of the last two phrases are standard kennings for gold.
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
The oldest complete futhark row known. It begins with this rune, which is how we know the traditional order.
A gold pendant carrying the futhark divided by dots into three groups of eight: the earliest evidence for the ættir.
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
In modern rune divination fehu is read as material wealth, earned success, and the responsibility of holding on to what you have gained.
Reversed (modern practice calls this “merkstave”)
Loss, financial setback, or wealth held too tightly. The reversed reading is a modern convention.
Where this comes from: These readings descend from 20th-century systems, particularly the popular revival that followed Ralph Blum's The Book of Runes (1982). The Old English Rune Poem does associate wealth with a warning about hoarding it, so the general theme is not invented, but the specific divinatory framework is modern.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this rune that circulate widely and do not hold up.
Fehu is not a "money rune" that historical Norse people carved to attract wealth. There is no inscription in which a single f-rune is used as a prosperity charm.
If you are considering a tattoo
Practical notes for anyone about to make this permanent.
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.