Laguz
The twenty-first Elder Futhark rune, transliterated l. Its name means "water", or possibly "leek". Unicode records both guesses in the character's official name.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᛚU+16DA
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER LAUKAZ LAGU LOGR L
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 150 – 800 (Roman Iron Age to the beginning of the Viking Age)
- Position
- 21, ætt 3
- Transliteration
- l
- Sound value
- /l/
- Name
- *laguz: water, lake, seaReconstructed
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| *laguz | Proto-Germanic | water, lake, sea | Reconstructed |
| *laukaz | Proto-Germanic | leekA rival reconstruction. The word laukaz appears on several bracteates, apparently as a formula, which has been taken as evidence for the rune name. | Contested |
| lagu | Old English | water, sea | Attested |
| lǫgr | Old Norse | water, liquid | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Both later traditions give "water", and that is the usual reconstruction. The competing "leek" proposal rests on the word laukaz appearing on Migration-Period bracteates, where it may be a fertility or growth formula rather than a rune name.
Sound value
A plain /l/. It survives into every later alphabet with its shape essentially intact: one of the very few runes that a reader of any period would recognise on sight.
Historical use
Common. The Unicode name for this codepoint preserves both candidate names, LAUKAZ LAGU LOGR, which is an unusually visible trace of an academic dispute.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Lagu byþ leodum langsum geþuht, gif hi sculun neþan on nacan tealtum and hi sæyþa swyþe bregaþ and se brimhengest bridles ne gymð.Water seems unending to people, if they must venture out in an unsteady boat, and the sea-waves terrify them badly, and the sea-steed pays no heed to its bridle.(our translation)
Lǫgr er, fællr ór fjalle foss; en gull ero nosser.Water is what falls from a mountain as a waterfall; but ornaments are made of gold.(our translation)
Lögr er vellanda vatn ok viðr ketill ok glömmungr grund.Water is welling water and a wide kettle and the field of the fish.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: lacus ("lake") and lofðungr ("prince").
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
Twenty-first position in the futhark 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
How this rune is read in contemporary divination, which is a separate question from what it meant historically.
Upright
Read as water and by extension as intuition, emotion and things below the surface.
Reversed (modern practice calls this “merkstave”)
Being overwhelmed, or ignoring instinct. A modern convention.
Where this comes from: The "unconscious" reading is 20th-century psychology applied to a water word; the rune poems describe the sea as frightening, not as insightful.
The same rune in other alphabets
Runes descended from the same original character, so you can follow it through time.
The rest of ætt 3
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.