Mannaz
The twentieth Elder Futhark rune, transliterated m. Its name means "human being", and both the Old English and Norwegian poems use it to talk about death.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᛗU+16D7
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER MANNAZ MAN M
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 150 – 800 (Roman Iron Age to the beginning of the Viking Age)
- Position
- 20, ætt 3
- Transliteration
- m
- Sound value
- /m/
- Name
- *mannaz: human being, personReconstructed
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| *mannaz | Proto-Germanic | human being, person | Reconstructed |
| man | Old English | human being | Attested |
| maðr | Old Norse | human being, man | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
The general Germanic word for a human being rather than for a male specifically, the older sense preserved in English "mankind".
Sound value
A plain /m/. The Younger Futhark reshaped it substantially, cutting it back to ᛘ maðr, a descendant of this character rather than a replacement for it, though it looks almost nothing like it.
Variant forms
Alternative shapes for the same rune across regions and periods.
Younger Futhark long-branch maðr
U+16D8
The Viking-Age form, quite different in shape.
Younger Futhark short-twig maðr
U+16D9
Historical use
Common. It is also the rune whose shape changed most across the alphabets: the futhorc kept this Elder Futhark form unaltered, while the Younger Futhark reduced it to ᛘ maðr: the same rune, but stripped back so far that the two are not obviously related on sight.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Man byþ on myrgþe his magan leof: sceal þeah anra gehwylc oðrum swican, forðum drihten wyle dome sine þæt earme flæsc eorþan betæcan.A person in happiness is dear to their kin; yet each of them must fail the other, because by his decree the Lord will commit that wretched flesh to the earth.(our translation)
Maðr er moldar auki; mikil er græip á hauki.Man is an increase of the dust; great is the grip of the hawk.(our translation)
Maðr er manns gaman ok moldar auki ok skipa skreytir.Man is the delight of man and an increase of the dust and the adorner of ships.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: homo ("man") and mildingr ("generous ruler").
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
Twentieth 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 the self in relation to others, and as what people have in common. Both the Old English and the Norwegian stanzas are memento mori, which modern readings tend to soften.
Reversed (modern practice calls this “merkstave”)
Isolation, or a self cut off from others. A modern convention.
Where this comes from: Notice what modern practice leaves out: both surviving stanzas for this rune are about mortality, and neither is reassuring. Mannaz is often listed as having no reversed form, by confusion with dagaz, but its inner strokes hang from the tops of the two staves and meet in the upper half, leaving the lower half bare, so a half-turn moves the join to the bottom and does produce a different shape.
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.