Ár
The tenth Younger Futhark rune, transliterated a. It descends from the Elder Futhark j-rune: when the name lost its initial j-, the rune quietly changed the sound it wrote.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᛅU+16C5
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER LONG-BRANCH-AR AE
- Alphabet
- Younger Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 800 – 1100 (The Viking Age)
- Position
- 10, ætt 2
- Transliteration
- a
- Sound value
- /a/
- Name
- ár: good year, plenty, harvestAttested
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| ár | Old Norse | good year, plenty, harvest | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Continues Elder Futhark *jēra, "year, harvest". The sound change from /j/ to /a/ is one of the clearest demonstrations that rune names were not decorative: the sound a rune wrote was tied to the first sound of its name, so when the name changed, the value changed with it.
Sound value
Writes /a/, but the rune it descends from wrote /j/. When Old Norse lost the initial j- of the word *jāra (the Proto-Norse form of Proto-Germanic *jēra, after the long ē had lowered to ā), the rune name became ár, and by the acrophonic principle the rune took the sound its new name started with.
Variant forms
Alternative shapes for the same rune across regions and periods.
Short-twig ár
U+16C6
The short-twig form, which became the standard medieval a-rune.
Historical use
Very common. The word ár, in the sense of a good and fruitful season, appears in inscriptions and later in Christian-era formulas, carrying over a pre-Christian idea of prosperity into new contexts.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Ár er gumna góðe; get ek at ǫrr var Fróðe.A good year is a boon to people; I reckon Fróði was generous.(our translation)
Ár er gumna góði ok gott sumar ok algróinn akr.A good year is a boon to people and a good summer and a fully ripened field.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: annus ("year") and allvaldr ("mighty ruler").
Ger byþ gumena hiht, ðonne God læteþ, halig heofones cyning, hrusan syllan beorhte bleda beornum ond ðearfum.Harvest is the hope of people, when God, the holy king of heaven, lets the earth give bright fruits to rich and needy alike.(our translation)
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
From the transitional period, and containing what may be the j-rune used ideographically for "a good year": the ancestor of this rune caught mid-change.
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 Younger Futhark separately. Inventing a reading for Ár 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.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this rune that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The a-rune of the Viking Age is not the Elder Futhark ansuz. It descends from the j-rune. The Elder Futhark a-rune became óss instead.
The same rune in other alphabets
Runes descended from the same original character, so you can follow it through time.
The rest of ætt 2
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.