Alruna (
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
Ǫlrún,
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
Ailrun, Modern German Alruna,
Alraune
''Alraune'' (German language, German for ) is a novel by German novelist Hanns Heinz Ewers published in 1911. It is also the name of the female lead character. The book originally featured illustrations by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald.
Legend
The bas ...
) is a Germanic female personal name, from
Proto Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branch ...
''*aliruna'' (or possibly ''*agilruna''), which is formed from ''
runa'' "secret, rune" and a debated prefix that may be ''ali-'', ''agil-'', or ''
alu-''.
In German, ''Alruna'' was also used as a short form of ''Adelruna'', a different name with a first element ''*athal-'' "noble".
In
Germanic mythology
Germanic mythology consists of the body of myths native to the Germanic peoples, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon paganism#Mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, and Continental Germanic mythology. It was a key element of Germanic paganism.
O ...
, Ailrun is the wife of
Agilaz, the legendary archer. In the poem ''
Völundarkviða
''Vǫlundarkviða'' (Old Norse: 'The lay of Völund'; modern Icelandic spelling: ''Völundarkviða'') is one of the mythological poems of the ''Poetic Edda''. The title is anglicized in various ways, including ''Völundarkvitha'', ''Völundarkv ...
'', Ölrun (possibly
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
"ale rune"
[Simek (2007:251).]) is identified as a
valkyrie
In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ( or ; from ) is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become ('single fighters' or 'once fighters').Orchard (1997:36) and Li ...
, and as a daughter of
Kiár of
Valland
In Norse legend, Valland is the name of the part of Europe which is inhabited by Celtic and Romance peoples. The element ''Val-'' is derived from *''Walhaz'', a Proto-Germanic word whose descendants were used in various Germanic languages to refe ...
.
Alruna of Cham was an 11th-century
Bavaria
Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...
n recluse, the
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
patroness of pregnancy. It is also the name for the ''
Mandragora'' or mandrake, a plant belonging to the nightshade family, in a number of
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...
: alruna in
Swedish, alrune in
Danish and
Norwegian, and
Alraune
''Alraune'' (German language, German for ) is a novel by German novelist Hanns Heinz Ewers published in 1911. It is also the name of the female lead character. The book originally featured illustrations by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald.
Legend
The bas ...
in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
.
See also
*
Albruna
Notes
References
*
Simek, Rudolf (2007) translated by Angela Hall. ''Dictionary of Northern Mythology''.
D.S. Brewer.
Germanic mythology
Valkyries
Germanic feminine given names
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