The

rune Runes are the letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, and for specialised ...

is called Thurs (

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

'' Þurs'', a type of entity, from a reconstructed

Common 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 br ...

') in the Icelandic and Norwegian

rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poe ...

s. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter þ derived. It is transliterated as ''þ'', and has the sound value of a

voiceless dental fricative The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to English speakers as the 'th' in ''think''. Though rather rare as a phoneme in the world's inventory of languages, it is en ...

(the English sound of ''th'' as in ''thing''). The rune is absent from the earliest

Vimose inscriptions Finds from Vimose (), on the island of Funen, Denmark, include some of the oldest datable Elder Futhark runic inscriptions in early Proto-Norse or late Proto-Germanic from the 2nd to 3rd century in the Scandinavian Iron Age and were written in t ...

, but it is found in the

Thorsberg chape The Thorsberg chape (a bronze piece belonging to a scabbard) is an archeological find from the Thorsberg moor, Germany, that appears to have been deposited as a votive offering.Tineke Looijenga, ''Texts & Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions ...

inscription, dated to ca. AD 200.

Name

In Anglo-Saxon England, the same rune was called ''Thorn'' or "Þorn" and it survives as the Icelandic letter Þ (þ). An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be a

kenning A kenning ( Icelandic: ) is a figure of speech in the type of circumlocution, a compound that employs figurative language in place of a more concrete single-word noun. Kennings are strongly associated with Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English ...

(

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

) for "giant". It is disputed as to whether a distinct system of Gothic runes ever existed, but it is clear that most of the names (but not most of the shapes) of the letters of the Gothic alphabet correspond to those of the Elder Futhark. The name of 𐌸, the Gothic letter corresponding to Þ is an exception; it is recorded as ''þiuþ'' "(the) good" in the

Codex Vindobonensis 795 The Codex Vindobonensis 795 (Vienna Austrian National Library Codex) is a 9th-century manuscript, most likely compiled in 798 or shortly thereafter (after Arno of Salzburg returned from Rome to become archbishop). It contains letters and treatises ...

, and as such unrelated to either ''þurs'' or ''þorn''. The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune's

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 bran ...

name. Assuming that the Scandinavian name ''þurs'' is the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, a

form ' can be reconstructed (cf.

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...

''þyrs'' "giant, ogre" and

Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...

''duris-es'' "(of the) giant").

Rune poems

The Germanic rune ᚦ is mentioned in three

Name

Rune poems

References

See also