The first aett: Fehu to Wunjo

In this lesson: the first eight runes, Fehu to Wunjo, with shapes, sounds, the rune poems, modern meanings and a memory method.

Now we meet the runes themselves, eight at a time. For each one you will learn three things: its shape, its sound and its name. The name is the doorway to meaning, because every rune name is an ordinary word like cattle, journey or gift. Read the historical part first and the modern keywords second, and you will always know which is which.

How to read a rune name

Historical The early names were never written down in full. Scholars reconstruct them from later Old English and Old Norse names and from the rune poems, and mark them with an asterisk, like *fehu. Some are secure, some probable, a few unknown. The names are Proto-Germanic, so nobody alive has heard them spoken. Stress the first syllable, say vowels as in Italian, th as in “thin” and the final z as a buzzing “zoo”. Close is good enough.

The eight runes

The first aett spells the opening of the word “futhark”: f, u, th, a, r, k, then g and w.

1. ᚠ Fehu (FEH-hoo), f. Name: cattle, wealth, secure. The poems treat wealth as double-edged: a comfort that must be shared, and a cause of strife among kin. Modern: wealth, resources, earnings.
2. ᚢ Uruz (OO-rooz), u. Name: aurochs, the extinct wild ox, probable. The English poem praises a fierce, great-horned beast of the moors. The Norse poems use different words: slag and drizzle. Modern: strength, vitality, endurance.
3. ᚦ Thurisaz (THOO-ree-sahz), th. Name: giant, probable; “thorn” in English. Thorns hurt whoever grasps them, and giants bring harm. Modern: defense, boundaries, conflict.
4. ᚨ Ansuz (AHN-sooz), a. Name: a god, one of the Æsir, secure. The English poem makes it the mouth, origin of speech and wisdom. Modern: communication, words, wisdom.
5. ᚱ Raidho (RYE-tho), r. Name: ride, journey, secure. Riding is easy in the hall and hard on the long road, and hardest on the horse. Modern: journey, travel, movement.
6. ᚲ Kenaz (KEH-nahz), k. Name: uncertain, “sore” in the Norse poems and “torch” in the English one. Modern: light, knowledge, insight, built on the torch.
7. ᚷ Gebo (GHEH-bo), g. Name: gift, secure. Only the English poem survives: giving is honor, and for the wanderer with nothing else, help and a living. Modern: gift, generosity, exchange.
8. ᚹ Wunjo (WOON-yo), w. Name: joy, secure. Joy belongs to one with few troubles and enough shelter. Modern: joy, contentment, harmony.

What the poems notice

Historical Read the stanzas and you will see ordinary life: cattle and inheritance quarrels, a wild ox, a thorn bush, a long ride, a torch in a hall, a gift to a traveller. The English poem was written by a Christian and often turns to God. The Norwegian and Icelandic poems sometimes describe a different word from the same rune, which is why Uruz is an ox in one poem and drizzle in another. Gebo and Wunjo were dropped from the Younger Futhark, so only the English poem speaks of them.

Modern Modern keywords grow from these names by association, mostly since the 1980s, and authors differ. Kenaz as “insight” comes from the English torch, not from the Norse sore. Treat the keywords as one voice among several, alongside the poem and your own response.

The poems in their own words

Historical Here are the stanzas behind the first aett, in Bruce Dickins’s 1915 translations, so that you can hear them directly. For Fehu, the Old English poem says “Wealth is a comfort to all men; yet must every man bestow it freely, if he wish to gain honour in the sight of the Lord”, while the Norwegian poem says “Wealth is a source of discord among kinsmen; the wolf lives in the forest.”

For Uruz, the Old English: “The aurochs is proud and has great horns; it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns; a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.” The Norwegian poem uses a different word altogether: “Dross comes from bad iron; the reindeer often races over the frozen snow.”

For Thurisaz, the Old English: “The thorn is exceedingly sharp, an evil thing for any knight to touch.” For Ansuz: “The mouth is the source of all language, a pillar of wisdom and a comfort to wise men.” For Raidho: “Riding seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors and very courageous to him who traverses the high-roads on the back of a stout horse”, with the Norwegian adding, wryly, “Riding is said to be the worst thing for horses.”

For Kenaz: “The torch is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame”, while the Norwegian has “Ulcer is fatal to children.” For Gebo: “Generosity brings credit and honour.” And for Wunjo: “Bliss he enjoys who knows not suffering, sorrow nor anxiety, and has prosperity and happiness and a good enough house.”

Notice how often the poems are wry, practical or moral, and how rarely they are mystical. The Raidho stanza is almost a joke about warriors who are brave by the fire. Wunjo’s “a good enough house” is one of the most human lines in the whole tradition.

Three ways to learn the first aett

By story. Make a little tale that links the eight names in order: “The cattle (Fehu) wandered to where the aurochs (Uruz) grazed among the thorns (Thurisaz). A god (Ansuz) rode by (Raidho) with a torch (Kenaz), gave a gift (Gebo) and everyone felt joy (Wunjo).” Silly stories are easier to remember.

By shape. Notice families of shapes: Fehu and Ansuz both have two branches on one stave, but Fehu’s point up and Ansuz’s point down; Raidho and Wunjo both have a loop at the top, angular in each case. Draw the pairs side by side.

By sound. Write a few simple English words in runes using only the first aett: “far” (Fehu, Ansuz, Raidho), “raw” (Raidho, Ansuz, Wunjo) and “rag” (Raidho, Ansuz, Gebo). Writing quickly teaches the shapes and sounds together.

The Icelandic poem on the first aett

Historical The Icelandic rune poem, probably from the fifteenth century, describes the sixteen runes of the Younger Futhark. Each stanza gives three short poetic names, called kennings. Six of its runes match runes in the first aett, and Dickins’s 1915 translation lets you hear them.

Fehu (Icelandic fé): “Wealth = source of discord among kinsmen and fire of the sea and path of the serpent.” Gold was poetically “fire of the sea” and the bed, or path, of dragons.

Uruz (Icelandic úr): “Shower = lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay-harvest and abomination of the shepherd.” Notice that the meaning has changed completely. The Old English aurochs, a wild ox, has become a rain shower in Icelandic, because the word úr had come to mean drizzle.

Thurisaz (þurs): “Giant = torture of women and cliff-dweller and husband of a giantess.”

Ansuz (óss): “God = aged Gautr and prince of Asgard and lord of Valhalla.” Gautr is a name of Odin. The Old English poem, by contrast, read the same rune as “mouth”.

Raidho (reið): “Riding = joy of the horseman and speedy journey and toil of the steed.” All three poems agree on riding, and only the Icelandic remembers the horse’s side of it.

Kenaz (kaun): “Ulcer = disease fatal to children and painful spot and abode of mortification.” Here again the meaning has shifted: the Old English torch has become a sore.

What the changes teach

These stanzas show something every rune learner should know. The meanings of the rune names were not fixed. Over centuries and across languages, sounds stayed while names drifted. Uruz and Kenaz are the clearest examples in this aett. Modern keyword lists usually follow the Old English poem for Uruz and Kenaz, but that is a choice. When a book gives you one meaning as “the” ancient meaning, you now know to ask: from which poem, and from which century?

Practice: a kenning of your own

The Icelandic poem’s three-part stanzas are easy to imitate. Choose one rune from the first aett and write three kennings for it in modern words. For Fehu you might write “wages of the week, worry of the month, gift to a friend”. Writing your own kennings is a wonderful way to remember a rune, and it keeps your modern meaning honestly separate from the medieval ones.

Questions beginners ask

Why are the poems so different from each other? They come from different places and centuries, and the Norwegian and Icelandic poems describe the Younger Futhark names, which had sometimes changed meaning.

Which poem should I trust? All three are real sources. The Old English poem is the only one for some runes; for others, compare all three and see what they share.

Do I need to memorize the pronunciations? Close is good enough. Nobody alive has heard Proto-Germanic spoken.

A worked example

Imagine someone practicing on her lunch breaks. By day three she can say “Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo” without looking. On day four she draws the aett from memory and gets six right. She had written Ansuz with branches pointing up like Fehu and turned Wunjo into a rounded P. She corrects both in red and writes: “Ansuz branches slope down. Wunjo has a triangle, not a curve.” The next morning all eight come out right.

Try this

Learn the first aett. Say the eight names aloud in order, then draw the eight shapes while looking at the list, once in the morning and once in the evening for three days. On the fourth day, cover the list, draw the aett from memory and correct mistakes in a different color. Under each rune write its sound and one word from its name.

Recap

The first aett is f, u, th, a, r, k, g, w: Fehu, Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raidho, Kenaz, Gebo, Wunjo. Each name is an ordinary word, reconstructed by scholars with varying certainty. The rune poems describe those words, and modern keywords grow from them. Watch the false friends: Ansuz and Fehu, and Wunjo, which looks like P.

What next

Press “Mark as done” and continue with The second aett: Hagalaz to Sowilo. Each rune has its own full page in my Elder Futhark guide, starting with Fehu.

Further reading: Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (1915), for all three rune poems with translations.

Sources

• Michael P. Barnes, Runes: A Handbook (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2012).
• Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1915).
• R. I. Page, Runes (London: British Museum Press, 1987).

Go deeper: the runes pages on this site

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