Old letters. Enduring stories. Meanings you can make your own.
Runes began as letters in Germanic writing systems. This guide uses the 24-letter Elder Futhark, with familiar modern spellings of names that scholars reconstruct from later evidence. Names, sounds, and shapes have varied across time and place.
The name meanings describe historical language evidence. The modern meanings, intention groups, and stories are our original symbolic interpretations for everyday life, love, and personal practice. They express intentions without promising an outcome.
Open a rune to read its story and discover the designs it inspires.
Strength, stamina, and the courage to begin.
u · Aurochs; a wild ox.
Our interpretationThe wild ox gives this rune its name. Let that great, grounded animal lend an image to your intention: meet the weight before you with steady strength, one deliberate step at a time.
Historical name reference ↗Creative fire, practiced skill, and the courage to make.
k · The earlier name is disputed. Our torch image follows the later Old English cen tradition.
Our interpretationImagine a torch above a workbench: enough light to see the next line, enough warmth to keep working. Our Kenaz draws on that later English image as a companion to learning and making.
Historical name reference ↗Weathering disruption and gathering strength to rebuild.
h · Hail.
Our interpretationHail interrupts the day without asking permission. Our Hagalaz honors the moment after the storm, when you take stock, gather what remains, and decide what deserves to be built again.
Historical name reference ↗Resourcefulness, patience, and resolve under pressure.
n · Need; hardship or constraint.
Our interpretationWhen the way narrows, the essential becomes easier to see. Nauthiz is our mark for working with what you have, asking for what you need, and keeping your purpose through a difficult stretch.
Historical name reference ↗Clarity, confidence, and wholehearted effort.
s · Sun.
Our interpretationThe sun gives the day its shape and brings the distant landscape into view. Our Sowilo carries the feeling of stepping into that light: see your direction and put your strength behind it.
Historical name reference ↗Principle, fairness, and courage guided by a promise.
t · The divine name Tiw, related to Old Norse Tyr.
Our interpretationA clear point gives this rune a sense of direction. We make Tiwaz a sign for the promise you intend to keep, especially when keeping it asks something of you.
Historical name reference ↗A transliteration identifies a letter; it is not an English translation or a guide to spelling every modern word. Here þ represents the th-sound, j is the scholarly letter convention, ŋ represents ng, and ï labels the eihwaz rune's uncertain vowel sound.
Our bindrunes combine selected letters into original intention-led designs. Any link we make between a rune, a lunar phase, and a planetary theme is a modern creative choice, rather than a fixed correspondence for all 24 runes inherited from antiquity.
Runic characters and encoded names; historical letterforms can vary.
Expert-authored account of the 24-letter alphabet, reconstructed names, name meanings, and uncertain sound values.
A later Old English naming and poetic tradition; the torch image for cen is distinguished from the disputed earlier k-rune name. No modern translation is reproduced here.
Runes were letters used to write early Germanic languages. Elder Futhark had 24 signs and takes its name from the sounds of its first six letters. It was in use centuries before the Viking Age, when a shorter 16-sign alphabet became common in Scandinavia.
On the back of a silver brooch found at Gårdlösa in Sweden, someone carved two words: ek unwodz, meaning “I, Unwodz.” The inscription faced the wearer. It preserves a name in a place that most people would never see.