- Name
- *ōþala (or *ōþila)
- Meaning
- inherited land, ancestral property
- Name known from
- Old English ēþel (rune poem; earlier œþel); Gothic letter name utal in Codex Vindobonensis 795; no Scandinavian rune name, the rune having gone out of use there
- Transliteration
- o
- Sound
- /o/, /oː/
- Unicode
U+16DFrunic letter othalan ethel o
Line of descent
History
o is a diamond standing on two legs. It has often been compared with Latin O or a Greek omega, with feet added, and the O-derivation is widely accepted. It ends the row on the Kylver stone and stands 23rd on the Vadstena and Mariedamm bracteates, before dagaz.
The name *ōþala "inherited property, ancestral land" is reconstructed from Old English ēþel and the Gothic letter name utal. The Old English poem calls the ēþel "very dear to every man" if he can live there in prosperity. The English name shows a sound change. Proto-Germanic *ō before an i in the next syllable became œ and then ē, so the English rune came to stand for œ and later e, not o.
Elder Futhark examples include horna and tawido on the Gallehus horn, runo on the Einang stone, owlþuþewaz on the Thorsberg chape and dohtriz on the Tune stone.
The rune was dropped from the Younger Futhark. Old Norse wrote o with úr and later with óss. In England it continued as ēþel. In the Beowulf manuscript it is used as a shorthand for the word ēþel itself.
Modern use: a form of the rune with "feet" was used by Nazi organisations and is still used by some extremist groups. That belongs to the rune's 20th-century reception (see modern rune meanings).
In the rune poems
gif he mot ðær rihtes and gerysena on
brucan on bolde bleadum oftast.
if there he may enjoy what is right and fitting
in his own house, in prosperity, most often.
Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.
Where it is found
- Gallehus horn (DR 12): horna tawido
- Einang stone (N KJ63): runo faihido
- Thorsberg chape (DR 7): owlþuþewaz
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa DR 12, N KJ63, DR 7, G 88, Ög 178
- Dickins (1915), note to Old English rune poem l. 71 (Gothic utal)
- Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' (checked 2026-10-26), for the eþel logogram in Beowulf