- Name
- *ūruz
- Meaning
- aurochs, the wild ox (alternatives proposed)
- Name known from
- Old English ūr 'aurochs' (rune poem), Old Norse úr 'drizzle' / 'slag' (Scandinavian poems), Old High German ūro 'aurochs'; Gothic letter name uraz in Codex Vindobonensis 795
- Transliteration
- u
- Sound
- /u/, /uː/
- Unicode
U+16A2runic letter uruz ur u
Line of descent
History
The u rune is a stave with a branch that drops from the top to a point partway down. It is usually compared with Latin V, turned and given a stave, though the match is less exact than for f or r.
The name is reconstructed as *ūruz "aurochs", the great wild ox of Europe. That is what the Old English poem describes: "single-minded and great-horned … a famous moor-stalker". The Scandinavian tradition used other words that happen to sound alike. The Norwegian poem has úr "slag" (from bad iron), and the Icelandic poem has úr "drizzle", the weeping of the clouds. Because of this split, some scholars reconstruct a Proto-Germanic name meaning "water" or "drizzle" instead. Most handbooks prefer "aurochs", on the strength of the English poem and the Gothic letter name uraz. Neither choice can be proven.
In the Elder Futhark the rune stands for both short and long u. It is attested in the earliest inscriptions. The Øvre Stabu spearhead of the late 2nd century reads raunijaz, probably "tester", a name for the spear. The Tune stone has it in woduride, the dead man's name.
Later the rune took on more work. In the Younger Futhark ᚢ wrote u, o, y, ø and w/v. The English carvers kept it as ur and built a new rune from it, yr, for the vowel y.
In the rune poems
felafrecne deor, feohteþ mid hornum
mære morstapa; þæt is modig wuht.
a very fierce beast, it fights with its horns,
a famous moor-stalker; that is a bold creature.
opt løypr ræinn á hjarne.
often the reindeer runs on the frozen snow.
ok skára þverrir
ok hirðis hatr.
and destroyer of the hay-swathes
and the herdsman's hatred.
Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.
Where it is found
- Øvre Stabu spearhead (N KJ31): raunija(z)
- Tune stone (N KJ72): woduride
- Kylver stone (G 88), position 2
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa N KJ31, N KJ72, G 88
- Dickins (1915), note to Old English rune poem l. 4 (Gothic uraz)
- Wikipedia, 'Øvre Stabu spearhead' (checked 2026-10-26)