- Name
- ear
- Meaning
- uncertain; probably earth or the grave
- Transliteration
- ea
- Sound
- /æɑ/, /æːɑ/ (the diphthong ea); in Northumbria also eo
- Unicode
U+16E0runic letter ear
Line of descent
History
Ear is an English addition for the diphthong ea, which the elder row had no way of writing. Its shape, an arrow-like upright with branches, has no clear ancestor among the elder runes. The name is found only in rune lists. Codex Vindobonensis 795 has eor with the value eo. Grein compared Old Norse aurr "loam, clay", and the rune poem supports a meaning like "earth" or "grave". Its stanza is a picture of burial: the corpse growing cold and choosing the earth for its bedfellow, while "joys depart, pledges fail". It is the darkest stanza in the poem and closes it.
The rune is better attested in inscriptions than the late additions that follow it. Dickins listed it on the Dover stone (gislheard) and in the name beagnoþ on the Seax of Beagnoth, where it also ends the rune row in 28th place. He noted that it is frequent in Northumbria, where carvers used it for eo as well, because the two diphthongs had become confused in that dialect. The Ruthwell Cross poem uses it in fearran "from afar".
Rune lists disagree on whether y or ea comes first. The rune poem and the seax put y first, while Codex Vindobonensis 795 puts ea before y.
In the rune poems
ðonn[e] fæstlice flæsc onginneþ,
hraw colian, hrusan ceosan
blac to gebeddan; bleda gedreosaþ,
wynna gewitaþ, wera geswicaþ.
when steadily the flesh begins,
the corpse, to grow cold, to choose the earth,
pale, for its bedfellow; fruits fall,
joys depart, pledges fail.
Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.
Where it is found
- Seax of Beagnoth: beagnoþ, and position 28 of the row
- Dover stone: gislheard
- Ruthwell Cross: fearran 'from afar'
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 22–23, notes to v. 90 (pp. 23–24).
- Wikipedia, 'Seax of Beagnoth' and 'Ruthwell Cross', checked 2026-10.