- Name
- lagu
- Meaning
- water, sea
- Transliteration
- l
- Sound
- /l/
- Unicode
U+16DArunic letter laukaz lagu logr l
Line of descent
History
The l rune is the elder form, an upright with one short downward branch. Its English name lagu "water, sea" occurs elsewhere in Old English mostly in poetry and compounds, and it matches Old Norse lǫgr. The elder name is usually given as *laguz "water", though some scholars prefer *laukaz "leek", a word that appears on early bracteates. The English evidence clearly favors "water".
The rune poem gives the sea a sailor's view: it seems endless to those who must go out "in a tossing boat", when the waves terrify them and "the sea-steed does not heed its bridle". Dickins noted that Cynewulf used the rune for the word lagu "sea" in his runic signatures (Christ line 807, Elene line 1268), where the Old English reader had to supply the rune's name to make sense of the line.
Common in inscriptions, l occurs in flodu on the front of the Franks Casket and in romwalus on its left side. On the Seax of Beagnoth it is out of place, standing 22nd, after ŋ and d. The magical-looking word alu, stamped in mirror-runes on cremation urns from Spong Hill in Norfolk (5th century), also contains it.
In the rune poems
gif hi sculun neþan on nacan tealtum
and hi sæyþa swyþe bregaþ
and se brimhengest bridles ne gym[eð].
if they must venture out in a tossing boat,
and the sea-waves terrify them greatly,
and the sea-steed does not heed its bridle.
Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.
Where it is found
- Seax of Beagnoth, position 22 (out of usual order)
- Spong Hill urns, Norfolk (5th century): alu, in mirror-image runes
- Franks Casket, front panel: flodu
- Cynewulf, Christ II line 807, Elene line 1268: rune used for lagu
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 18–19 and note to v. 63.
- Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' (Spong Hill) and 'Seax of Beagnoth', checked 2026-10.