- Name
- mann (man, mon)
- Meaning
- man, human being
- Transliteration
- m
- Sound
- /m/
- Unicode
U+16D7runic letter mannaz man m
Line of descent
History
The m rune keeps the elder shape, two uprights joined by crossing strokes. Its name mann "man, person" matches Old Norse maðr and supports the elder *mannaz. The rune poem uses it for one of its most Christian stanzas: man is dear to his kinsman in his mirth, but each must fail the other, because the Lord will commit "that wretched flesh" to the earth. The Norwegian and Icelandic poems both call man "an increase of the dust", a line that may echo Scripture.
The rune was also used as an abbreviation for its name. Dickins collected examples. The m rune stands for man in the Lindisfarne Gospels' glosses and the Durham Ritual, in the Rushworth Gospels in the name Farman, and in the Exeter Book poem The Ruin in mandreama.
Hickes's printing of the rune poem confused this rune with dæg and wrote the name deg over it. Dickins traced the error to the manuscript Cotton Domitian A.ix. On the Seax of Beagnoth m is 23rd, not 20th, one of several departures from the usual order in that row. On the Franks Casket it ends giswom.
In the rune poems
sceal þeah anra gehwylc oðrum swican,
forðam drihten wyle dome sine
þæt earme flæsc eorþan betæcan.
yet each one must fail the other,
because the Lord by his decree wishes
to commit that wretched flesh to the earth.
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 23 (out of usual order)
- Undley bracteate: mægæ
- Franks Casket, front panel: giswom; left side romwalus
- Manuscripts: rune used for man in the Lindisfarne Gospels glosses and the Durham Ritual
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 18–19 and note to v. 59.
- Wikipedia, 'Seax of Beagnoth', checked 2026-10.