Wyrdseidr

ᚩ os

Anglo-Saxon Futhorc · position 4 · a god (cognate with Old Norse áss); the poem seems to read it as Latin os 'mouth'

Name
os
Meaning
a god (cognate with Old Norse áss); the poem seems to read it as Latin os 'mouth'
Transliteration
o
Sound
/o/, /oː/
Unicode
U+16A9 runic letter os o

Line of descent

ᚨ*ansuzElder Futhark→ ᚩosAnglo-Saxon Futhorc

History

The o rune is one of the first English innovations. In the elder row the fourth rune, *ansuz "god", stood for a. In the Anglo-Frisian dialects, a before a nasal consonant became a rounded vowel, and once the nasal was lost the name *ansuz became ōs. The rune name followed the sound change, and the fourth place in the row became an o rune. That is why the English row is called the futhorc and not the futhark. The old shape went with the fronted vowel to æsc, and the o rune was given a new shape, with both branches pointing down.

The word os "god" survives in Old English mainly in personal names (Oswald, Osric). The rune poem calls os "the origin of every speech". Many readers think the poet was thinking of Latin os "mouth", and that the heathen meaning had been forgotten or deliberately set aside. Others link the stanza to the god Woden as a giver of eloquence. The poem itself does not settle the question.

The earliest o set against æ is on the Undley bracteate, dated to the 5th century, in the sequence gægogæ. This is one reason the bracteate is counted as the oldest futhorc inscription. On the right side of the Franks Casket, some vowels are written with cryptic variant runes, and Unicode encodes the casket's o variant separately (ᛴ).

In the rune poems

The Old English Rune Poem, stanza 4
Os byþ ordfruma ælcre spræce,
wisdomes wraþu ond witena frofur
and eorla gehwam eadnys ond tohiht.
Os is the origin of every speech,
a support of wisdom and a comfort of the wise,
and to every nobleman a blessing and a hope.
Old English os is the word for a heathen god (compare Old Norse áss). The stanza reads as if the poet understood Latin os 'mouth'.

Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.

Where it is found

  • Undley bracteate (5th century): gægogæ, earliest o distinct from æ
  • Seax of Beagnoth, position 4
  • Franks Casket, front panel: flodu, ahof, hronæs

On inscriptions described on this site

Undley bracteateFranks CasketSeax of Beagnoth

Sources

  • Dickins (1915), pp. 12–13; note to v. 81.
  • Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' and 'Undley bracteate', checked 2026-10.
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