- Name
- peorð
- Meaning
- unknown
- Transliteration
- p
- Sound
- /p/
- Unicode
U+16C8runic letter pertho peorth p
Line of descent
History
Peorð is the great unknown of the rune names. The word exists only as the name of this rune. The rune poem says only that it is "always play and laughter among the proud, where warriors sit in the beer-hall". Scholars have suggested a gaming piece, a dice cup, a musical instrument and a pear tree. Dickins reported Wilhelm Grimm's comparison with an Icelandic word for a pawn in chess, and added that the historian of chess H. J. R. Murray did not favor it. None of these suggestions has been proven. The elder name is reconstructed as *perþ- from this word alone, and it is equally uncertain (see pertho).
The sound p was rare in early Germanic, and the rune is rare in inscriptions. It is missing from the earliest Scandinavian finds. Dickins knew it in England only from manuscript lists and from coins. The silver coins of the 7th century reading pada, perhaps naming the Mercian king Penda (or Peada), and the sceattas reading æpa and epa are still the clearest examples. On the Seax of Beagnoth it keeps its place as the fourteenth rune.
The rune's shape, like a cup on its side, is also unexplained. Some scholars derive it from a North Italic letter. Others think it was formed from b.
In the rune poems
wlancum [on middum], ðar wigan sittaþ
on beorsele bliþe ætsomne.
among the proud, where warriors sit
in the beer-hall, cheerful together.
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 14
- Kentish silver coins, 7th century: pada
- Sceattas: æpa, epa
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 16–17 and note to v. 38.
- Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' (coin list) and 'Elder Futhark' (origins), checked 2026-10.