- Name
- rad
- Meaning
- riding; perhaps also harness or equipment
- Transliteration
- r
- Sound
- /r/
- Unicode
U+16B1runic letter raido rad reid r
Line of descent
History
The r rune keeps its elder shape and value. Its English name, rad, corresponds to Old Norse reið, and all three rune poems describe riding. The English poem jokes that riding seems easy to a warrior sitting in the hall and is hard work for the one who rides "a mighty, strong horse along the mile-paths". The Norwegian poem says that riding is worst for horses. The agreement supports the reconstructed elder name *raidō "ride, journey".
Dickins noted a second possibility. Codex Vindobonensis 795 gives the name as rada, and H. M. Chadwick suggested to him that this corresponds to Old Norse reiði "tackle, harness, equipment". Read that way, the stanza puns on furnishings in the hall and gear on the horse. The idea has found little support, but it shows how uncertain even the clear-looking names can be.
The rune is frequent in every English inscription of any length. It occurs twice in fergenberig on the Franks Casket, and the Ruthwell Cross poem uses it in rodi "on the cross".
In the rune poems
sefte ond swiþhwæt, ðamðe sitteþ on ufan
meare mægenheardum ofer milpaþas.
and very strenuous for the one who sits up on
a mighty, strong horse along the mile-paths.
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 5
- Franks Casket, front panel: fergenberig, grorn, hronæs
- Ruthwell Cross: krist wæs on rodi 'Christ was on the cross'
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 14–15 and note to v. 13.
- Wikipedia, 'Ruthwell Cross', checked 2026-10.