- Name
- sigel
- Meaning
- sun
- Transliteration
- s
- Sound
- /s/, voiced [z] between vowels
- Unicode
U+16CBrunic letter sigel long-branch-sol s
Line of descent
History
The s rune has more shapes in English than almost any other. In the elder row it was a zigzag of three or more strokes. The English rune is usually a tall upright form that Unicode encodes as ᛋ, with a name that covers both the English sigel and the Norse long-branch sól. Other variants exist. On the Seax of Beagnoth the rune in sixteenth place looks like a k-shaped stroke. Unicode has no separate code point for this form, so it can only be described, not encoded.
The name sigel means "sun", as the Norse sól does, and both point to the elder name *sōwilō. The rune poem makes the sun a guide for seafarers crossing "the fish's bath". Dickins noted that an Exeter Book riddle with the answer "sun" (Riddle 7 in Tupper's numbering) begins and ends with this rune.
s is very common in inscriptions. It begins sric and ends hronæs on the front of the Franks Casket. On the Harford brooch from Norfolk (c. 650) the word sigilæ "brooch" is written with it, in luda:gibœtæsigilæ, "Luda mended the brooch". The rune also occurs in the name Krist on the Ruthwell Cross.
In the rune poems
ðonne hi hine feriaþ ofer fisces beþ,
oþ hi brimhengest bringeþ to lande.
when they make their way over the fish's bath,
until the sea-steed brings them to land.
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 16 (k-shaped variant)
- Harford brooch, Norfolk (c. 650): luda:gibœtæsigilæ
- Franks Casket, front panel: fisc, sric, hronæs
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 16–17 and note to v. 45.
- Wikipedia, 'Seax of Beagnoth' and 'Anglo-Saxon runes', checked 2026-10.