- Name
- wynn (wenne in the rune poem)
- Meaning
- joy
- Transliteration
- w
- Sound
- /w/
- Unicode
U+16B9runic letter wunjo wynn w
Line of descent
History
The w rune keeps the elder shape, a flag-like loop on an upright. Its English name wynn "joy" is the main evidence for the reconstructed elder name *wunjō. The rune poem's form wenne is, according to Dickins, a Kentish form of the same word, and Hickes misprinted it as two words. Codex Vindobonensis 795 has wyn.
Like þ, this rune moved into manuscript writing. Latin had no good letter for the English w sound, and from the 8th century English scribes used the rune, now called the letter wynn (ƿ), for it. Wynn remained in English manuscripts until after the Norman Conquest, when it was gradually replaced by uu and w. The name was useful to poets. In Cynewulf's runic signatures, the w rune stands for the word wyn "joy" in the verse (Christ line 805, Elene line 1263), which only works because the name was still known.
Inscriptions with w include warþga and giswom on the front of the Franks Casket and wæs and kwomu in the Ruthwell Cross poem.
In the rune poems
sares and sorge and him sylfa hæfþ
blæd and blysse and eac byrga geniht.
of pain and sorrow, and has for himself
prosperity and bliss, and enough of strongholds too.
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 8
- Franks Casket, front panel: warþga, giswom
- Ruthwell Cross: wæs, kwomu
- Cynewulf's runic signatures (Christ II, Elene), where the rune stands for wyn
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 14–15 and note to v. 22.
- Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' and 'Ruthwell Cross', checked 2026-10.