- Name
- yr
- Meaning
- disputed: a bow, an axe-head, a horn and other things have been proposed
- Transliteration
- y
- Sound
- /y/, /yː/ (rounded front vowel, like German ü)
- Unicode
U+16A3runic letter yr
Line of descent
History
Old English developed a new vowel, y (pronounced like German ü), through i-mutation of u. The English answer was a new rune built on u: ur with an inner stroke. The name yr rhymes with ur and may simply have been formed from it. Its meaning has been argued over for more than a century. Grein's dictionary gave "horn". Others compared Old Norse ýr "bow", but Dickins objected that ýr matches English eoh, not yr. Dickins tentatively suggested æxe-yre "axe-head" from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (1012). The rune poem is no help: it describes something that brings honor to nobles, looks fine on horseback and is "a piece of war-gear". That would fit a bow, a saddle or an axe.
The rune is certainly real in writing. It is one of the runes Cynewulf worked into his signatures (the Y of CYNEWULF), and the left side of the Franks Casket uses it in wylif "she-wolf". On the Seax of Beagnoth it is 27th, before ea. Codex Vindobonensis 795 has the opposite order, while Codex Sangallensis 878, Cotton Domitian A.ix and the rune poem agree with the seax.
In the rune poems
wyn and wyrþmynd, byþ on wicge fæger,
fæstlic on færelde, fyrdgeatewa sum.
a joy and an honour; it looks fine on a horse,
dependable on a journey, a piece of war-gear.
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 27
- Franks Casket, left side: wylif 'she-wolf'
- Cynewulf's runic signatures (the Y of his name)
On inscriptions described on this site
Sources
- Dickins (1915), pp. 22–23 and note to v. 84.
- Wikipedia, 'Anglo-Saxon runes' and 'Seax of Beagnoth', checked 2026-10.