Wyrdseidr

ᚼ hagall

Younger Futhark · position 7 · hail

Name
hagall
Meaning
hail
Transliteration
h
Sounds
h
Unicode
U+16BC runic letter long-branch-hagall h

Line of descent

ᚺ*hagalazElder Futhark→ ᚼhagallYounger Futhark

History

The seventh rune keeps the name and sound of the Elder Futhark hagalaz but not its shape. The older rune looked like a Latin H with one or two slanting crossbars (ᚺ, ᚻ). The Viking Age long-branch form ᚼ is a stave crossed by two diagonals, like an asterisk without its horizontal bar. The short-twig form ᚽ reduces this to a single short stroke across the stave. The Ribe skull fragment (DR EM85;151B), dated to about 725, still uses the old ᚺ shape among otherwise Younger Futhark runes. It is evidence of how gradual the change was.

The name hagall "hail" corresponds to Old English hægl. The Norwegian poem calls hail "the coldest of grains", and the Old English poem calls it "the whitest of grains". The match is one of the best pieces of evidence that the poems drew on shared older rune lore. The Icelandic poem has "cold grain" and a kenning for winter, "sickness of snakes".

h writes the sound h at the beginning of words, including the clusters hr, hl and hn found in Old Norse names. Malsta (Hs 14) spells the name Hróðmundr as hrumunt. The rune also appears on the larger Jelling stone in haraltr "Haraldr". Modern note: the Bluetooth wireless logo combines ᚼ and ᛒ, the initials of Haraldr blátǫnn (Harald Bluetooth). It is a 1990s corporate design, not a historical bind-rune.

In the rune poems

The Old Norwegian Rune Poem, stanza 7
Hagall er kaldastr korna;
Kristr skóp hæimenn forna.
Hail is the coldest of grains;
Christ shaped the world in ancient times.
The Old Icelandic Rune Poem, stanza 7 · Latin gloss grando · chieftain word hildingr
Hagall er kaldakorn
ok krapadrífa
ok snáka sótt.
Hail is cold grain
and a driving shower of sleet
and the sickness of snakes.
'Sickness of snakes' is a kenning for winter, when snakes lie torpid.

Original text from the public-domain editions named on each poem's page; translations are our own.

Where it is found

  • Jelling stone 2 (DR 42): haraltr 'Haraldr'
  • Malsta stone (Hs 14), staveless runes: hrumunt 'Hróðmundr'
  • Ribe skull fragment (DR EM85;151B), c. 725, with the older ᚺ shape

On inscriptions described on this site

Large Jelling stone (Harald's stone)Ramsund carving (Sigurd carving)

Sources

  • Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa DR 42, Hs 14, DR EM85;151B
  • Wikipedia: Ribe skull fragment; Younger Futhark (checked 2026-10-26)
  • Dickins (1915), notes to the Norwegian poem, stanza 7
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