ᛁ íss

Line of descent

History

i, a single vertical stave, is the simplest rune and the same in every runic tradition. It descends from the Elder Futhark isaz. In the Younger Futhark it does more work. The row lost its e rune (the Elder ehwaz) and its j rune (which became ár with a new value), so i wrote i, e and the consonant j. Viking Age spellings such as risþi stin for ræisþi stæin "raised the stone" (Gørlev, DR 239) show i standing for the second part of a diphthong or for e, depending on dialect and normalization.

The name íss "ice" matches Old English is. The Norwegian poem calls ice "a broad bridge" and adds that "the blind must be led". The Icelandic poem uses three kennings, "river-bark", "roof of the wave" and "danger to doomed men", and glosses the stanza with Latin glacies.

Because a bare stave is easy to confuse with a word divider or a stray scratch, editors sometimes have trouble deciding whether a short vertical mark is a rune at all. Readings marked as uncertain in Rundata often involve this rune.

In the medieval period a dot or short bar on the stave made ᛂ, used for e. Dotted i is among the first dotted runes, from about the end of the 10th or the early 11th century. Plain ᛁ then wrote i and j.

In the rune poems

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

Where it is found

• Gørlev stone (DR 239): risþi stin 'raised the stone'
• Jelling stone 2 (DR 42): sin, kristno
• Rök stone (Ög 136): sitiR nu 'sits now'

On inscriptions described on this site

Sources

• Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa DR 239, DR 42, Ög 136
• Wikipedia: Medieval runes; Isaz (checked 2026-10-26)
• Dickins (1915), notes to the Norwegian poem, stanza 9