Wyrdseidr

ᚱ reið

Younger Futhark · position 5 · riding, a ride

Name
reið
Meaning
riding, a ride
Transliteration
r
Sounds
r
Unicode
U+16B1 runic letter raido rad reid r

Line of descent

ᚱ*raidōElder Futhark→ ᚱreiðYounger Futhark

History

r continues the Elder Futhark raido with the same shape, a stave with a bow and a leg like Latin R, and the same position. It is one of the stable runes of the row. Its value is the ordinary trilled or tapped r. That r must be kept apart from the sound written by ʀ, the last rune of the row (ýr). The two sounds had different origins and stayed distinct in East Norse into the Viking Age. In West Norse they merged earlier, and in the medieval runic alphabet ʀ was given the value y instead.

The name reið "riding" matches Old English rad, and both point to a Proto-Germanic *raidō. The Norwegian poem spells it ræið, and Dickins noted that only the Norwegian diphthong in ræið alliterates with rossom "for horses" in the same line (Icelandic would have hrossum). The Norwegian couplet's second line moves to Reginn, the smith who forged Sigurðr's sword. The Icelandic poem stays with the horse and rider and glosses the stanza with Latin iter "journey".

On the Rök stone the word runaR "runes" uses both r-runes: r at the start and R at the end. This shows the two sounds side by side in early 9th-century East Norse.

In the rune poems

The Old Norwegian Rune Poem, stanza 5
Ræið kveða rossom væsta;
Reginn sló sværðet bæzta.
Riding, they say, is worst for horses;
Reginn forged the best sword.
Reginn, the smith of the Vǫlsung legend, forged the sword Gramr for Sigurðr. The alliteration of ræið and rossom marks the poem as Norwegian.
The Old Icelandic Rune Poem, stanza 5 · Latin gloss iter · chieftain word ræsir
Reið er sitjandi sæla
ok snúðig ferð
ok jórs erfiði.
Riding is the bliss of the one who sits
and a swift journey
and the toil of the horse.

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

Where it is found

  • Rök stone (Ög 136): runaR þaR 'these runes', r and R in one word
  • Jelling stone 2 (DR 42): haraltr 'Haraldr'
  • Gørlev stone (DR 239), position 5 of the row

On inscriptions described on this site

Rök runestoneSmall Jelling stone (Gorm's stone)Large Jelling stone (Harald's stone)Ramsund carving (Sigurd carving)Piraeus LionMaeshowe runic inscriptionsBryggen rune-sticksKensington Runestone

Sources

  • Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata), signa Ög 136, DR 42, DR 239
  • Dickins (1915), introduction to the Norwegian poem and note to stanza 5
  • Wikipedia: Younger Futhark (checked 2026-10-26)
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