Elder Futhark · Freyr's Aett
Uruz
Rune 2 - ᚢ
Upright
A surge of raw, primal strength is available to draw on.
Uruz. A surge of raw, primal strength is available to draw on. The aurochs: the wild ox that had to be hunted alone to prove a man grown. Raw, untamed vitality and the strength that has not been broken to harness. Rune 2 of the twenty-four. It is second of Freyr's Aett, the first eight - the aett of building a life: increase, partnership and the world taking shape. Upright, the stave stands in its clear aspect and can be worked with directly. Its keyword range runs through raw strength, vitality, untamed will, and physical power.
Merkstave
Strength has been misapplied, or vitality has quietly drained away.
Uruz merkstave. Strength has been misapplied, or vitality has quietly drained away. The aurochs: the wild ox that had to be hunted alone to prove a man grown. Rune 2 of the twenty-four. It is second of Freyr's Aett, the first eight - the aett of building a life: increase, partnership and the world taking shape. Fallen merkstave, it has overrun its measure. The same force, past the point where it served you and into the point where it costs. In merkstave, read these as strain, blockage, or the caution the rune is raising: weakness, lost vitality, misdirected force, and ill health.
About the Elder Futhark
The oldest runic alphabet, used across Germanic Europe from roughly 150 to 800 CE.
No rune names or meanings are directly recorded for the Elder Futhark. The meanings used here are reconstructed from three later medieval sources - the Old English, Norwegian and Icelandic Rune Poems - which give a verse for each rune. 'Merkstave' (a reversed or ill-dignified rune) is a modern reading convention; runes with no natural upside-down form are read only for merkstave when the surrounding runes are adverse.
Full history →Meanings are a guide to a symbolic tradition, offered for reflection and entertainment. They do not predict the future or describe real people or events. See the Terms.