Elder Futhark · Hagal's Aett
Jera
Rune 12 - ᛃ
Upright
A harvest is coming due, the natural result of effort sown earlier.
Jera. A harvest is coming due, the natural result of effort sown earlier. The year, and the harvest. The only rune whose whole meaning is that time must pass: what was sown comes in, in season, and cannot be hurried. Rune 12 of the twenty-four. It is fourth of Hagal's Aett, the middle eight - the aett of disruption and testing, where what is false is broken so something truer can stand. Upright, the stave stands in its clear aspect and can be worked with directly. Its keyword range runs through harvest, the fruit of past effort, natural cycles, and a season completing.
Merkstave
The harvest is delayed, or the natural cycle is being rushed.
Jera merkstave. The harvest is delayed, or the natural cycle is being rushed. The year, and the harvest. Rune 12 of the twenty-four. It is fourth of Hagal's Aett, the middle eight - the aett of disruption and testing, where what is false is broken so something truer can stand. 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: delayed reward, a bad season, a cycle disrupted, and impatience with timing.
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.