Cweorð
The first of the four Northumbrian additions, transliterated q. It has no rune-poem stanza, and its name may have been coined simply to rhyme with peorð.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᛢU+16E2
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER CWEORTH
- Alphabet
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
- In use
- c. AD 400 – 1100 (Early medieval England and Frisia)
- Position
- 30
- Transliteration
- q
- Sound value
- /kw/
- Name
- cweorð: unknown; possibly coined to pair with peorðContested
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| cweorð | Old English | unknown; possibly coined to pair with peorð | Contested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Sound value
Apparently /kw/. The value is inferred from the name and from the rune’s position, not from confident attestation in use.
Historical use
A pseudo-rune, in Page's term for a character that appears in the manuscript futhorc rows and in no surviving inscription. Cweorð is the clearest of the three he so classes (ior and stan are the others), and Page suspected it was invented simply to give the futhorc something answering to Latin Q. That distinction matters: some of these runes existed on parchment more than in practice.
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
- Manuscript futhorc rowsNorthumbria and later English scriptoria · 10th–11th century
The extended rows in which the Northumbrian additions appear. There is no rune-poem stanza for any of them.
Signatures follow the Scandinavian Runic-text Database so you can look each inscription up directly. Each name links to the object's own entry.
Modern meaning
Why this entry has none.
None is given here. Modern rune divination is built almost entirely on the Elder Futhark, and no established modern tradition reads the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc separately. Inventing a reading for Cweorð to fill the space would be exactly the kind of fabrication this site exists to flag, so the field is left empty rather than filled. How modern rune meanings were arrived at is a separate discussion.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this rune that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The Northumbrian runes are frequently listed alongside the other 29 as though equally well established. They are not: they lack rune-poem stanzas, and cweorð and stan lack inscriptional attestation altogether: Page classes both as pseudo-runes, alongside ior. They are best understood as late scribal extensions.
Sources for this entry
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