Eþel
The twenty-third futhorc rune, transliterated œ. Old English eþel means the inherited family estate, and English scribes used the rune as a shorthand for the word.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᛟU+16DF
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER OTHALAN ETHEL O
- Alphabet
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
- In use
- c. AD 400 – 1100 (Early medieval England and Frisia)
- Position
- 23, ætt 3
- Transliteration
- œ
- Sound value
- /œ/
- Name
- eþel: ancestral home, native land, inherited estateAttested
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| eþel | Old English | ancestral home, native land, inherited estate | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Continues *ōþalan. Old English eþel means the inherited family land, and appears frequently in poetry in the broader sense of homeland. The stanza is conditional in an interesting way: the estate is dear if one may enjoy there what is right and proper.
Sound value
In the futhorc this rune was repurposed for the rounded front vowel /œ/, since the o-value had already gone to the os rune.
Historical use
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Eþel byþ oferleof æghwylcum men, gif he mot ðær rihtes and gerysena on brucan on bolde bleadum oftast.An ancestral home is exceedingly dear to everyone, if they may enjoy there what is right and proper, in their dwelling, usually in prosperity.(our translation)
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
- Thames scramasaxRiver Thames, London · 10th century
Present in the row.
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 Eþel 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. Its Elder Futhark ancestor is linked further down and does carry a modern reading, labelled as modern. How modern rune meanings were arrived at is a separate discussion.
The same rune in other alphabets
Runes descended from the same original character, so you can follow it through time.
The rest of ætt 3
Sources for this entry
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