Rad
The fifth futhorc rune, transliterated r. Old English rad means riding or a journey, and is the ancestor of modern English "road".
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚱU+16B1
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER RAIDO RAD REID R
- Alphabet
- Anglo-Saxon Futhorc
- In use
- c. AD 400 – 1100 (Early medieval England and Frisia)
- Position
- 5, ætt 1
- Transliteration
- r
- Sound value
- /r/
- Name
- rad: riding, a journeyAttested
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| rad | Old English | riding, a journey | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Continues *raidō. Old English rad gives modern English "road" and, through a related form, "raid", which entered standard English from Scots centuries later.
Sound value
A trilled /r/, unchanged in shape and value from the Elder Futhark.
Historical use
Common and stable. The Old English stanza is one of the poem’s driest jokes: riding is easy for any warrior indoors, and considerably less so out on the road.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Rad byþ on recyde rinca gehwylcum sefte ond swiþhwæt, ðamðe sitteþ on ufan meare mægenheardum ofer milpaþas.Riding is easy for any warrior indoors, and very strenuous for the one who sits astride a powerful horse out on the long roads.(our translation)
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
- Franks CasketNorthumbria · early 8th century
Runic captions in Old English alliterative verse run around the panels.
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 Rad 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 1
Sources for this entry
Full references are on the sources page. If you think something here is wrong, our corrections policy explains how to say so.