Gebō
The seventh Elder Futhark rune, transliterated g. Its name *gebō means "gift". It disappears entirely from the Younger Futhark, so only the Old English Rune Poem describes it.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚷU+16B7
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER GEBO GYFU G
- Alphabet
- Elder Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 150 – 800 (Roman Iron Age to the beginning of the Viking Age)
- Position
- 7, ætt 1
- Transliteration
- g
- Sound value
- /ɣ/ , /g/
- Name
- *gebō: giftReconstructed
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| *gebō | Proto-Germanic | gift | Reconstructed |
| gyfu | Old English | gift, generosity | Attested |
| giba | Gothic | giftThe ordinary Gothic word, attested in Wulfila's Bible. Careful with what that covers: the name recorded for the Gothic letter in Codex Vindobonensis 795 is geuua, whose -uu- spelling is a Continental convention. Giba is the form editors reconstruct behind it, not the form the manuscript gives. | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
From the Germanic word for "gift", the same root as English "give". The Gothic side supports it without quite confirming it: giba is an ordinary attested Gothic word meaning "gift", but the letter name recorded in Codex Vindobonensis 795 is geuua, and giba is what editors reconstruct behind that spelling. Cercignani has argued that the whole Gothic list in that manuscript may be shaped by Old English and Old High German, which makes it weaker corroboration than it is usually presented as.
Sound value
A /g/, probably a fricative [ɣ] between vowels in the early period. The Younger Futhark drops this rune entirely and writes /g/ with kaun.
Historical use
Its X shape makes it one of the more recognisable runes. Because a plain cross-shape is also the easiest mark to make accidentally, isolated examples on worn objects need care.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Gyfu gumena byþ gleng and herenys, wraþu and wyrþscype and wræcna gehwam ar and ætwist, ðe byþ oþra leas.Generosity is, among people, an ornament and a praise, a support and an honour; and to every exile it is help and sustenance when they have nothing else.(our translation)
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
Seventh position in the futhark row.
The sequence gagaga, on a shaft whose text opens as an ordinary sentence and then stops resolving into words. Whatever those g-runes are doing, it is not spelling.
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
How this rune is read in contemporary divination, which is a separate question from what it meant historically.
Upright
Modern practice reads gebo as a gift given or received, and by extension as partnership, contract and mutual obligation.
Where this comes from: Gebo has no reversed reading in most modern systems because the shape is symmetrical, a good example of a divinatory rule derived from the glyph rather than from any historical source.
Common misconceptions
Claims about this rune that circulate widely and do not hold up.
The X shape is not a "kiss" or a marriage symbol in any historical sense; that association comes from the modern Latin-alphabet convention of writing X for a kiss.
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.