Nauðr
The eighth Younger Futhark rune, transliterated n. Its name means need in the old, hard sense: compulsion and hardship, not desire.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚾU+16BE
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER NAUDIZ NYD NAUD N
- Alphabet
- Younger Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 800 – 1100 (The Viking Age)
- Position
- 8, ætt 2
- Transliteration
- n
- Sound value
- /n/
- Name
- nauðr: need, constraintAttested
Names
How the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
| Form | Language | Meaning | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| nauðr | Old Norse | need, constraint | Attested |
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Continues Elder Futhark *naudiz with the meaning intact. All three poems agree on need in the strong sense of hardship or compulsion, not the modern weaker sense of merely wanting something.
Sound value
A plain /n/. The short-twig form is one of the most heavily simplified in the alphabet, reduced to a stave with a small nick.
Variant forms
Alternative shapes for the same rune across regions and periods.
Short-twig nauð
U+16BF
The short-twig form, with a much reduced side-stroke.
Historical use
Common. The Norwegian and Icelandic stanzas for this rune are among the bleakest in either poem (freezing, forced labour, the grief of a bondwoman), which is a useful corrective to the idea that the rune poems are mystical texts.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Nauðr gerer næppa koste; nøktan kælr í froste.Need leaves little choice; the naked freeze in the frost.(our translation)
Nauð er Þýjar þrá ok þungr kostr ok vássamlig verk.Constraint is the grief of the bondwoman and a hard condition and toilsome work.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: opera ("toil") and niflungr ("prince").
Nyd byþ nearu on breostan; weorþeþ hi þeah oft niþa bearnum to helpe and to hæle gehwæþre, gif hi his hlystaþ æror.Need is constricting on the chest; yet for the children of men it often becomes both a help and a healing, if they heed it in time.(our translation)
Attested in
Objects and monuments where this rune can actually be seen.
Everyday runic writing on wood, showing the alphabet in ordinary rather than monumental use.
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 Younger Futhark separately. Inventing a reading for Nauðr 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 2
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.