Þurs
Also written Thurs
The third Younger Futhark rune, transliterated þ. Its name means "giant". Both Norse rune poems tie it to harm, and no rune is more clearly associated with cursing.
At a glance
- Rune
- ᚦU+16A6
- Unicode name
- RUNIC LETTER THURISAZ THURS THORN
- Alphabet
- Younger Futhark
- In use
- c. AD 800 – 1100 (The Viking Age)
- Position
- 3, ætt 1
- Transliteration
- þ
- Sound value
- /θ/, /ð/
- Name
- þurs: giant, trollAttested
Names
What the rune is called in each tradition, and how securely each name is recorded.
þurs, Old Norse
Attestedgiant, troll
An asterisk marks a reconstructed form: a word linguists have worked backwards to, not one that appears in any surviving source.
Etymology
Both Norse rune poems name a giant, and both associate it with harm, the Norwegian poem specifically with the sickness of women. This is the clearest case in the alphabet of a rune name that carried a hostile charge.
Sound value
Both the voiceless "th" of "thin" and the voiced "th" of "then". Medieval scribes eventually dotted the rune to separate them.
Historical use
The rune with the strongest documented link to cursing. Repeated þ-runes appear on objects from the Bergen material, and Old Norse literary sources describe þurs-runes carved to cause harm. This is one of the few places where the literary tradition and the archaeological record point the same way. Both are medieval, though: the Bergen sticks run from the 12th century and the saga material from the 13th, so they are better evidence for where the rune ended up than for how it was used at the height of the Viking Age.
Rune-poem evidence
The medieval verse that records this rune's name. Original text plus our own translation.
Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu; kátr værðr fár af illu.The giant causes the sickness of women; few are made cheerful by misfortune.(our translation)
Þurs er kvenna kvöl ok kletta búi ok varðrúnar verr.The giant is the torment of women and the dweller in the cliffs and the husband of Varðrún.(our translation)
Manuscript tags: Saturnus ("Saturn") and þengill ("prince").
Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehwylcum anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum reþe manna gehwelcum, ðe him mid resteð.The thorn is extremely sharp; for every warrior it is an evil thing to grasp, immeasurably cruel to anyone who rests among them.(our translation)
The Old English poem understands this rune as "thorn". The Norwegian and Icelandic poems understand the same rune as þurs, "giant". Both traditions are old, and neither is a corruption of the other.
Attested in
Objects and monuments on which this rune can be seen.
Hundreds of runic messages on wood recovered from the Bergen wharf: business notes, name tags, love letters, insults and charms. Together they are the largest single body of runic material anywhere.
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. Any reading for Þurs would have to be invented to fill the space, and invented meanings are what this site exists to flag. The rune's 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.
Write in runes
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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.