Ansuz (rune)
Runic alphabet letter
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Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, á¨. The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism.
| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Ansuz | Ãs | Ãc | Ãsc | Ãss | ||
| "god" | "god" | "oak" | "ash" | "god" | ||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | |||
 |  |  | |  |  | |
| Unicode | ᨠU+16A8 | á© U+16A9 | ᪠U+16AA | á« U+16AB | ᬠU+16AC | á U+16AD |
| Transliteration | a | o | a | æ | Ä | |
| Transcription | a | o | a | æ | Ä , o | |
| IPA | [a(Ë)] | [o(Ë)] | [É(Ë)] | [æ(Ë)] | [ÉÌ], [o(Ë)] | |
| Position in rune-row | 4 | 4 | 25 | 26 | 4 | |
The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a (
), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.
Name
In the Norwegian rune poem, óss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, Ås á© takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as Ä to distinguish it from the new ár rune (á ), which continues the jÄran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jár (Old Saxon jÄr).
Since the name of 
a is attested in the Gothic alphabet as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been *ansuz "god", or *ahsam "ear (of wheat)".
Development in Anglo-Saxon runes
The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a rune into three independent runes due to the development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are Ås á© (transliterated o), Äc "oak" ᪠(transliterated a), and æsc á« "ash" (transliterated æ).[1]
Development in Younger Futhark
The Younger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune is á¬, called óss. It is transliterated as Ä . This represented the phoneme /ÉÌ/, and sometimes /æ/ (also written á ) and /o/ (also written á¢). The variant grapheme ᯠbecame independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.
Rune poems
It is mentioned in all three rune poems:
| Rune Poem:[2] | English Translation: |
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Old Norwegian
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Old English
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Notes:
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