Ur (rune)

Ur is the recorded name for the rune, found as the second rune in all runic alphabets (futharks), i.e. Elder Futhark, Anglo-Saxon Futhark and Younger Futhark. It corresponds to the letter U in the Latin alphabet, but also carries other sound values, especially in Younger Futhark, were its sound values correspond to U, O, Y, Œ, W and V in the Latin alphabet.

It may have been derived from the Raetic alphabet character u as it is similar in both shape and sound value. It is also found as the 16th letter in the Gothic alphabet (𐌿), the corresponding name being urus.

Elder name
The rune is recorded in all three rune poems (Old English, Norwegian, Icelandic), and it is called Ur in all, however with different meanings in each.

Because of this, it is difficult to reconstruct a Proto-Germanic name for the Elder Futhark rune. It may have been *ūruz "aurochs" (see also Bull worship), based on the Old English rune poem, the oldest recorded of the three, or *ūrą "water", based on the Icelandic rune poems (and to some extent the Norwegian rune poem), with both Proto-Germanic words, however, possibly stemming from the same root.

The aurochs name is preferred by authors of modern runic divination systems, but both seem possible, compared to the names of the other runes: "water" would be comparable to "hail" and "lake", and "aurochs" to "horse" or "elk" (although the latter name is itself uncertain). The Gothic alphabet seems to support "aurochs" as the prior name, though: as the name of the letter 𐌿 u is urus.

Old English rune poem
In the Old English rune poem, recorded in the 8th or 9th century, the rune is named Ūr, Old English for “aurochs” (compare with úrr), stemming from a Proto-Germanic word: *ūruz.

Norwegian rune poem
In the Norwegian rune poem, recorded in the 13th century, the rune is named úr, with the Old Norwegian meaning of “dross, slag”. This sense is obscure, but may be an Iron Age technical term derived from the word for water (compare the Kalevala, where iron is compared to milk).

Icelandic rune poem
In the Icelandic rune poems, recorded in the 16th century, the rune is named úr, an Old Norse word describing some type of precipitation weather (related to ēar, “wave, sea”, potentially also “urine”). It stems from a Proto-Germanic word: *ūrą, possibly begun by a w-, as found in related words (var, “pus”, Old English: wær, “sea”) and historical variants of úr (Old Swedish: vur), as Proto-Germanic words starting with a w, followed by o or u, generally lost the w-sound when evolving from Proto-Norse into Old Norse (compare wulfaz, “wolf”, ulfr).

There are several Icelandic manuscripts with rune poems, all varying to some degree. The oldest manustript, catalogued as AM687d, is from around 1500. The second oldest, catalogued as AM461, is from around 1550. These have been noted to be hard to read, thus the transliterations might be incorrect.

In Old Icelandic, the word (úr) is recorded as meaning “drizzle”, “light rain” and thereof (in the sense of “cold and damp weather”). In Old and Contemporary Swedish, the word (ur) essentially means “blustery and profuse snowfall, sleet or rain” etc, if not outright “bad weather”. In Danish and Norwegian, the word (ur) means “northern rainclouds”, or just “rainclouds”, but also “cold, biting draft” and thereof etc. There is also a variant, ýr (yr), in all Nordic languages, meaning “drizzle” in Old Icelandic, including “fine dense snowfall” and “snowstorm” in Norwegian and Swedish. A derivative, yra (a verb), also exist, meaning “to drizzle” and thereof in Old Icelandic, and “swirl, whirl, drift”, in the sense of snow, sand, dust affected by the wind, in Swedish, etc.