ᛦ

ᛦ

ᛦ U+16E6, ᛦ RUNIC LETTER LONG-BRANCH-YR ← ᛥ [U+16E5] Runic ᛧ → [U+16E7]

Translingual

Etymology

From Elder Futhark ᛉ. The rune was flipped upside down around the 400s-500s, as can be seen on the inscription of the Järsberg Runestone.

Letter

ᛦ

1. A letter of the Younger Futhark, Yr (“yew”), representing /r/ and transliterated as ʀ.

Coordinate terms

• ᛉ

See also

• ᛣ

Further reading

• Algiz § Younger Futhark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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German

The "life rune" and "death rune" on a grave marker in Niederaula, Germany.

Etymology

From the interpretation as Todesrune (“death rune”).

Symbol

ᛦ

1. (obsolete, Nazism) died, dead (replacing †)

   Coordinate term: ᛉ

Usage notes

The rune is part of the Armanen runes,[1] which are based on the Younger Futhark. The visual representation of the rune in the original publication is closer to ⟨ᛣ⟩, with straight arms to mirror ⟨ᛉ⟩, but this denotes a different letter, Old English calc /k/, and not yr. There is currently no specific codepoint in Unicode for straight-armed yr as opposed to curved-armed yr, so both are conventionally represented as ⟨ᛦ⟩.

References

1. Guido von List (1908) Das Geheimnis der Runen, published 1938, page 19