Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | |
---|---|---|---|---|
*Naudiz | Nȳd | Nauðr | ||
"need, hardship" | ||||
Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | |
![]() | ![]() | ![]() | ||
Unicode | ᚾ U+16BE | ᚾ U+16BE | ᚿ U+16BF | |
Transliteration | n | |||
Transcription | n | |||
IPA | [n] | |||
Position in rune-row | 10 | 8 |
*Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n-rune ᚾ, meaning "need, distress". In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as ᚾ nyd, in the Younger Futhark as ᚾ, Icelandic naud and Old Norse nauðr. The corresponding Gothic letter is 𐌽 n, named nauþs.
The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from the Rhaetic's alphabet's N.[1]
The valkyrie Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál talks (to Sigurd) about the rune as a beer-rune and that "You should learn beer-runes if you don’t want another man’s wife to abuse your trust if you have a tryst. Carve them on the drinking-horn and on the back of your hand, and carve the rune ᚾ on your fingernail."
The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:
Rune Poem:[2] | English Translation: |
Old Norwegian
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Old Icelandic
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Anglo-Saxon
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See also
References
- ^ Gippert, Jost, The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets, Uni Frankfurt, archived from the original on 2021-02-25, retrieved 2007-03-21.
- ^ Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.