Ansuz (rune)


Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark,.
The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism.
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, ōs takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as ą to distinguish it from the new ár rune, which continues the jēran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jár.
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 ".

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 ōs , ac "oak" , and æsc "ash".

Development in Younger Futhark

The Younger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune is, called óss. It is transliterated as ą. This represented the phoneme /ɑ̃/, and sometimes /æ/ and /o/.
The variant grapheme became independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.

Rune poems

In the Icelandic rune poem, the name óss refers to Odin: