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| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| *Algiz? | Eolhx? | Yr | |||
| "elk"(?) | "elk-sedge"[1] | "yew" | |||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | ||
 |  | ||||
| Unicode | ᛉ U+16C9 | ᛦ U+16E6 | ᛧ U+16E7 | ᛨ U+16E8 | |
| Transliteration | z | x | ʀ,y[a] | ʀ | ʀ |
| Transcription | z | x | ʀ,y | ʀ | ʀ |
| IPA | [z] | N/A[b] | [ɻ],[y] | [ɻ] | [ɻ] |
| Position in rune-row | 15 | 16 | |||
Algiz (alsoElhaz) is the name conventionally given to the "z-rune"ᛉ of theElder Futharkrunic alphabet. Its transliteration isz, understood as a phoneme of theProto-Germanic language, the terminal*z continuingProto-Indo-European terminal*s viaVerner's law.[citation needed]
It is one of tworunes which express a phoneme that does not occur word-initially, and thus could not be namedacrophonically, the other being theŋ-runeIngwazᛜ. As the terminal*-z phoneme marks the nominative singularsuffix of masculine nouns, the rune occurs comparatively frequently inearly epigraphy.
Because this specific phoneme was lost at an early time, the Elder Futhark rune underwent changes in the medieval runic alphabets. In theAnglo-Saxon futhorc it retained its shape, but became otiose as it ceased to represent any sound in an Old English.[3] However, possibly due to runic manuscript tradition, it was occasionally used to transliterate the Latin letterX into the runic script.[citation needed]
InProto-Norse andOld Norse, the Germanic*z phoneme developed into an R sound, perhaps realized as aretroflex approximant[ɻ],[citation needed] which is usually transcribed asʀ. This sound was written in theYounger Futhark using theYr runeᛦ, the Algiz rune turned upside down, from about the 7th century. This phoneme eventually became indistinguishable from the regularr sound in the later stages of Old Norse, at about the 11th or 12th century.
The shape of the rune may be derived from that of a letter expressing /x/ in certainOld Italic alphabets (𐌙),[citation needed] which was in turn derived from the Greek letterΨ which had the value of /kʰ/ (rather than /ps/) in theWestern Greek alphabet. Alternatively, the rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from theclassical Latin alphabet'sY,[4] or from theRhaetic alphabet'sZ.[5]
The Elder Futhark runeᛉ is conventionally calledAlgiz orElhaz, from theCommon Germanic word for "elk".[citation needed]
There is wide agreement that this is most likely not the historical name of the rune, but in the absence of any positive evidence of what the historical name may have been, the conventional name is simply based on a reading of the rune name in theAnglo-Saxon rune poem, first suggested byWilhelm Grimm (Über deutsche Runen, 1821), aseolh oreolug "elk".
Like theng-rune, thez-rune is a special case inasmuch as it could not have been named acrophonically, since the sound it represents did not occur in word-initial position. Choosing a name that terminates in-z would have been more or less arbitrary, as this was the nominative singular suffix of almost every masculine noun of the language. Since the nameeolh, or more accuratelyeolh-secg "elk-sedge" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem represents not the rune's original sound value, but rather the sound of Latinx (/ks/), it becomes highly arbitrary to suggest that the original rune should have been named after the elk.[citation needed]
There are a number of speculative suggestions surrounding the history of the rune's name. The difficulty lies in the circumstance that the Younger Futhark rune did not inherit this name at all, but acquired the name of the obsoleteEihwaz rune, asyr. The only independent evidence of the Elder Futhark rune's name would be the name of the correspondingGothic letter,ezec. The Gothic letter was an adoption of GreekZeta, and while it did express the /z/ phoneme, this Gothic sound only rarely occurred terminally. Instead, it is found mostly in positions where West and North Germanic haver, e.g. Gothicmáiza "greater" (Old Norsemeira, Englishmore).[citation needed]
The name of theAnglo-Saxon runeᛉ is variously recorded aseolx, eolhx, ilcs, ilx, iolx, ilix, elux.[6]
Manuscript tradition gives its sound value as Latinx, i.e. /ks/, or alternatively asil, or yet again as "l andx". The reading of this opaque name aseolh "elk" is entirely due to the reading of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem'sᛉ secg aseolh-secg (eolx-secg,eolug-secg,eolxecg) "elk-sedge", apparently the name of a species of sedge (Carex). This reading of the poem is due to Wilhelm Grimm (1821), and remains standard. The suggestion is that this compound is realized aseolk-secg, thus containing the Latinx (/ks/) sound sequence. The manuscript testimony that the rune is to be read asil would then be simply a mistaken assumption that its name must be acrophonic.[citation needed]
The name of the corresponding Gothic letterezec, however, suggests that the old name of this rune was not justeolx, but the fulleolh-secg. This is puzzling, because the sound value of the rune was clearly not /ks/ in the Elder Futhark period (2nd to 4th centuries). Furthermore, the name of the sedge in question is recorded in the olderEpinal-Erfurt glossary asilugsegg (glossingpapiluus, probably forpapyrus), which cannot be derived from the word for elk.[7]
A suggestion by Warren and Elliott takes the Old Englisheolh at face value, and reconstructs a Common Germanic form of either*algiz or*alhiz. They cite a "more fanciful school" which assumes an original meaning of "elk" based on a theonymAlcis recorded by Tacitus (suggesting that the name would have been theophoric in origin, referring to an "elk-god"). The authors dismiss the Old English "elk-sedge" as a late attempt to give the then-obsolete rune a value of Latinx. Instead, they suggest that the original name of the rune could have been Common Germanic*algiz ('Algie'), meaning not "elk" but "protection, defence".[8]
Redbond (1936) suggested that theeolhx (etc.) may have been a corruption ofhelix. Seebold (1991) took this up to suggest that the name of the rune may be connected to the use ofelux forhelix byNotker to describe the constellation ofUrsa Major (as turning around the celestial pole).[6]
An earlier suggestion is that ofZacher (1855), to the effect that the earliest value of this rune was the labiovelar /hw/, and that its name may have beenhweol "wheel".[9]
In theElder Futhark, Algiz represents the Germanic phoneme*z, which does not occur word-initially.[citation needed]
It is attested in final position in the earliest inscriptions, e.g. inansuz (Vimose buckle),þewaz (Thorsberg chape). It was presumably present in theØvre Stabu spearhead inscription (ca. AD 180), readingraunija[z], but is hardly legible now. The Nydam axe-handle (4th century) has the namewagagastiz. TheGolden Horns of Gallehus (early 5th century) had the personal namehlewagastiz holtijaz.[citation needed]
In the earliest inscriptions, the rune invariably has its standard Ψ-shape. From the 5th century or so, the rune appears optionally in its upside-down variant which would become the standard Younger Futharkyr shape. There are also other graphical variants; for example, theCharnay Fibula has a superposition of these two variants, resulting in an "asterisk" shape (ᛯ).[citation needed]
The name of the Anglo-Saxon runeᛉ is variously recorded aseolx, ilcs, ilix, elux, eolhx. Manuscript tradition gives its sound value as Latinx, i.e. /ks/, or alternatively asil, or yet again as "l andx". The relevant stanza of theAnglo-Saxon rune poem reads:[10]
Reading the rune aseolhx (as discussedabove), and with the emendation ofseccard tosecg eard due to Grimm (1821), the stanza becomes about a species of sedge (Cladium mariscus) called "elk-sedge". In the translation of Page (1999):[11]
The 9th-centuryabecedarium anguliscum inCodex Sangallensis 878 showseolh as a peculiar shape, as it were abindrune of the olderᛉ with the Younger Futharkᛦ, resulting in an "asterisk" shape similar toiorᛡ.[citation needed]
The only known instance where the rune does take the sound value of Latinx in epigraphy is the spelling ofrex "king" on the interlacecoin dies of kingBeonna (mid 8th century). Furthermore, it appears in the inscription onSt Cuthbert's coffin (late 7th century) in the abbreviation of the nameChrist, where GreekΧΡΣ is taken as Latinxps and rendered as runic ᛉᛈᛋ.[citation needed]
In the 6th and 7th centuries, the Elder Futhark started changing and eventually began being replaced by theYounger Futhark in Scandinavia. For a period, both were in use (see for example theRök runestone), but by the 9th century, the Elder Futhark was extinct as its own writing system, and Scandinavian runic inscriptions were exclusively written in Younger Futhark, however, knowledge of the older system remained onward for some period, as shown with theÖstergötland Runic Inscription 43 from the mid 9th century, which utilizes aᛞdagr rune as part of the inscription.
TheYr runeᛦ is arune of theYounger Futhark. Its common transliteration is asmall capitalʀ (and its uppercase form would beƦ). The shape of theYr rune in the Younger Futhark is the inverted shape of the Elder Futhark rune (ᛉ). Its nameyr ("yew") is taken from the name of the Elder FutharkEihwaz rune.[citation needed]
Its phonological value is the continuation of the phoneme represented by Algiz, the word-final*-z inProto Germanic. InProto-Norse it is pronounced closer to/r/, perhaps/ɻ/. Within later Old Norse, the Proto-Norse phoneme collapses with/r/ by the 12th century.[citation needed]
Unicode hasU+0280 ʀLATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL R (IPA’s symbol for theuvular trill). A corresponding capital letter is atU+01A6 ƦLATIN LETTER YR. The rune itself is encoded atU+16E6 ᛦRUNIC LETTER LONG-BRANCH-YR. Its variants areU+16E7 ᛧRUNIC LETTER SHORT-TWIG-YR (ᛧ) andU+16E8 ᛨRUNIC LETTER ICELANDIC-YR (ᛨ).[12]
Independently, the shape of the Elder Futhark Algiz rune reappears in the Younger FutharkMaðr runeᛘ, continuing the Elder Futharkᛗ rune*Mannaz.[citation needed]
The Anglo-Saxon k-runeᛣ (Calc) has the same shape as Younger Futharkyr, but is unrelated in origin, being a modification or "doubling" of the c-runeᚳ (Cēn).[13]
19th Century German occultistGuido von List introduced the use of theArmanen Futharkh, which were based on the Elder & Younger Futhark. In List's context, theMan rune (identical in shape to the Elder FutharkAlgiz) came to be understood in theGermanic mysticism of the early 20th century as symbolizing "life" and called the "life rune" (German:Lebensrune). This term occurs as early as the 1920s in the literature ofAriosophy.[14]
TheYr rune from the Younger Futhark came to be seen as the "life rune" inverted, and so interpreted as "death rune" (Todesrune).
Guido von List's beliefs incorporatedantisemitism andvolkism, and his runic system was later adopted and modified byKarl Maria Wiligut who was responsible for their adoptions inNazi occultism. Algiz came to be widely used within theNazi Party andNazi Germany, e.g. in official prescriptions for the various uniforms of theSturmabteilung.[17]
During theWorld War II era, the "life-rune" and "death rune" came to be used in obituaries and on tomb stones as marking birth and death dates (ᛉ for "born",ᛦ for "died"), replacing asterisk and cross symbols (* for "born", † for "died") conventionally used in this context in Germany. It has always been clear that this association is an innovation of modern esotericism, without direct precedent in the medieval usage of the Younger Futhark alphabet. This fact was pointed out in an article in the German journalStimmen der Zeit as early as in 1940.[18]
The neo-folk groupDeath in June used the Algiz in their cover of their double LPThe Wörld Thät Sümmer, alongside their "Totenkopf 6" logo.
The term "death rune" has been used in the context of esotericist or occultist aesthetics associated withblack metal, in the name ofDeathrune Records (as of 2011), formerlyDie Todesrune Records, a minor black metal record label.[19]
As with other Futhark runes, Algiz is commonly used as a symbol ofneopagan faith.
FollowingRalph Blum (1982), the Algiz rune is given a sense of "protection" in some modern systems ofrunic divination.[20]Blum (1982) himself glosses forAlgiz with "Protection; Sedge or Rushes; An Elk".[21]
Due to its use in Nazi Germany, Algiz is also used as a present-day fascist symbol, including use in white supremacism[22] and ecofascism.[23] Contemporary examples include use by the AmericanNational Alliance (as of 2007),[24] and in reference to the Algiz rune in the logo of theFlemish nationalistVoorpost aslevensrune (as of 2016).[25]
Since Algiz is also commonly used by non-racist groups and individuals, the rune does not automatically indicate the presence of fascism or racism: its meaning depends on the context where it is used.[26][27]
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