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Thurisaz

Name
"giant" "thorn" "giant"
Shape Elder Futhark Futhorc Younger Futhark
Runic letter thurisaz.svg
Unicode
U+16A6
Transliteration þ
Transcription þ þ, ð
IPA [θ] [θ], [ð]
Position in rune-row 3

The rune is called Thurs (Old Norse Þurs "giant", from a reconstructed Common Germanic *Þurisaz) in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter þ derived. It is transliterated as þ, and has the sound value of a voiceless dental fricative (the English sound of th as in thing).

The rune is an adoption of the Latin letter D, while the d rune takes its shape from an Italic variant of the letter Δ (delta). It is absent from the earliest Vimose inscriptions, but it is found in the Thorsberg chape inscription, dated to ca. AD 200.

Þurs is a name for the giants in Norse mythology. Tursas is also an ill-defined being in Finnish mythology - Finland was known as the land of the giants (Jotland) in Scandinavian/north Germanic mythology.

In Anglo-Saxon England, the same rune was called Thorn or "Þorn" and it survives as the Icelandic letter Þ (þ). An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be a kenning (metaphor) for "giant".


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