Mannaz

For the Germanic etymology, seeMan (word).For the mythological ancestor recorded by Tacitus, seeMannus.

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English	Old Norse
	*mannaz	man[n]	maðr
	'man, human'
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc	Younger Futhark
Unicode	ᛗ U+16D7		ᛘ U+16D8	ᛙ U+16D9
Transliteration	m
Transcription	m
IPA	[m]
Position in rune-row	20		14

Two early forms of the /m/ rune of the Younger Futhark.

Mannazis the conventional name of the /m/runeᛗof theElder Futhark.It is derived from the reconstructedProto-Germanic(or Common Germanic)word for 'man',*mannaz.

The Younger Futhark equivalentᛘismaðr('man'). It took up the shape of thealgizruneᛉ,replacing Elder Futharkᛗ.

As its sound value and form in the Elder Futhark indicate, it is derived from the letter for /m/,𐌌,in theOld Italic Alpha bets,ultimately from theGreek lettermu(uppercaseΜ,lowercaseμ).

Rune poems

The rune is recorded in all threerune poems,in the Norwegian and Icelandic poems asmaðr,and in the Anglo-Saxon poem asman.

Rune poem	English translation
Norwegian: ᛉMaðr er moldar auki; mikil er græip á hauki.	Man is an augmentation of the soil; great is the claw of the hawk.
Icelandic: ᛉMaðr er manns gaman ok moldar auki ok skipa skreytir.	Man is the joy of man and augmentation of the soil and adorner of ships.
Old English(Anglo-Saxon): ᛗMan bẏþ on mẏrgþe his magan leof: sceal þeah anra gehƿẏlc oðrum sƿican, forðum drẏhten ƿẏle dome sine þæt earme flæsc eorþan betæcan.	The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen; yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth.

Modern usage

For the 'man' rune of theArmanen Futharkhas the 'life' rune inGermanic mysticism,seeLebensrune.