Thurisaz

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English	Old Norse
	*Þurisaz	Þorn	Þurs
	"giant"	"thorn"	"giant"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc	Younger Futhark
Unicode	ᚦ U+16A6
Transliteration	þ
Transcription	þ	þ,ð
IPA	[θ]	[θ],[ð]
Position in rune-row	3

Theruneᚦis calledThurs(Old NorseÞurs,a type of entity, from a reconstructedCommon Germanic*Þurisaz) in the Icelandic and Norwegianrune poems.In theAnglo-Saxonrune poem it is calledthorn,whence the name of theletter þderived. It is transliterated asþ,and has the sound value of avoiceless dental fricative/θ/(theEnglish sound ofthas inthing).

The rune is absent from the earliestVimose inscriptions,but it is found in theThorsberg chapeinscription, dated to ca. AD 200.

The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from theclassical Latin Alpha bet'sD,or from theRhaetic's Alpha bet'sΘ.

Name

InAnglo-Saxon England,the same rune was calledThornor "Þorn" and it survives as theIcelandicletterÞ (þ).An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be akenning(metaphor) for "giant".

It is disputed as to whether a distinct system ofGothic runesever existed, but it is clear that most of the names (but not most of the shapes) of the letters of theGothic Alpha betcorrespond to those of theElder Futhark.The name of 𐌸, the Gothic letter corresponding to Þ is an exception; it is recorded asþiuþ"(the) good" in theCodex Vindobonensis 795,and as such unrelated to eitherþursorþorn. The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune'sProto-Germanicname.

Assuming that the Scandinavian nameþursis the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, aCommon Germanicform*þurisazcan be reconstructed (cf.Old Englishþyrs"giant, ogre" andOld High Germanduris-es"(of the) giant" ).

Rune poems

The Germanic rune ᚦ is mentioned in threerune poems:

Rune Poem:	English Translation:
Old Norwegian ᚦÞurs vældr kvinna kvillu, kátr værðr fár af illu.	Thurs [ "Giant" ] causes anguish to women, misfortune makes few men cheerful.
Old Icelandic ᚦÞurs er kvenna kvöl ok kletta búi ok varðrúnar verr. Saturnusþengill.	Thurs [ "Giant" ] is torture of women and cliff-dweller and husband of a giantess Saturn'sthegn.[The source of this line in the poem is unclear.]
Anglo-Saxon ᚦÐorn bẏþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehƿẏlcum anfeng ẏs ẏfẏl, ungemetum reþe manna gehƿẏlcun, ðe him mid resteð.	The thorn is exceedingly sharp, an evil thing for any thegn to touch, uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.
Notes: In the Icelandic poem,Saturnpossibly refers toYmirorÚtgarða-Loki.

See also

• Rune poem
• Old English rune poem