Thurisaz

The rune ᚦ 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 /θ/ (the English sound of th as in thing).

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

The rune is absent from the earliest Vimose inscriptions, but it is found in the Thorsberg chape inscription, dated to ca. AD 200.

Name

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.[1]

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".[2]

It is disputed as to whether a distinct system of Gothic runes ever existed, but it is clear that most of the names (but not most of the shapes) of the letters of the Gothic alphabet correspond to those of the Elder Futhark. The name of , the Gothic letter corresponding to Þ is an exception; it is recorded as þiuþ "(the) good" in the Codex Vindobonensis 795, and as such unrelated to either þurs or þorn. 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's Proto-Germanic name.

Assuming that the Scandinavian name þurs is the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, a Common Germanic form *þurisaz can be reconstructed (cf. Old English þyrs "giant, ogre" and Old High German duris-es "(of the) giant").

Rune poems

The Germanic rune ᚦ is mentioned in three rune poems:

Rune Poem:[3]	English Translation:
Old Norwegian ᚦ Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu, kátr værðr fár af illu.	Thurs ("Giant") causes anguish to women, misfortune makes few men cheerful.
Old Icelandic ᚦ Þurs er kvenna kvöl ok kletta búi ok varðrúnar verr. Saturnus þengill.	Thurs ("Giant") is torture of women and cliff-dweller and husband of a giantess Saturn's thegn. (the source of this line in the poem is unclear)
Anglo-Saxon ᚦ Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehƿylcum anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum reþe manna gehƿelcum, 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.

Saturn possibly refers to Ymir or Útgarða-Loki.

References

1. Fornjot and the Settlement of Norway
2. Old English Rune Poem
3. Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.