Berkanan is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the ''b'' rune , meaning "

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

". In the Younger Futhark it is called Bjarkan in the Icelandic and Norwegian

rune poem Rune poems are poems that list the letters of runic alphabets while providing an explanatory poetic stanza for each letter. Three different poems have been preserved: the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem, the Norwegian Rune Poem, and the Icelandic Rune Poem ...

s. In the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

rune poem it is called ''beorc'' ("birch" or " poplar"). The corresponding

Gothic letter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norwe ...

is 𐌱 ''b'', named ''bairkan''. The letter shape is likely directly based on Old Italic EtruscanB-01

𐌁, whence comes also the Latin letter B. The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:

References

Runes {{writingsystem-stub

See also

References