The ''d''

rune Runes are the letter (alphabet), letters in a set of related alphabets known as runic alphabets native to the Germanic peoples. Runes were used to write various Germanic languages (with some exceptions) before they adopted the Latin alphabet, a ...

(ᛞ) is called dæg "day" in the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, 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- ...

rune poem. The corresponding letter of the

Gothic alphabet The Gothic alphabet is an alphabet used for writing the Gothic language. Ulfilas (or Wulfila) developed it in the 4th century AD for the purpose of translating the Bible. The alphabet essentially uses uncial forms of the Greek alphabet, wit ...

𐌳 ''d'' is called ''dags''. This rune is also part of the

Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...

, with a reconstructed

Proto-Germanic Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...

name *dagaz. Its "butterfly" shape is possibly derived from

Lepontic Lepontic is an ancient Alps, Alpine Celtic languageJohn T. Koch (ed.) ''Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO (2005) that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (now Northern Italy) between 550 and 100 BC. Lepontic i ...

'' san''.David Stifter, "Lepontische Studien: ''Lexicon Leponticum'' und die Funktion von ''san'' im Lepontischen", in: ''Akten des 5. Deutschsprachigen Keltologensymposiums, Zürich, 7.–10. September 2009''. Hrsgg. Karin Stüber et al. Keltische Forschungen, Allgemeine Buchreihe A1 Wien: Praesens Verlag 2010, 359–374

Rune poems

The name is only recorded in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, since the rune was lost in the

Younger Futhark The Younger Futhark, also called Scandinavian runes, is a runic alphabet and a reduced form of the Elder Futhark, with only 16 characters, in use from about the 9th century, after a "transitional period" during the 7th and 8th centuries. The r ...

Inscriptions

On runic inscription Ög 43 in Ingelstad, one Dagaz rune is translated using the Old Norse word for "day" as the personal name Dagr.Project Samnordisk Runtextdatabas Svensk
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Rundata The Scandinavian Runic-text Data Base ( sv, Samnordisk runtextdatabas) is a project involving the creation and maintenance of a database of runic inscriptions. The project's goal is to comprehensively catalog runestones in a machine-readable way f ...

entry for Ög 43.

Rune poems

Inscriptions

References

See also