The ''t''-

rune Runes are the 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, and for specialised ...

is named after

Týr (; Old Norse: , ) is a god in Germanic mythology, a valorous and powerful member of the and patron of warriors and mythological heroes. In Norse mythology, which provides most of the surviving narratives about gods among the Germanic people ...

, and was identified with this god. The 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 bran ...

name is *Tîwaz or *Teiwaz. Tiwaz rune was an

ideographic An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek "idea" and "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiari ...

symbol for a

spear A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fasten ...

Rune poems

Tiwaz is mentioned in all three

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 Poe ...

s. In the Icelandic and Norwegian poems, the rune is associated with the god Týr.

Usage

Ancient

Multiple Tiwaz runes

Multiple Tiwaz runes either stacked atop one another to resemble a tree-like shape, or repeated after one another, appear several times in Germanic paganism: Stacked_Tiwaz

::* The charm ('' alu'') on the Lindholm amulet, dated from the 2nd to the 4th century, contains three consecutive ''t'' runes, which have been interpreted as an invocation of Týr. ::* The

Kylver Stone The Kylver stone, listed in the Rundata catalog as runic inscription G 88, is a Swedish runestone which dates from about 400 AD. It is notable for its listing of each of the runes in the Elder Futhark. Description The Kylver stone was found duri ...

(400 AD, Gotland) features 8 stacked Tiwaz runes at the end of an Elder Futhark inscription. ::* From 500 AD, a Scandinavian

C-bracteate A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Ven ...

(

Seeland-II-C Seeland-II-C ( Sjælland bracteate 2) is a Scandinavian bracteate from Zealand, Denmark, that has been dated to the Migration period (around 500 AD). The bracteate bears an Elder Futhark inscription which reads as: :ᚺᚨᚱᛁᚢᚺᚨᚺᚨ� ...

) features an Elder Futhark inscription ending with three stacked Tiwaz runes.

Poetic Edda

According to the runologist Lars Magnar Enoksen, the Tiwaz rune is referred to in a stanza in ''

Sigrdrífumál (also known as ) is the conventional title given to a section of the ''Poetic Edda'' text in . It follows without interruption, and it relates the meeting of Sigurðr with the valkyrie Brynhildr, here identified as ("driver to victory"). Its ...

'', a poem in the ''

Poetic Edda The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...

''. ''Sigrdrífumál'' tells that

Sigurd Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovin ...

has slain the dragon Fafnir and arrives at a fortress of shields on top of a mountain which is lit by great fires. In the fortress, he finds an enchanted sleeping

valkyrie In Norse mythology, a valkyrie ("chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who guide souls of the dead to the god Odin's hall Valhalla. There, the deceased warriors become (Old Norse "single (or once) fighters"Orchard (1997: ...

whom he wakes by cutting open her

corslet A corslet is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "a piece of defensive armour covering the body." In ancient Egypt, Ramesses II is said to have worn a similar device in some battle(s). In Ancient Greek armies, the "hoplite", or heavy in ...

with his sword. The grateful valkyrie, Sigrdrífa, offers him the secrets of the runes in return for delivering her from the sleep, on condition that he shows that he has no fear. She begins by teaching him that if he wants to achieve victory in battle, he is to carve "victory runes" on his sword and twice say the name "Týr" - the name of the Tiwaz rune.

Name in Futhorc

Futhorc manuscripts give different names to the t-rune. Sangallensis 270 (9th century) and Vindobonensis 795 (9th century) call the rune "Ti", while Cotton MS Domitian A IX (10th century?) calls it "Tir", and the Byrhtferth's Manuscript (12th century) calls it "Tyr". Ti may be an uninflected form of the possessive "Tiwes" as found in "Tiwesdæg", which would make it the name of an English god. Similar spellings of this god's name (such as Tii) are attested to in Old English.

Modern

Germanic neopaganism

The Týr rune is commonly used by Germanic neopagans to symbolize veneration of the god Týr.

Usage in Nazism and Neo-Nazism

The Týr rune in

Guido von List Guido Karl Anton List, better known as Guido von List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), was an Austrian occultist, journalist, playwright, and novelist. He expounded a modern Pagan new religious movement known as Wotanism, which he claimed was ...

Armanen Futharkh Armanen runes (or ''Armanen Futharkh'') are 18 pseudo-runes, inspired by the historic Younger Futhark runes, invented by Austrian mysticist and Germanic revivalist Guido von List during a state of temporary blindness in 1902, and described in ...

was based on the version found in the Younger Futhark. List's runes were later adopted and modified by

Karl Maria Wiligut Karl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor, Jarl Widar, Lobesam; 10 December 1866 – 3 January 1946) was an Austrian occultist and SS-Brigadeführer. Early life Wiligut was baptised a Roman Catholic in Vienna. At the age of 14, he joined the ''Kadetten ...

, who was responsible for their adoption by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

, and they were subsequently widely used on insignia and literature during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. It was the badge of the Sturmabteilung training schools, the ''Reichsführerschulen'' in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, it was adopted as the unit insignia of the 32nd SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "30 Januar". Nordiska_Motståndsrörelsen_Flag

In Neo-Nazism it has appeared, together with the Sowilo rune, in the emblem of the Kassel-based think tank

Thule Seminar __NOTOC__ The Thule-Seminar is a Far-right politics, far-right nationalist organization with strong Neopaganist roots based in Kassel, Germany. It was founded in 1980 by Pierre Krebs, essentially as the German branch of Groupement de recherche et ...

. It has also appeared as the former logo of the fashion label

Thor Steinar Thor Steinar is a Germany, German clothing brand manufactured by Thor Steinar Mediatex GmbH, a subsidiary of International Brands General Trading, a Dubai-based company. In Germany, the brand is considered closely associated to neo-Nazism by the ...

, which was banned in Germany over resemblance to SS officer uniforms, and the

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

-based

Nordic Resistance Movement The Nordic Resistance Movement; Norwegian: nb, Nordiske motstandsbevegelsen, NMB; nn, Nordiske motstandsrørsla NMR; fi, Pohjoismainen Vastarintaliike, PVL; is, Norræna mótstöðuhreyfingin, NMH; da, Den nordiske modstandsbevægelse, ...

which uses the symbol onto a diamond with stripes (in the same shape as the Hitlerjugend flag) in green, white, and black. (It might also be noted that both these uses were technically incorrect, since both ''Thor'' and ''Thule'' would be spelled with a

thurisaz The rune is called Thurs (Old Norse '' Þurs'', a type of entity, from a reconstructed Common Germanic ') 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. I ...

, ᚦ, rune.) The symbol was one of the numerous Nazi/neo-Nazi and fascist symbols/slogans used by the perpetrator of the

Christchurch mosque shootings On 15 March 2019, two consecutive mass shootings occurred in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The attacks, carried out by a lone gunman who entered both mosques during Friday prayer, began at the Al Noor Mosque ...

Brenton Harrison Tarrant alongside the Black Sun, the Othala/Odal rune, the Celtic Cross, the Kolovrat swastika, the Fourteen Words, and the Archangel Michael's Cross of the pro-Nazi

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n organization Iron Guard.

Olympics

In 2018 the symbol was incorporated on the sweaters of the 2018 Norwegian Alpine ski team. The sweaters were however quickly pulled from market, when the nazi assosiation was discovered.

Popular culture

* In '' Vinland Saga'', Thorfinn has carved two Týr-runes into his dagger, likely in the same context as stated in ''Sigrdrífumál'': to achieve victory in battle. * In '' Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans'', Teiwaz is a mafia-like faction representing the Outer Sphere and the largest conglomerate on Jupiter.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Runes Runes Mars in culture Nazi symbolism