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 br ...

name 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 ...

''u'' rune is *Ūruz meaning " wild ox"Page, R.I. (2005). ''Runes'', page 15. The British Museum Press or *Ūrą "water". It may have been derived from the

Raetic alphabet The Old Italic scripts are a family of similar ancient writing systems used in the Italian Peninsula between about 700 and 100 BC, for various languages spoken in that time and place. The most notable member is the Etruscan alphabet, whic ...

character ''u'' as it is similar in both shape and sound value. The name of the corresponding letter in 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, wi ...

is ''urus''.

Name

The Icelandic word for "rain" and the Old English for "aurochs" go back to two different Proto-Germanic words, ''*ūruz'' and ''*ūrą'' (although possibly from the same root). The Norwegian meaning "dross, slag" is more obscure, but may be an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

technical term derived from the word for water (cf. the

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...

, where

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...

is compared to milk). Because of this, it is difficult to reconstruct a

name for the

rune. It may have been *ūruz "aurochs" (see also Bull worship), or *ūrą "water". The aurochs is preferred by authors of modern runic divination systems, but both seem possible, compared to the names of the other runes: "water" would be comparable to "hail" and "lake", and "aurochs" to "horse" or "elk" (although the latter name is itself uncertain). The

seems to support "aurochs", though: as the name of the letter 𐌿 ''u'' is ''urus''.

Rune poems

It is recorded in all three rune poems, and it is called Ur in all, however with different meanings:

References

{{Runes Runes