ELDER FUTHARK · FREYR'S AETT · RUNE 1 OF 24
Fehu ᚠ
“Cattle” · the sound f
IN A READING
Wealth, earned resources, the flow of value.
REVERSED
Loss of possessions, greed, money slipping away.
IN MAGIC
Attracting prosperity; protecting income.
In the rune poems
Three medieval poems give a short verse to each rune's name, the oldest record of what the names meant. What they stress for Fehu: wealth is a comfort, but must be shared freely to win favour.
THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM · ᚠ FEOH
Feoh byþ frofurfira gehwylcum;sceal ðeah manna gehwylcmiclun hyt dælangif he wile for drihtnedomes hleotan.
Known only from George Hickes's printing of 1705; the manuscript burned in the Cotton library fire of 1731.
THE OLD ICELANDIC RUNE POEM · ᚠ FÉ
Fé er frænda rógok flæðar vitiok grafseiðs gata
For the sixteen runes of the Younger Futhark, in manuscripts from about 1500.
The verses are given in their own languages, Old English from Bruce Dickins's edition (1915) as transcribed on Wikisource, Old Icelandic as normalised in Wikipedia's article on the rune poems. Square brackets mark words the editors restored.
In the later rows
Anglo-Saxon futhorc
ᚠFeoh
Younger Futhark
ᚠFé
Freyr's aett
The futhark falls into three rows of eight, the aettir. Fehu is number 1 of Freyr's aett:
Learn more in the lessons
- The Elder Futhark Runes · 15 min
- Runes in Magic · 15 min
- The Younger Futhark and the Runestones · 18 min