ELDER FUTHARK · HAGAL'S AETT · RUNE 12 OF 24
Jera ᛃ
“Year / harvest” · the sound j / y
IN A READING
Cycles, patience, reward for effort.
REVERSED
Jera looks the same either way up, so it has no reversed reading.
IN MAGIC
Bringing projects to fruition; good timing.
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 Jera: harvest is a joy when the earth yields its fruits.
THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM · ᛄ GER
Ger byþ gumena hiht,ðonne God læteþ,halig heofones cyning,hrusan syllanbeorhte bledabeornum ond ðearfum.
Known only from George Hickes's printing of 1705; the manuscript burned in the Cotton library fire of 1731.
THE OLD ICELANDIC RUNE POEM · ᛅ ÁR
Ár er gumna góðiok gott sumaralgróinn akr.
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
ᛄGer
Younger Futhark
ᛅÁr
Hagal's aett
The futhark falls into three rows of eight, the aettir. Jera is number 4 of Hagal'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