ELDER FUTHARK · HAGAL'S AETT · RUNE 10 OF 24
Naudhiz ᚾ
“Need” · the sound n
IN A READING
Constraint, hardship that teaches.
REVERSED
Naudhiz looks the same either way up, so it has no reversed reading.
IN MAGIC
Endurance; turning need into determination.
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 Naudhiz: need constricts the heart, but can bring help if heeded early.
THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM · ᚾ NYD
Nyd byþ nearu on breostan;weorþeþ hi þeah oft niþa bearnumto helpe and to hæle gehwæþre,gif hi his hlystaþ æror.
Known only from George Hickes's printing of 1705; the manuscript burned in the Cotton library fire of 1731.
THE OLD ICELANDIC RUNE POEM · ᚾ NAUÐR
Nauð er Þýjar þráok þungr kostrok vássamlig verk.
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
ᚾNyd
Younger Futhark
ᚾNauðr
Hagal's aett
The futhark falls into three rows of eight, the aettir. Naudhiz is number 2 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