ELDER FUTHARK · HAGAL'S AETT · RUNE 16 OF 24
Sowilo ᛊ
“Sun” · the sound s
IN A READING
Success, vitality, victory.
REVERSED
Sowilo looks the same either way up, so it has no reversed reading.
IN MAGIC
Success, health, confidence, guidance.
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 Sowilo: the sun is ever a hope to seafarers.
THE OLD ENGLISH RUNE POEM · ᛋ SIGEL
Sigel semannumsymble biþ on hihte,ðonne hi hine feriaþofer fisces beþ,oþ hi brimhengestbringeþ to lande.
Known only from George Hickes's printing of 1705; the manuscript burned in the Cotton library fire of 1731.
THE OLD ICELANDIC RUNE POEM · ᛋ SÓL
Sól er skýja skjöldrok skínandi röðullok ísa aldrtregi.
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
ᛋSigel
Younger Futhark
ᛋSól
Hagal's aett
The futhark falls into three rows of eight, the aettir. Sowilo is number 8 of Hagal's aett:
Learn more in the lessons
- Galdr — The Chanted Spell · 16 min
- The Elder Futhark Runes · 15 min
- Runes in Magic · 15 min