Thurisaz


The rune is called Thurs in the Icelandic and Norwegian rune poems. In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem it is called thorn, whence the name of the letter þ derived.
It is transliterated as þ, and has the sound value of a voiceless dental fricative .
The rune is absent from the earliest Vimose inscriptions, but it is found in the Thorsberg chape inscription, dated to ca. AD 200.

Name

Þurs is a name for the giants in Norse mythology. Tursas is also an ill-defined being in Finnish mythology - Finland was known as the land of the giants in Scandinavian/north Germanic mythology.
In Anglo-Saxon England, the same rune was called Thorn or "Þorn" and it survives as the Icelandic letter Þ. An attempt has been made to account for the substitution of names by taking "thorn" to be a kenning for "giant".
It is disputed as to whether a distinct system of Gothic runes ever existed, but it is clear that most of the names of the letters of the Gothic alphabet correspond to those of the Elder Futhark. The name of, the Gothic letter corresponding to Þ is an exception; it is recorded as þiuþ " good" in the Codex Vindobonensis 795, and as such unrelated to either þurs or þorn.
The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune's Proto-Germanic name.
Assuming that the Scandinavian name þurs is the most plausible reflex of the Elder Futhark name, a Common Germanic form þurisaz can be reconstructed.

Rune poems

The Germanic rune ᚦ is mentioned in three rune poems:
Rune Poem:English Translation:

Old Norwegian

Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu,

kátr værðr fár af illu.

Thurs causes anguish to women,

misfortune makes few men cheerful.

Old Icelandic

Þurs er kvenna kvöl

ok kletta búi

ok varðrúnar verr.

Saturnus þengill.

Thurs is torture of women

and cliff-dweller

and husband of a giantess

Saturn's thegn.

Anglo-Saxon

Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp;

ðegna gehƿylcum anfeng ys yfyl,

ungemetum reþe manna gehƿelcum,

ðe him mid resteð.

The thorn is exceedingly sharp,

an evil thing for any thegn to touch,

uncommonly severe on all who sit among them.

Saturn possibly refers to Ymir or Útgarða-Loki.