Ansuz

Ansuz is the conventional name for the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚨ. The name is based on the Proto-Germanic ansuz, which refers to a deity belonging to the main pantheon of Germanic paganism.

The shape of the rune likely derives from the Etruscan a (Etruscan A-01.png), just as the Latin A ultimately came from the Phoenician aleph.

Name

In the Norwegian rune poem, óss means "mouth," while ōs ᚩ in Anglo-Saxon has the Latin meaning of "mouth." The rune of the Younger Futhark is transliterated as ą to distinguish it from the new rune ár (ᛅ), which continues the rune jēra after the loss of the pre-vocalic j- in Proto-Norse jár (Old Saxon jār).

Since the name of the Gothic a in the Gothic alphabet is attested as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune could have been either ansuz ("god") or ahsam ("ear").

Development in Anglo-Saxon Runes

The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a-rune due to the development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian into three independent runes. These three runes are ōs ᚩ (transliterated as o), ac ("oak") ᚪ (transliterated as a), and æsc ᚫ ("ash") (transliterated as æ).

Development in the Younger Futhark

The Younger Futhark, which corresponds to the Ansuz rune of the Elder Futhark, is ᚬ, called óss. It is transliterated as ą. It represents the phoneme /ɑ̃/, sometimes /æ/ (also written ᛅ), and /o/ (also written ᚢ). The variant grapheme ᚯ became established in the 11th to 14th century as a representative of the phoneme /ø/.

Rune Poems

In the Icelandic rune poem, the name óss refers to Odin:

ᚬ Óss er algingautr
ok ásgarðs jöfurr,
ok valhallar vísi.

Óss is the ancient Gautr
and prince of Asgard
and lord of Valhalla.