Ansuz (rune)
| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English | Old Norse | |||
| *Ansuz | Ōs | Āc | Æsc | Óss | ||
| "god" | "god" | "oak" | "ash" | "god" | ||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc | Younger Futhark | |||
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| Unicode | ᚨ U+16A8 |
ᚩ U+16A9 |
ᚪ U+16AA |
ᚫ U+16AB |
ᚬ U+16AC |
ᚭ U+16AD |
| Transliteration | a | o | a | æ | o | |
| Transcription | a | o | a | æ | ą, o | |
| IPA | [a(ː)] | [o(ː)] | [ɑ(ː)] | [æ(ː)] | [ɑ̃], [o(ː)] | |
| Position in rune-row | 4 | 4 | 25 | 26 | 4 | |
Ansuz is the conventional name given to the a-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚨ. The name is based on Proto-Germanic *ansuz, denoting a deity belonging to the principal pantheon in Germanic paganism.
The shape of the rune is likely from Neo-Etruscan a (
), like Latin A ultimately from Phoenician aleph.
Name
In the Norwegian rune poem, óss is given a meaning of "estuary" while in the Anglo-Saxon one, ōs ᚩ takes the Latin meaning of "mouth". The Younger Futhark rune is transliterated as ą to distinguish it from the new ár rune (ᛅ), which continues the jēran rune after loss of prevocalic *j- in Proto-Norse *jár (Old Saxon jār).
Since the name of 
a is attested in the Gothic alphabet as ahsa or aza, the common Germanic name of the rune may thus either have been *ansuz "god", or *ahsam "ear (of wheat)".
Development in Anglo-Saxon runes
The Anglo-Saxon futhorc split the Elder Futhark a rune into three independent runes due to the development of the vowel system in Anglo-Frisian. These three runes are ōs ᚩ (transliterated o), ac "oak" ᚪ (transliterated a), and æsc ᚫ "ash" (transliterated æ).
Development in Younger Futhark
The Younger Futhark corresponding to the Elder Futhark ansuz rune is ᚬ, called óss. It is transliterated as ą. This represented the phoneme /ɑ̃/, and sometimes /æ/ (also written ᛅ) and /o/ (also written ᚢ). The variant grapheme ᚯ became independent as representing the phoneme /ø/ during the 11th to 14th centuries.
Rune poems
In the Icelandic rune poem, the name óss refers to Odin:
- ᚬÓss er algingautr
- ok ásgarðs jöfurr,
- ok valhallar vísi.
- Jupiter oddviti.
- Óss is aged Gautr
- and prince of Ásgardr
- and lord of Vallhalla.