The Elder Futhark

Kaunan

ᚲ · Old English cen

The rune of Kaunan
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In orderNo. 6 of 24
Soundk
The namea sore or ulcer in the Norse poems; a torch in the English one
Old English runecen
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In the Old English Rune Poem
C. (the torch) is known to every living man by its pale, bright flame; it always burns where princes sit within.
Where this comes from

The Old English Rune Poem is the fullest surviving poem about the runes. It describes the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, which grew out of the Elder Futhark, so the stanza below belongs to the Old English rune that continues this one rather than to the Elder Futhark rune itself.

The Anglo-Saxon Runic Poem, translated by Bruce Dickins in Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 1915). The text and the runes are in the public domain.

The letterform is redrawn from the public-domain vector runes on Wikimedia Commons, set on a common canvas so every rune in the row is the same size.

The Norwegian and Icelandic rune poems call this rune kaun, an ulcer. The Old English poem calls it cen, a torch. Only the English reading is translated above.

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