Uruz

ᚢ · Old English ur

The rune of Uruz
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Soundu
The namethe aurochs, the wild ox
Old English runeur
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In the Old English Rune Poem
U. (the aurochs) is proud and has great horns; it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns; a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.
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 aurochs was a wild ox, larger than any surviving cattle. It was hunted in Europe into the Middle Ages and the last one died in Poland in 1627.

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