Ur (rune)

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English	Old Norse
	*Ūruz/Ūrą	Ūr; Ȳr	Úr
	"aurochs" / "water"	"aurochs"; ?	"dross"/"rain"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc	Younger Futhark
Unicode	ᚢ U+16A2	ᚢ ᚣ U+16A2 U+16A3	ᚢ U+16A2
Transliteration	u	u; y	u
Transcription	u	u; y	u, y, o, v / w
IPA	[u(ː)]	[u(ː)], [y(ː)]	[u(ː)], [y(ː)], [ɔ(ː)], [w]
Position in rune-row	2	2; 27	2

The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the Elder Futhark u rune ᚢ is *Ūruz meaning "wild ox"^[1] or *Ūrą "water". It may have been derived from the Raetic alphabet character u as it is similar in both shape and sound value. The name of the corresponding letter in the Gothic alphabet is urus.

Name

The Icelandic word for "rain" and the Old English for "aurochs" go back to two different Proto-Germanic words, *ūruz and *ūrą (although possibly from the same root). The Norwegian meaning "dross, slag" is more obscure, but may be an Iron Age technical term derived from the word for water (cf. the Kalevala, where iron is compared to milk).

Because of this, it is difficult to reconstruct a Proto-Germanic name for the Elder Futhark rune. It may have been *ūruz "aurochs" (see also Bull worship), or *ūrą "water". The aurochs is preferred by authors of modern runic divination systems, but both seem possible, compared to the names of the other runes: "water" would be comparable to "hail" and "lake", and "aurochs" to "horse" or "elk" (although the latter name is itself uncertain). The Gothic alphabet seems to support "aurochs", though: as the name of the letter 𐌿 u is urus.

Rune poems

It is recorded in all three rune poems, and it is called Ur in all, however with different meanings:

Rune Poem:[2]	English Translation:
Old Norwegian ᚢ Úr er af illu jarne; opt løypr ræinn á hjarne.	Dross comes from bad iron; the reindeer often races over the frozen snow.
Old Icelandic ᚢ Úr er skýja grátr ok skára þverrir ok hirðis hatr. umbre vísi	Rain is lamentation of the clouds and ruin of the hay-harvest and abomination of the shepherd.
Old English ᚢ Ur byþ anmod ond oferhyrned, felafrecne deor, feohteþ mid hornum mære morstapa; þæt is modig wuht.	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.

References

1. Page, R.I. (2005). Runes, page 15. The British Museum Press ISBN 0-7141-8065-3
2. Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page.