The Rune and Its Name

Thurisaz is the third rune of the Elder Futhark, carrying the phoneme "th" and standing third in the first aett. Its reconstructed name means giant or thurs, an ogre-like hostile being of Germanic myth; the Old English rune poem instead reads the same character as "thorn," a sharp point that wounds those who grasp it. The rune is often linked in later tradition with the god Thor and with a piercing, reactive force. Its name is one of several that shifted as the runic rows passed between languages.

Thurisaz stands third in the aett of Freyr, the Elder Futhark's first eight-rune group. Its Old English futhorc counterpart, thorn, gives it a name shared with the plant rather than with the giant (thurs) the Elder Futhark name itself invokes, and the Old English poem's stanza accordingly describes the thorn as sharp to any hand that grasps it carelessly, painful to whoever rests among thorns, a warning image distinct from the more directly mythological Norse sense of the name. Thurisaz survived into the Younger Futhark as thurs, retaining the giant-sense there, and receives stanzas in both the Norwegian and Icelandic Rune Poems as well, where it is associated with the suffering of women and with a difficult journey.