Sowilo

Sowilō ( ᛊ ) is the sixteenth rune of the older Futhark (the eighth rune in the second Ætt ) and the eleventh rune of the Old Norse runic alphabet with the sound value s. The name means "sun". It appears in the rune poems as Old Norse sōl , Old English sigel or Gothic sugil .

Sowilo rune, older (" Σ ") variant
Sowilo rune, younger ("S") variant
Variant of the Younger Futhark (Sigel / Sol)

etymology

The Germanic words for "sun" alternate between an l and an n stem. The reconstructed Proto Germanic form * sowilo or * SOWULO competes with the form * sunnon . These are probably remnants of a heteroclitic (irregular) declination of the Urindo-European (possibly * seh₂-wōl , genitive * seh₂-wén-s or the like). In the individual Germanic languages, variants of both forms probably existed side by side, at least in the lyrical area:

Sol is called meþ monnom, / enn svnna meþ goþom ...

"'Sol' the people say / and 'Sunna' the gods ..."

- Alvíssmál , 16

Further examples are in Old High German sunna versus suhil and in Old English sunne versus sigel .

Sound value

The phonetic value of ᛊ rune is the Germanic s , so the voiceless alveolar fricative [⁠ s ⁠] , or even of the Old High German and in the early Middle High German remaining voiceless alveolar-palatal fricative [⁠ ɕ ⁠] .

The transcription is usually carried out using the Latin letter s .

Development and variants

The evolution of the Sowilo rune over time (AD = AD ).

There are two variants of the Sowilo rune: a sigma- shaped rune with four, six or even eight lines, which appears mainly in older inscriptions (3rd to 5th centuries AD), and an S- shaped rune with three lines (mainly in inscriptions from the 5th to 7th centuries).

In the younger Futhark, both in the Scandinavian (Sol) and in the Anglo-Saxon variant (Sigel) , the rune is slightly rotated so that the outer lines are vertical.

In the case of the Kurzzweigrunen , a variant of the younger Futhark, the character has been simplified to a vertical line on top, reminiscent of the apostrophe replacement character ( ' ).

Runic poems

Rune poem	translation
Old Norwegian Sól er landa ljóme; lúti ek helgum dóme.	The sun is the light of the world; I bow to the divine decision.
Old Icelandic Sól er skýja skjöldr ok skínandi röðull ok ísa aldrtregi.	The sun is the shield of the clouds and the shining ray and destroyer of the ice.
Anglo-Saxon Sigel semannum symble biþ on hihte, ðonne hi bein feriaþ ofer fisces beþ, oþ hi brimhengest bringeþ to lande.	The sun is eternally a joy for the hope of seafarers when they travel over the bath of the fish until the vessel brings them ashore over the depths.

Use in modern times

The so-called "Siegrune" is an invention of the völkisch author and esotericist Guido von List from 1902 from the " Armanen-Futhark ", whose form, in contrast to the invented name and the equally fictitious interpretation, is loosely based on the Sowilo rune.

The National Socialists adopted from List's rune symbols under the Germanized name “Siegrune” for the logo of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and in simple form as a symbol of the German Young People and the Hitler Youth .

Character encoding

Unicode codepoint	U + 16CA	U + 16CB	U + 16CC
Unicode name	RUNIC LETTER SOWILO S	RUNIC LETTER SIGEL LONG-BRANCH-SOL S	RUNIC LETTER SHORT-TWIG-SOL S
HTML	& # 5834;	& # 5835;	& # 5836;
character	ᛊ	ᛋ	ᛌ

Individual evidence

↑ Klaus Düwel : Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection. Vol. 72). 3rd, completely revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-476-13072-X .
^ Raymond I. Page : Runes. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1987, ISBN 0-520-06114-4 .
^ Thesaurus of Indo-European Text and Language Materials
^ Benjamin W. Fortson: Indo-European Language and Culture. An Introduction (= Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics. Vol. 19). Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA et al. a. 2004, ISBN 1-4051-0316-7 , p. 110 f.
↑ Sophus Bugge
↑ z. B. on the Kylverstein (Swedish: Kylversten )
↑ z. B. Goldhorns from Gallehus , Zealand-II-C
↑ Original texts and English translations from the Rune Poem Page ( Memento of the original from May 1, 1999 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2

↑ Guido von List : The Secret of the Runes (= Guido List Library. Series 1: Research Results . Vol. 1, ZDB -ID 1225024-7 ). Zillmann, Groß-Lichterfelde 1907 (Edition Secret Knowledge, Graz 2007, ISBN 978-3-902640-50-5 ).

[Düwel-1] Klaus Düwel : Runenkunde (= Metzler Collection. Vol. 72). 3rd, completely revised edition. Metzler, Stuttgart a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-476-13072-X .

[2] Raymond I. Page : Runes. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1987, ISBN 0-520-06114-4 .

[TITUS-3] Thesaurus of Indo-European Text and Language Materials

[4] Benjamin W. Fortson: Indo-European Language and Culture. An Introduction (= Blackwell Textbooks in Linguistics. Vol. 19). Blackwell Publishing, Malden MA et al. a. 2004, ISBN 1-4051-0316-7 , p. 110 f.

[5] Sophus Bugge

[6] z. B. on the Kylverstein (Swedish: Kylversten )

[7] z. B. Goldhorns from Gallehus , Zealand-II-C

[8] Original texts and English translations from the Rune Poem Page ( Memento of the original from May 1, 1999 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2

[List-9] Guido von List : The Secret of the Runes (= Guido List Library. Series 1: Research Results . Vol. 1, ZDB -ID 1225024-7 ). Zillmann, Groß-Lichterfelde 1907 (Edition Secret Knowledge, Graz 2007, ISBN 978-3-902640-50-5 ).