Fehu
The rune for the 'f' sound, named for cattle, and by extension wealth.
Origin and history
The first rune of the futhark, which takes its name from its first six letters. The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name *fehu meant livestock, the portable wealth of a herding society, and the Old English rune poem calls it feoh. The same root survives in the English word 'fee'.
Write in runes
stringmash.comRune translatorTurn English into Elder Futhark, Younger Futhark or Anglo-Saxon runes, with a chart of all 24 Elder Futhark runes.Read next
- Next in Elder Futhark runesUruzThe Elder Futhark rune for the “u” sound. Its name is reconstructed as *ūruz, the aurochs, a wild ox; the Icelandic rune poem instead calls it a shower of rain.
- The same shape in Masonic symbolsBoaz and JachinThe two pillars that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple, named in the Bible Jachin and Boaz, and represented in every Masonic lodge.
See also
Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido, Kaunan, Gebo, Wunjo.
Sources
- Runer (Store norske leksikon), Store norske leksikon, Runenavn (table of rune names)
- Runic and heroic poems of the old Teutonic peoples, Bruce Dickins (ed. and trans.), 1915, Cambridge University Press (Internet Archive), Anglo-Saxon poem v. 1 and notes; Norwegian poem 1
- fee (n.), Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary
- Runic alphabet (Encyclopaedia Britannica), Encyclopaedia Britannica (Wayback Machine copy, 3 August 2026)
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from lines.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 25, 2026. How we research
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