Ingwaz
The Elder Futhark rune for the “ng” sound. It is named for Ing, a god or hero whom the English rune poem places among the East Danes.
Meaning
Store norske leksikon gives the reconstructed name *ingwaR, Old Norse Ing, a Norse god’s name, and says the rune could be used to write ng. The Old English poem tells a small story: Ing “was first seen by men among the East-Danes”, and then “followed by his car, he departed eastwards over the waves”.
Origin and history
Bruce Dickins connects Ing with the Ingwine, a name for the Danes in Beowulf, and with the Swedish royal line: their god Frey “is himself styled Yngvi-Freyr”. The Bosworth–Toller dictionary glosses ing as “the name of the nasal guttural ᛜ ng, in the Runic alphabet”.
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 runesDagazThe Elder Futhark rune for the “d” sound. Its name, *dagaz, meant day.
- In Norse gods and their symbolsFreyrFreyr was the Norse god of fertility, good harvests and peace, the god Snorri says it is good to call on “for fruitful seasons and peace”. His attributes are the golden boar Gullinbursti, the folding ship Skidbladnir and the sword he gave away for love, and the gold foils stamped with an embracing couple are often read as Freyr and his bride Gerd.
See also
Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido, Kaunan, Gebo.
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. 67 and note
- ing (Bosworth–Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary), Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (1898), online edition, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, entry “ing”
The same shape elsewhere
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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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