Rune 12 of 24 · Hagal's aett
Jera
“year; good harvest” · sound: j (as y in 'year')
Looks the same either way up: never reversed.
Historical evidence
Old English ger and Norse ár mean the year, especially a good harvest; the poems describe the earth giving its fruits. The Norse rune ár later took the sound a.
The name Jera is a modern reconstruction of the Proto-Germanic name; the Elder Futhark’s own names are not recorded.
In the rune poems
Original
Ger byþ gumena hiht, ðonne God læteþ,
halig heofones cyning, hrusan syllan
beorhte bleda beornum ond ðearfum.English
Harvest is people’s hope, when God, holy king of heaven, lets the earth give bright fruits to rich and poor alike.
Original
Ár er gumna góðe;
get ek at ǫrr var Fróðe.English
A good year is a blessing to men; I say that Fróði was generous.
The Norwegian rhyme pairs each rune with a second line that rhymes with the first and often has no obvious connection to it.
Original
Ár er gumna góði
ok gott sumar
ok algróinn akr
annus allvaldr.English
A good year is a blessing to men and a good summer and a field in full growth. Year [Latin annus]. All-ruler.
Each Icelandic stanza ends with two words: a Latin gloss of the rune’s name and a poetic word for a king or chieftain that alliterates with the rune. Both are translated as they stand.
Original texts as printed in Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples, Cambridge University Press, 1915. Public domain. The English translations are Scryway’s own, made line by line from these texts; square brackets mark uncertain or added words. No published translation is reproduced.
Modern interpretation
From 20th-century and later divinatory practice, written for Scryway. Not a historical meaning.
Keywords: harvest, cycles, reward in time
Upright
The return on patient effort: what was sown is reaped in its season. Cycles turning as they should.