Rune 10 of 24 · Hagal's aett
Naudiz
“need; constraint” · sound: n
Looks the same either way up: never reversed.
Historical evidence
Need or hardship in all three poems (nyd, nauðr). The Old English poem adds that need can still become help to those who heed it in time.
The name Naudiz is a modern reconstruction of the Proto-Germanic name; the Elder Futhark’s own names are not recorded.
In the rune poems
Original
Nyd byþ nearu on breostan; weorþeþ hi þeah oft niþa bearnum
to helpe and to hæle gehwæþre, gif hi his hlystaþ æror.English
Need is tight on the heart; yet it often becomes, for the children of men, a help and a healing both, if they heed it in time.
Original
Nauðr gerer næppa koste;
nǫktan kælr í froste.English
Need leaves little choice; the naked man freezes in the frost.
The Norwegian rhyme pairs each rune with a second line that rhymes with the first and often has no obvious connection to it.
Original
Nauð er þýjar þrá
ok þungr kostr
ok vássamlig verk.
opera niflungr.English
Need is the grief of the bondwoman and a hard state to be in and toilsome work. Work [Latin opera]. Descendant of the Niflungs.
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: need, constraint, endurance
Upright
A constraint or hardship that shapes what you can do. Need teaches; patience and self-reliance carry you through.