Rune 3 of 24 · Freyr's aett
Thurisaz
“giant (Norse þurs); thorn in Old English” · sound: th (as in 'thin')
Can be drawn reversed when reversals are on.
Historical evidence
Norse þurs means a giant, a hostile being of myth; both Norse poems call it a torment of women. The Old English poem renames it þorn, 'thorn', painful to grasp.
The name Thurisaz is a modern reconstruction of the Proto-Germanic name; the Elder Futhark’s own names are not recorded.
In the rune poems
Original
Ðorn byþ ðearle scearp; ðegna gehwylcum
anfeng ys yfyl, ungemetum reþe
manna gehwylcum, ðe him mid resteð.English
The thorn is cruelly sharp; for any warrior taking hold of it is painful, beyond measure harsh to anyone who lies down among them.
Original
Þurs vældr kvinna kvillu;
kátr værðr fár af illu.English
The giant causes women’s sickness; few are made cheerful by misfortune.
The Norwegian rhyme pairs each rune with a second line that rhymes with the first and often has no obvious connection to it.
Original
Þurs er kvenna kvöl
ok kletta búi
ok varðrúnar verr.
Saturnus þengill.English
The giant is the torment of women and a dweller among the cliffs and the husband of a giantess. Saturn. Prince.
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: defence, a sharp threshold, reactive force
Upright
A barrier or sharp edge: something that protects, but hurts to handle. Pause before a threshold and decide deliberately.
Reversed
Reacting before thinking, or running into thorns of your own making. Hostility, outside or inside.