Naudiz

NameProto-GermanicOld EnglishOld Norse
*NaudizNȳdNauðr
"need, hardship"
ShapeElder FutharkFuthorcYounger Futhark
Unicodeᚾ
U+16BE
ᚾ
U+16BE
ᚿ
U+16BF
Transliterationn
Transcriptionn
IPA[n]
Position in
rune-row		108
This article contains runic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of runes.

*Naudiz is the reconstructed Proto-Germanic name of the n-rune ᚾ, meaning "need, distress". In the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued as ᚾ nyd, in the Younger Futhark as ᚾ, Icelandic naud and Old Norse nauðr. The corresponding Gothic letter is 𐌽 n, named nauþs.

The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from the Rhaetic's alphabet's N.[1]

The valkyrie Sigrdrífa in Sigrdrífumál talks (to Sigurd) about the rune as a beer-rune and that "You should learn beer-runes if you don’t want another man’s wife to abuse your trust if you have a tryst. Carve them on the drinking-horn and on the back of your hand, and carve the rune ᚾ on your fingernail."

The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:

Rune Poem:[2] English Translation:

Old Norwegian
ᚾ Nauðr gerer næppa koste;
nøktan kælr í froste.


Constraint gives scant choice;
a naked man is chilled by the frost.

Old Icelandic
ᚾ Nauð er Þýjar þrá
ok þungr kostr
ok vássamlig verk.
opera niflungr.


Constraint is grief of the bond-maid
and state of oppression
and toilsome work.

Anglo-Saxon
ᚾ Nẏd bẏþ nearu on breostan;
ƿeorþeþ hi þeah oft niþa bearnum
to helpe and to hæle gehƿæþre,
gif hi his hlẏstaþ æror.


Trouble is oppressive to the heart;
yet often it proves a source of help and salvation
to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.

  1. ^ Gippert, Jost, The Development of Old Germanic Alphabets, Uni Frankfurt, archived from the original on 2021-02-25, retrieved 2007-03-21.
  2. ^ Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.