Tiwaz rune

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Tyr rune

The t-rune ᛏ is named after Tyr, and was identified with this god. The reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is Tîwaz or Teiwaz & other variants.

1 Comparisons
2 Modern usage
- 2.1 Nazi usage
- 2.2 Germanic neopaganism

Tyr was contextually compared with Mars in the Icelandic rune poem:

ᛏ Týr er einhendr áss

ok ulfs leifar

ok hofa hilmir.

Mars tiggi.

Tyr is a one-handed god,

and leavings of the wolf

and prince of temples.

In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem however, the same rune is identified with polaris:

ᛏ Tir biþ tacna sum, healdeð trywa wel

wiþ æþelingas; a biþ on færylde

ofer nihta genipu, næfre swiceþ.

ᛏ Tir is a star, it keeps faith well

with athelings, always on its course

over the mists of night it never fails.

(c.f. Shakespeare's sonnet 116)

The charm (alu) on the Lindholm amulet, dated 2nd to 4th century contains three consecutive t runes, interpreted as an invocation of Tyr.

The Tyr rune in Guido von List's Armanen Futharkh was based on the version found in the Younger Futhark. List's runes were later adopted and modified by Karl Maria Wiligut who was responsible for their adoptions by the NSDAP and subsequently used widely on insignia and literature during the Third Reich. It was the badge of the Sturmabteilung training schools, the Reichsführerschulen in Nazi Germany. In Neo-Nazism it has appeared, together with the Sol rune, in the emblem of the Kassel-based think tank Thule Seminar. It has also appeared as the former logo of the fashion label Thor Steinar which was banned in Germany for resembling "fascist symbols". (It might also be noted that both these uses were technically incorrect, since both Thor and Thule would be spelled with a thorn character.)