URUZ
U
Aett: 1st Aett, Freyr’s Aett
Position within the Aett: 2
Position within the Futhark: 2
Meaning: Aurochs
Concept: Orlog
English Letter Value: U
Sound: OO
Pronunciation: Oo-rooz
Other Names: Anglo-Saxon: Ur
Armanen: Ur
Germanic: Uruz
Gothic: Urus
Icelandic: Ur
Norwegian: Ur
Younger: Ur
Associations:
Polarity: Feminine
Element(s): Ice
World: Niflheim
Galdr: Ooooorroooooz
Rune Poem(s)
Norwegian Rune Rhyme
[Slag] is from bad iron;
of runs the reindeer on the hard snow.
Icelandic Rune Poem
[drizzle] is the weeping of clouds
and the diminisher of the rim of ice,
and [an object for] the herdsman’s hate.
shadow “leader”
Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem
[Aurochs] is a fearless
and greatly horned
a very fierce beast
it fights with its horns,
a famous roamer of the moor
it is a courageous animal.
Level One Meaning(s)
The main meaning of the uruz rune is that of the animal, aurochs. The aurochs was a large and ferocious bison of northern Europe. It was large, hairy beast with extremely long horns (the length of the horns are similar in length, though somewhat shorter, to those of the Texas Longhorn) and stood between six foot and seven foot tall at the shoulders (it has been described as looking similar to the American bison, the buffalo). Julius Caesar even met up with one of these beasts and described it in his Gallic Wars:
. . . an animal somewhat smaller than an elephant with the appearance, color and shape of a bull. They are very strong and agile, and attack every man and beast they catch sight of. The natives take great pains to trap them in pits, and then kill them. This arduous sport toughens the young men and keeps them in training; and those who kill the largest number exhibit the horns in public to show what they have done, and earn praise. It is impossible to domesticate or tame the aurochs, even if caught young. The horns are much larger than those of our oxen and of quite different shape and appearance. The Germans prize them greatly; they mount the rims with silver and use them as drinking cups at their grandest banquets.
The Anglo-Saxons used the description of the aurochs as part of the pneumonic for the uruz rune in their rune poem:
The aurochs is a savage beast,
is fierce and has huge horns.
A great roamer of the moorlands,
It fights with its horns.
It is a courageous brute.
[Translated by R. I. Page]
The hunting of the aurochs was use as a test of strength for the Rite of Passage for young men (which will be gone into later).
For the Germanic tribes of Northern Europe the aurochs was a symbol of strength, stamina, perseverance, and, at least when thinking of the bulls, virility. The aurochs was an animal that they feared, admired, tested themselves against and honored by using the horn for their drinking cup, especially for honoring the gods during their blots and sumbles, and ultimately, unfortunately, to the extinction of the species. (The last aurochs in England was kill in the 1200's. The very last of all the aurochs was killed in 1627 by a Polish prince for sport.)
Because of the U-rune’s association with the aurochs, uruz is also associated with the strength of the aurochs. Uruz can confer this strength to the rune master or to an amulet made by the rune master and thus to the wearer of the amulet. This strength did not always come in the form of physical strength (although that would be the usual need or want), but also in the form of strength of will. One of the reasons that the aurochs was so feared is because it could never be tamed nor domesticated for farm use. It always remained wild, and, as I understand it, some of that wildness would show up in its offspring from domesticated cows. This is a part of the energy of the uruz; wild, untamed, but it can be directed like a stampeding herd of cattle.
Uruz is also associated with the ability to heal. Uruz is the rune mentioned in the Havamal, stanza 148:
A second I know, that men shall need
Who leechcraft [doctoring] long to use;
[BELLOWS TRANSLATION]
Because of uruz’s association with the primal force of ice and the Land of Mists and Ice, Niflheim, it has the ability to stop or impede fire, like the fires of infection or fever. The only problem with using uruz for healing is the wild nature of its energy. One needs to “buffer” the energy of uruz with another rune in order to channel (direct) the energy in a way that will keep it from doing more harm than good.
The uruz rune is also associated with the Rites of Passage. For many centuries, and in many diverse cultures, when a child reached a certain age or reach a certain mile stone in life, usually around puberty, they went through a Right (or ritual) of Passage. In the Germanic tribes, for a male child that would be what I call the Great Hunt. A boy would be sent out into the world to hunt an auroch and to bring home proof of the kill, the horns of the beast. To me, and I’m sure to most, this seems very wasteful. To sent out a lone boy, supplied with the most basic equipment to survive in the wilderness, and kill a great bull, take it horns, and leave the carcass to rot where it fell. I believe that he would have gone with a hunting party, make the kill on his own (no help from anyone), take the horns as his proof of the kill and his journey into manhood, and then, with the help of the other men, bring home the spoils of the kill (i.e.: the bones, meat, hide, etc.) back to the village. Now, after the Rite of Passage was done, the boy was no long a child but a man with all the rites and responsibilities that would go with manhood. For which he had been trained all his life.
However, Rites of Passage were never just for the males. There were also Rites of Passage for the females as well. What they were, I’m not sure. Unlike the Rites of Passage for the males, the ones for females were often done in secret and the knowledge was kept from the men. But, they were kept just as sacred as the Great Hunt was for the men and they were apart of the continuation of the life of the tribe, so that only the strong and wise would survive.
Associated Deity(ies)
Audhumla: Since, like Ymir, Audhumla was born of fire and ice, she would be intimately associated with both fehu and uruz, and with the creation story.
Vidar: Vidar is the son of Odin and Grid, who was a giantess. Vidar was a kind of “lone wolf”. He was very reclusive; as well as being very strong, which he got from his mother, and very wise, which, obviously, he got from his father. Vidar is considered nearly as strong as his half brother, Thor, as was a force to be reckoned with in battle. The lore tells us that on the last day of the universe as we know it, in other words Ragnarok, Vidar is one of the few gods that survive the end of times and that he killed the Fenrir Wolf with his strength, speed, and the iron clad, leather shoe that he wore on his right foot (literally, the only way that he could harm Fenris was to kick the wolf to death). Since uruz is associated with strength then Vidar is would be associated with uruz.
Ymir: Like Audhumla, Ymir was born from fire and ice, through the spark from Muspellsheim (thurisaz).
© 2005
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