Mannaz (ᛗ) is the twentieth rune of the Elder Futhark and stands for the sound m. Its name means "human being." The medieval rune poems say two things about people: that they are a delight to one another, and that they are dust. In modern rune reading Mannaz is taken to mean the self, community and awareness, and in a yes-or-no question it is a maybe.
What does the Mannaz rune mean?
Mannaz is the letter m and the only rune named after us. The word did not mean a male. It meant a person, and so people in general.
Modern rune reading, which arose in the 20th century, takes the name as its theme:
- Self. Who you are, seen honestly.
- Community. The circle of family, friends and colleagues you belong to.
- Awareness. Noticing how you affect others and how they affect you.
The Mannaz sign and its sound
Mannaz is two upright lines whose tops are joined by two diagonals that cross each other, forming an X between the posts. Some people see two figures with linked arms.
It is easy to mistake for Ehwaz, the horse rune, which has the same two uprights but a simple V between them. Ehwaz looks like our M and sounds like e; Mannaz is the one that sounds like m.
The reconstructed name is Mannaz. The Old English name is Man or Mann, and the Old Norse name Maðr.
The name Mannaz and what the rune poems say
Tineke Looijenga's table of rune names gives the reconstructed form as mannaz and the Old English man, translated "man." All three medieval rune poems include the rune, and the Icelandic one sums up each verse with a Latin word. Here the word is homo, human being. The translations are Bruce Dickins's, from 1915.
The Old Icelandic poem is the most generous: "Delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships." People are good company for one another. They are also earth, to which they return.
The Old Norwegian poem keeps only the second thought: "Man is an augmentation of the dust; great is the claw of the hawk."
The Old English poem holds both together, and it is one of the bleakest verses in the whole poem: "The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen; yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth." We are dear to each other, the poet says, and each of us will let the others down in the end, by dying.
That is a long way from the self-help flavor of Mannaz in modern books. The poems are about mortality and about the bond between people that mortality makes precious. A reading of the rune as "community" is fair to them. A reading as "self-improvement" is a modern addition.
Mannaz in a modern rune reading
The following is modern practice, not ancient teaching.
As a rune of the day, Mannaz is taken as a suggestion to look at yourself the way a kind friend would.
In a three-rune cast:
- The situation. The matter is about people more than about circumstances: you, and those around you.
- The challenge. Seeing yourself clearly, or asking for help. Both are harder than they sound.
- The likely outcome. A better understanding between you and your circle. It is a direction, not a verdict.
In a yes-or-no question our tool reads Mannaz as maybe: it depends on the people involved.
Draw a rune of the day or cast three below.
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Is there a reversed Mannaz?
Some rune books treat an upside-down Mannaz as isolation or self-deception. The poems need no second verse for that; the English one already carries its own shadow. Our rune reading reads the rune upright only.
Mannaz in its ætt and neighboring runes
Mannaz is the fourth rune of the third ætt, the last group of eight.
It stands after Ehwaz, the horse, and before Laguz, water. In the Icelandic poem a person is the "adorner of ships"; in the English poem the very next verse puts those people out on a frightening sea. For the alphabet as a whole, see the guide to the Elder Futhark runes.