Othala (ᛟ) is the twenty-fourth and, in most lists, last rune of the Elder Futhark, and it stands for the sound o. Its name means inherited property: the family land and the home on it. The Old English rune poem says such an estate is very dear to everyone. In modern rune reading Othala is taken to mean home, heritage and belonging, and it is read as a yes.
What does the Othala rune mean?
Othala is the letter o. Its name comes from the vocabulary of early Germanic law and family life, where it meant land held by a kin group and passed down, as opposed to goods that could be bought and sold.
In modern rune reading, a 20th-century practice, the word is widened:
- Home. The place and the people that make you feel settled.
- Heritage. What is handed down: skills, stories, values, as well as things.
- Belonging. Having roots somewhere, and tending them.
The Othala sign and its sound
Othala is a diamond with two short legs running down and outward from its lower point. Many people see a simple house plan or a fenced plot in it.
It stands for o. The name appears as Othala, Othila or Odal; the Old English form is Ethel, written eþel or œþel in the manuscripts.
The name Othala and what the rune poem says
The runologist Tineke Looijenga gives the reconstructed name as ōþalan and translates the Old English form as "heritage, possession."
The later Scandinavian alphabet had no separate o rune of this kind, so only the Old English rune poem has a verse. In Bruce Dickins's 1915 translation: "An estate is very dear to every man, if he can enjoy there in his house whatever is right and proper in constant prosperity."
The sentence turns on its "if." Land alone is not the point. What is dear is being able to live on it decently and in peace, with "whatever is right and proper." A home, in other words, more than a holding.
The verse makes a pair with the first one in the poem. Fehu, the rune that opens the alphabet, is movable wealth, cattle and coin, and its verse says such wealth must be given away freely. Othala is the wealth that stays where it is and is kept in the family. The row begins with what you share and ends with what you hand on.
Othala in a modern rune reading
What follows is modern practice, built on the name and the verse.
As a rune of the day, Othala is taken as a nudge to spend some time on home and the people in it.
In a three-rune cast:
- The situation. The matter touches your roots: family, home, or something you were given and now look after.
- The challenge. Deciding what to keep and what to let go. Not everything inherited has to be carried on.
- The likely outcome. A firmer sense of where you belong. It is a direction, not a verdict.
In a yes-or-no question Othala is read as a yes.
Questions about actual property, wills or family disputes are for a qualified professional; a rune can only prompt you to think about what home means to you.
Loading the tool…
How the symbol was misused
The Nazis adopted this rune along with other old symbols, and after World War II white supremacists in Europe and North America began using it as well. The Anti-Defamation League therefore includes it in its database of hate symbols. The same entry notes that the rune is also found in non-extremist contexts, as an ordinary part of runic writing, and that care should be taken to evaluate it in the context in which it appears. The letter is far older than that misuse, and on this site it is shown only in its historical meaning of home and inheritance.
Othala upright and its place in the alphabet
Our rune reading reads Othala, like all runes, upright only.
Othala is the eighth rune of the third ætt and closes the alphabet in the order we use. Some of the oldest rune rows put Dagaz, day, after it instead of before. Either way the Elder Futhark ends on a pair that is easy to like: daylight and home. The whole sequence, from Fehu on, is in the guide to the Elder Futhark runes.