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Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English
	*Ōþala-	Ēþel
	"patrimony"	"property, home"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc
Unicode	ᛟ U+16DF
Transliteration	o	œ
IPA	[o(ː)]	[ø(ː)]

This article contains runic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of runes.

ᛟ is a rune that is transliterated as o and œ in the Elder Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc writing systems respectively. It is known as ēþel ("inheritance, home, native land") in Old English, from which hypothetical Proto-Germanic names such as *ōþala have been reconstructed.

As with other Elder Futhark runes, the origins of ᛟ are unclear, beyond an ultimate ancestor in the Phoenician alphabet. Various intermediate scripts and characters have been proposed, including the Greek Ω, which closely resembles it. Even more similar to the rune are some symbols representing "o" sounds in Etruscan and Alpine scripts. The rune may in turn be the origin of the Gothic letter 𐍉 ("utal"), used by Wulfila in the 4th century CE for his Gothic Bible, although Greek letters may also have been used as a source.

As ᛟ does not occur in Younger Futhark, it largely disappears from the Scandinavian record around the 8th century, but its usage continued in England into the 11th century, where alongside inscriptions was also used in manuscripts as a shorthand for the word ēþel, similarly to how other runes were could be used at the time.

Knowledge of the English form the rune continued into the 17th century due to manuscripts preserving the Old English rune poem and efforts of collectors who published copies of these. It features in the J.R.R Tolkien's writing system of the dwarves in The Hobbit, first published in 1937. Also beginning in the 1930s, ᛟ was appropriated by Nazi occultists during the 1930s and 1940s, along with many other historical European symbols, including other runes. This Nazi-symbol, is now used by neo-Nazis and far-right groups. ᛟ also continues to be used in popular culture, including in video games and Tolkien's other works, and by adherents of the new religious movement, Heathenry.

The sole attested name of the rune is Old English: ēþel or óðel ("property, inheritance, home, native land"). The Proto-Germanic name for the rune has therefore been reconstructed as *ōþala or *ōþila ("patrimony, inherited possession").^[1][2][3] It has cognates with similar meanings in other Germanic languages, including Old Norse: óðal ("ancestral property", "patrimony", "inheritance"), Old Saxon: ōthil ("home") and Old High German: uodal ("ancestral property").^[1][2] Alternative names for the rune include *ōðilan.^[4]

This general meaning is found in Old Norse: óðal, which refers to Scandinavian laws of inheritance which established land rights for families that had owned that parcel of land over a number of generations, restricting its sale to others. Among other aspects, this protected the inheritance rights of daughters against males from outside the immediate family.^[5] Some of these laws remain in effect today in Norway as the Odelsrett (allodial right). The tradition of Udal law found in Shetland, Orkney, and the Isle of Man, is from the same origin.^{[citation needed]}

ᛟ features in Elder Futhark, where it represents the /o:/ sound and is transliterated to the Latin script as o.^[6] As with other Elder Futhark runes, its exact origins are unclear beyond its ultimate descent from the Phoenician alphabet.^[7] Derivation from Latin O or Q has been proposed, however, while most Elder Futhark runes are more similar capital Latin letters than Greek ones, ᛟ more closely resembles Ω ("Omega").^{[8] [9]} North Italic alphabets have also been suggested as the source, including Venetic and Lepontic, and^[10] Letters with very similar sounds and shape are also known in Alpine and Etruscan scripts, suggesting these as a possible origin.^[9][11][12] Why the runes have their order is also unclear and debated, with little correspondence between it and that of potential source scripts. A notable alignment though is between ᛟ and Ω, which are both found at the end.^[13]

ᛟ is used throughout the body of Elder Futhark inscriptions to denotes the /o:/ sound. This includes in the some of the earliest runic inscriptions such as the Hole Runestone (c. 50 BCE-275 CE) and Vimose planer (c. 160-400 CE).^[14][15] It has also been suggested to be used as an ideograph representing the word "*oþal" on the Ring of Pietroassa, referencing the ring as hereditary treasure.^[16] It has been similarly proposed to denote the Thorsberg chape (c. 210-260 CE) as the inherited possession of the inscription's writer.^[17][18]

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  Illustration of the Thorsberg chape (c. 210-260 CE) showing the runic inscriptions on both sides^[18]
• 
  Bracteate from the Vindelev Hoard c. 375-470, showing the word wodnas ("Óðinn's") right to left ^[19]
• 
  ᛟ at the end of the Kylver Stone runerow c. 400.

The letter in the Gothic alphabet 𐍉 (utal) was used in the 4th century CE by Wulfila to represent an /o:/ sound in his Bible, and may have been derived from ᛟ.^[20] Alternatively, it may have been derived from the Greek Ω (omega), which closely resembles both, or ο (omicron).^[21][22][23] As with the names of most other Gothic letters, utal is cognate with the name of its corresponding rune, *ōþala.^[20] This name is recorded in a manuscript from around the 10th century, however, and it has been suggested that the names in general may have been created retrospectively based on rune names, long after the letters were.^[24]

Usage of ᛟ continues into the Anglo-Frisian runes, where it was used along with all the other 23 Elder Futhark runes and new innovations. Anglo-Frisian sound changes led to it taking on the sound ø, also written as ö. ᛟ in Anglo-Frisian runes is therefore transliterated into Latin script as œ, while the /o:/ sound becomes represented by the new ᚩ, from the Elder Futhark ᚨ.^[25] When exactly these developments first took place and spread is unclear, however ᛟ seems to represent the œ vowel in all known English inscriptions that contain it and ᚩ is first attested early, on the 5th century Undley bracteate.^[26] Furthermore, both ᛟ and ᚩ are found on the pre-Old English Chessel Down inscription, suggesting the changes had taken place by c. 525-550 when this inscription was made.^[27] In contrast, the likely Frisian skanomodo solidus (before the mid 7th century), uses ᛟ for the /o:/ sound and there are no known Frisian inscriptions with ᚩ from before the 8th century. This absence could, however, be a result of there being very few known Frisian runic texts.^[28]

An alternative form of the rune developed in this writing system, in which it was ritten with a single vertical line instead of the two diagonal legs, perhaps due to its simpler form. This form is found in some manuscripts and more rarely in runic inscriptions, such as on the 10th century Seax of Beagnoth.^[29][30] The rune is also used ideographically as a shorthand for the word ēþel or œþel ("ancestral property or land") in manuscripts of texts such as Beowulf, Waldere and the Old English translation of Orosius' Historiae adversus paganos.^[31][32] This is similar to wider practices of the time, in which runes such as ᛞ, ᚹ and ᛗ were also used as shorthands to write the name of the rune.^[32] Furthermore, a stanza based on ᛟ's name "eþel" forms part of the Old English rune poem, composed in the 8th or 9th century and preserved in a now lost 10th century manuscript:^[33][34]

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  Back of the Harford Farm Brooch (c. 610-650) ^[35]
• 
  The left panel of the Franks Casket (early 8th century), showing the rune on both the top right and bottom right^[36]
• 
  Seax of Beagnoth rune row (c. 10th century), showing the alternative rune form between the ᛗ and ᚪ^[30]
• 
  Section of Beowulf in the Nowell Codex (late 10th-early 11th century), showing the rune to represent the word "ēðel"^[32]

While ᛟ continued to be used in England, it largely disappeared in Scandinavia during the development of the Younger Futhark, which began to emerge shortly after 700 CE.^[37] In this new system, the /o/ phoneme became instead written in the same way as /u/ phoneme and all other rounded vowels, with ᚢ.^[38] The reason for the loss of ᛟ, alongside 7 other elder futhark runes, is debated but was possibly a choice to use the more simple shape of ᚢ.^[38] It may also have been influenced by sound changes of the rune names, with *ōþila likely developing into *œðil. This vowel mutation left no rune with a name matching the /o/ sound. Furthermore, it may have not been seen as worth keeping a dedicated rune to write the rare "œ" vowel that the rune name now began with.^[39][40]

ᛟ is found in some transitional inscriptions that use both Elder Futhark and new rune shapes, including those that would become Younger Futhark. Many of these include ᚼ, representing an /a/ sound, alongside runes elsewhere only found in Elder Futhark inscriptions, as in the c. 7th century Stentoften Runestone.^[41][42] ᛟ is also attested on the mostly Younger Futhark Rök runestone, dating to around 800 CE. In this context, the choice to use older runes has been proposed to be an intentional reference to an event nine generations ago mentioned in the inscription.^[43]

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  Eggja stone (c. 650-700 CE, with both ᛟ and ᚼ
• 
  Rök runestone (c. 800 CE), showing ᛟ alongside Younger Futhark runes^[43]

ᛟ and the rest of the fuþorc were still known in England in the 17th century due to continued knowledge of early medieval manuscripts and collectors, such as George Hickes who made copies of Old English texts such as the Old English rune poem.^[44]

Like other historical runes, ᛟ is widely used in popular culture, including by J.R.R. Tolkien on Thror's map of Erebor in The Hobbit, published in 1937. Runes such as ᛟ further form the base for the dwarvish Cirth writing systems used in The Lord of the Rings, published in 1954 and 1955, and described in Tolkien's Legendarium.^[45][46] It is also used as the symbol for the "Lore" resource in Northgard, released in 2018,^[47] and in Stargate SG-1, Othala is a world in the Ida Galaxy where the Asgard had lived.^{[citation needed]}

ᛟ, like some other runes, was adopted as an occult symbol by German Nazi occultists and thereof in the 1930s, later being adopted by the German Schutzstaffel (SS) as an SS-rune to symbolise kinship, family and blood ties within the Aryan race. The SS modified the symbol with serifs, also called "feet" or "wings", subsequently being nicknamed "Winged Othala" and thereof in modern times. It was subsequently used by various military divisions within the German Army during World War II and also became the badge of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office, which was responsible for maintaining the racial purity of the SS.^[48]

After World War II, this symbol has seen continued by Neo-Nazis and similar far-right collectives. White supremacists who use the rune often claim it symbolises the heritage or land of "white" or "Aryan" people which should be free from foreigners. Usages such as these are not attested in any source from before the modern period, being invented by members of these groups.^[49]

The Anti-Defamation League notes that because it is part of the runic alphabet, ᛟ rune is often used in non-racist manners and should be interpreted in its context of use.^[50]

ᛟ, along with other runes more widely, often feature prominently in the practices of Heathens,^[51][52][53] and are commonly used to decorate items and in tattoos.^[54] The use of runes such as ᛟ by far-right groups has been strongly condemned by some Heathen groups, including Asatru UK which released a public statement that "[it] is categorically opposed to fascist movements, or any movements, using the symbols of our faith for hate".^[55]

• The dictionary definition of ᛟ at Wiktionary