Fehu (ᚠ)
Pronunciation: FAY-hoo · Latin equivalent: F · Freyr’s ætt, first rune
Name and meaning
Proto-Germanic fehu, “cattle” — and therefore wealth, in a world where the herd was the bank account. This is movable wealth: the kind that grows, feeds, and can be given — not land, not treasure buried in a mound.
In the rune poems
Attested in all three rune poems (Old Norse fé). All three fix on the same uncomfortable wisdom: the Anglo-Saxon poet says wealth must be shared freely if one would win honor, while the Norwegian and Icelandic verses call it strife among kinsmen — the fire that warms a family and burns it.
Upright
Wealth earned and moving: prosperity, new resources, the beginning of abundance. Fehu favors circulation — income over hoard, generosity over grasping. It often marks a fresh start with the means to fund it.
Merkstave
The herd scattered: loss of property, greed, poverty of purse or spirit, wealth become the master. The kin-strife the poems warned of. Ask what is being clutched that was meant to move.
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