Naudhiz Rune Meaning: Need, Necessity and the N-Rune

Naudhiz, also written Nauthiz, is the conventional name of the n-rune of the Elder Futhark, ᚾ. Its name belongs to a Germanic word for need, necessity and constraint, and the medieval rune poems treat it as the rune of hardship, though not always of despair.

The name

The Old English descendant was called nyd, a word the Bosworth–Toller Anglo-Saxon dictionary defines through need, necessity, compulsion and hardship, and which it records as the name of the n-rune. Old Norse has the related nauð or nauðr.

What the rune poems say

The Old English verse turns on a reversal. In Bruce Dickins's 1915 translation, it begins: "Trouble is oppressive to the heart; yet often it proves a source of help and salvation", and continues that this is so for anyone who heeds it in time.

The Norwegian poem is bleaker and more physical: need leaves little choice, and a naked man is chilled by the frost.

Need as a lesson

Modern rune books connect Naudhiz with patience, endurance, discipline or learning through difficulty. Those readings are not the literal meaning of the name, which is simply "need", but they are a fair extension of the Old English verse, with its turn from hardship towards help.

Is Naudhiz a "bad" rune?

That is a question from modern divination, which sorts runes into favourable and unfavourable. The medieval poems do nothing of the kind. They describe need as real and hard, and in the English case as something that can teach.

Naudhiz in jewellery

A Naudhiz motif can reference runic writing, the old word for need, or a personal reminder of hardship endured.

Take a look at the AURYN Naudhiz rune charm, or read our guide to all twenty-four runes.