Runes · Týr’s ætt
Tiwaz
Sound: t · The name: the god Tiw or Týr
- direction
- fairness
- keeping faith
What the old rune poems say
The Old English poem has the only rune stanza about a star: ‘Tiw is a guiding star; well does it keep faith with princes; it is ever on its course over the mists of night and never fails.’ Which star is meant is not known; the pole star and Mars have both been suggested. The Norse poems name the god instead: ‘Tyr is a one-handed god’, and the Icelandic poem adds ‘leavings of the wolf and prince of temples’.
How it is read today
Modern rune readers take Tiwaz as the rune of direction, fairness and courage. They draw on the one-handed god of the Norse poems and on the Old English guiding star that keeps its course through the night. The modern books speak of keeping faith, of doing what is right when it costs something, and of a fixed point to steer by. This is a modern reading.
Reversed
Modern books read it reversed as losing one’s bearings, or an unfair bargain. That is a modern device.
As your rune of the day
Pick one fixed point for today, a promise or a value, and steer by it.
Like the guiding star in the old poem, keep faith with one person today.
Reading runes as an oracle is modern, from Guido von List (1908) and Ralph Blum (1982); the people who carved them, Vikings included, used them for writing, names and charm words.