Rune 18 of 24 · Tyr's aett
Berkanan
“birch” · sound: b
Can be drawn reversed when reversals are on.
Historical evidence
Old English beorc and Norse bjarkan, the birch. The Norse poems praise its green leaves and young twigs; the Old English poem describes a tree (birch, or perhaps poplar) that bears no fruit yet sends up new shoots.
The name Berkanan is a modern reconstruction of the Proto-Germanic name; the Elder Futhark’s own names are not recorded.
In the rune poems (original texts)
Beorc byþ bleda leas, bereþ efne swa ðeah
tanas butan tudder, biþ on telgum wlitig,
heah on helme hrysted fægere,
geloden leafum, lyfte getenge.Bjarkan er laufgrønstr líma;
Loki bar flærða tíma.Bjarkan er laufgat lim
ok lítit tré
ok ungsamligr viðr
abies buðlungr.Original texts as printed in Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples, Cambridge University Press, 1915. Public domain. The summary above is Scryway’s own; no translation is reproduced.
Modern interpretation
From 20th-century and later divinatory practice, written for Scryway. Not a historical meaning.
Keywords: growth, renewal, care
Upright
New growth and nurture: a beginning, a family matter, or a project being carefully tended.
Reversed
Growth stalled, or care withheld. Worry about something fragile.