Dagaz upright
Breakthrough and transformation. The moment night becomes day — a change of state rather than a change of degree.
Rune 23 of 24 · Tyr's Aett
ᛞ Dagaz rune meaning
Dagaz rune meaning: breakthrough and transformation. Its name is read as “day, dawn”; it is rune 23 of 24, in Tyr's Aett, with the sound d. The shape looks the same upside down, so there is no reversed reading.
- Place in the row
- 23 of 24 Tyr's Aett, aett 3
- Sound
- d said DAH-gahz
- Rune poems
- 1 of 3 named dæg
- Read as
- Day, dawn from the rune’s name
Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems, 1915.
Dagaz reversed
Dagaz is symmetrical — turning it over changes nothing, so it has no reversed meaning.
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Where Dagaz sits in the Elder Futhark
Dagaz is rune 23, the seventh of the eight in Tyr's Aett, between Ingwaz and Othala.
Position in the row23 of 24
AettTyr's Aett
SoundD
Literal meaningDay, dawn
ElementFire
Can be reversedNo
Its shape is one of the 9 in the row that look the same after a half-turn, so an upside-down draw cannot be seen. It has no reversed reading here.
In a reading
What Dagaz usually means when you draw it
Dagaz is daybreak: breakthrough, awakening and transformation. It is symmetrical and cannot be reversed.
Dagaz in love
A new dawn in a relationship, or sudden clarity.
Dagaz at work
A breakthrough after a long effort.
Advice
Step into the new light and let the old night go.
Primary source
What the rune poems say about Dagaz
In brief, the Anglo-Saxon verse calls day a gift of light that brings hope and gladness to rich and poor alike.
“Day, the glorious light of the Creator, is sent by the Lord; it is beloved of men, a source of hope and happiness to rich and poor, and of service to all.”
Dæg byþ drihtnes sond, deore mannum,
mære metodes leoht, myrgþ and tohiht
eadgum and earmum, eallum brice.
Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 1915) — read the original text.
Both the original texts and the translations are from Dickins’s edition. The Norwegian and Icelandic poems cover only the 16 runes of the Younger Futhark, which dropped Dagaz. Where the three rune poems come from
Dagaz in the three rune poems, side by side
Only the Anglo-Saxon poem has a verse for Dagaz, and it is about day.
| Source | Name | The verse is about |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Futhark name (reconstructed) | Dagaz | day, dawn |
| Anglo-Saxon rune poem | dæg | day |
| Norwegian and Icelandic poems | — | no verse: the Younger Futhark dropped Dagaz |
Subjects in the words of Dickins’s 1915 translation; the first row is the modern reconstructed name and reading.
Calculated
Dagaz by the numbers
In 2026 the date-seeded draw lands on Dagaz only 15 times, under the even share of 15.2, which puts it joint 16th of 24 with one other rune. October is its busiest month, with 4. Its longest gap between draws, from October 29 to December 31, spans 63 days.
Position in the row
23 of 24
Odds of drawing it
1 in 24 · 4.17%
Rune of the day in 2026
15 times · 4.11%
Can be reversed
No
Days in 2026:
- Feb 6
- Mar 14, 28
- May 2, 9, 16
- Jun 17, 20
- Jul 11
- Sep 2
- Oct 1, 15, 22, 29
- Dec 31
Which runes can be reversed, and how the daily draw is fixed →
What happened to it
Dagaz after the Elder Futhark
In the Younger Futhark
Dropped from the Younger Futhark. The D sound was covered by týr.
Worth knowing
Its bowtie shape is nearly symmetrical, which is why it is usually read upright only.
Dagaz: deity, tree and element
Pronounced
DAH-gahz
Deity
Ostara
Tree
Spruce
Element
Fire
The poem above is a source; this table is a twentieth-century reconstruction.
How to type the Dagaz rune
| Character | ᛞ |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+16DE |
| Unicode name | RUNIC LETTER DAGAZ DAEG D |
| HTML | ᛞ or ᛞ |
Besides Dagaz, the official name lists Daeg, a name the same stave carries in another row or poem.
Copy the character, or paste the code into a web page; it shows wherever a font covers the Runic block, added in Unicode 3.0.
Sources
- Bruce Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 1915)
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Dagaz Rune Meaning: Day, Dawn.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/runes/dagaz/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Dagaz Rune Meaning: Day, Dawn |url=https://astrohot.com/runes/dagaz/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}