Gebo upright
A gift, and the obligation that comes with it. Partnership, generosity and the balance of what passes between two people.
Rune 7 of 24 · Freyr's Aett
ᚷ Gebo rune meaning
Gebo rune meaning: a gift, and the obligation that comes with it. Its name is read as “gift, exchange”; it is rune 7 of 24, in Freyr's Aett, with the sound g. The shape looks the same upside down, so there is no reversed reading.
- Place in the row
- 7 of 24 Freyr's Aett, aett 1
- Sound
- g said GHEB-oh
- Rune poems
- 1 of 3 named gyfu
- Read as
- Gift, exchange from the rune’s name
Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems, 1915.
Gebo reversed
Gebo is symmetrical — turning it over changes nothing, so it has no reversed meaning.
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Where Gebo sits in the Elder Futhark
Gebo is rune 7, the seventh of the eight in Freyr's Aett, between Kenaz and Wunjo.
Position in the row7 of 24
AettFreyr's Aett
SoundG
Literal meaningGift, exchange
ElementAir
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 Gebo usually means when you draw it
Gebo, the gift, is about exchange and balance between people. It is traditionally read without a reversal and points to partnership and mutual obligation.
Gebo in love
One of the strongest partnership runes: giving and receiving in balance.
Gebo at work
Contracts, collaborations and fair exchange.
Advice
Give freely, and make sure the exchange stays fair.
Primary source
What the rune poems say about Gebo
In brief, the Anglo-Saxon verse praises generosity as a source of honor and as support for people who have nothing else to rely on.
“Generosity brings credit and honour, which support one’s dignity; it furnishes help and subsistence to all broken men who are devoid of aught else.”
Gyfu gumena byþ gleng and herenys,
wraþu and wyrþscype and wræcna gehwam
ar and ætwist, ðe byþ oþra leas.
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 Gebo. Where the three rune poems come from
Gebo in the three rune poems, side by side
Only the Anglo-Saxon poem has a verse for Gebo, and it is about generosity.
| Source | Name | The verse is about |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Futhark name (reconstructed) | Gebo | gift, exchange |
| Anglo-Saxon rune poem | gyfu | generosity |
| Norwegian and Icelandic poems | — | no verse: the Younger Futhark dropped Gebo |
Subjects in the words of Dickins’s 1915 translation; the first row is the modern reconstructed name and reading.
Calculated
Gebo by the numbers
Gebo turns up 16 times as the rune of the day in 2026, above the even share of 15.2 — joint 10th of 24 with 5 others. November is its busiest month, with 4. Its longest gap between draws, from April 27 to August 4, spans 99 days.
Position in the row
7 of 24
Odds of drawing it
1 in 24 · 4.17%
Rune of the day in 2026
16 times · 4.38%
Can be reversed
No
Days in 2026:
- Feb 19
- Mar 23
- Apr 10, 27
- Aug 4, 10
- Sep 9, 16
- Nov 13, 18, 24, 30
- Dec 6, 12, 19, 25
Which runes can be reversed, and how the daily draw is fixed →
What happened to it
Gebo after the Elder Futhark
In the Younger Futhark
Dropped entirely from the Younger Futhark. Its sound merged into kaun.
Worth knowing
Its X shape survives in modern use as a kiss at the end of a letter, which is a coincidence rather than a descent.
Gebo: deity, tree and element
Pronounced
GHEB-oh
Deity
Odin
Tree
Ash and elm
Element
Air
The poem above is a source; this table is a twentieth-century reconstruction.
How to type the Gebo rune
| Character | ᚷ |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+16B7 |
| Unicode name | RUNIC LETTER GEBO GYFU G |
| HTML | ᚷ or ᚷ |
Besides Gebo, the official name lists Gyfu, 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. “Gebo Rune Meaning: Gift, Exchange.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/runes/gebo/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Gebo Rune Meaning: Gift, Exchange |url=https://astrohot.com/runes/gebo/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}