Mannaz upright
The self in relation to others. Community, shared humanity, and what you are within a group.
Rune 20 of 24 · Tyr's Aett
ᛗ Mannaz rune meaning
Mannaz rune meaning: the self in relation to others. Its name is read as “man, humanity”; it is rune 20 of 24, in Tyr's Aett, with the sound m. Reversed: isolation, self-deception, or expecting from others what you will not give.
- Place in the row
- 20 of 24 Tyr's Aett, aett 3
- Sound
- m said MAH-nahz
- Rune poems
- 3 of 3 named man · maðr
- Read as
- Man, humanity from the rune’s name
Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems, 1915.
Mannaz reversed
Isolation, self-deception, or expecting from others what you will not give.
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Where Mannaz sits in the Elder Futhark
Mannaz is rune 20, the fourth of the eight in Tyr's Aett, between Ehwaz and Laguz.
Position in the row20 of 24
AettTyr's Aett
SoundM
Literal meaningMan, humanity
ElementAir
Can be reversedYes
In a reading
What Mannaz usually means when you draw it
Mannaz is humanity — the self, others and community. It often asks how you see yourself and how you relate to people around you.
Mannaz in love
Mutual understanding and shared humanity.
Mannaz at work
Collaboration, networking and self-awareness in a team.
Advice
Remember your shared interests with others.
Primary source
What the rune poems say about Mannaz
In brief, the Anglo-Saxon verse says a person is dear to their kin, yet every life ends and each of us must eventually leave the others.
“The joyous man is dear to his kinsmen; yet every man is doomed to fail his fellow, since the Lord by his decree will commit the vile carrion to the earth.”
Man byþ on myrgþe his magan leof:
sceal þeah anra gehwylc oðrum swican,
forðum drihten wyle dome sine
þæt earme flæsc eorþan betæcan.
“Man is an augmentation of the dust; great is the claw of the hawk.”
Maðr er moldar auki;
mikil er græip á hauki.
“Man — delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships.”
Maðr er manns gaman
ok moldar auki
ok skipa skreytir.
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. Where the three rune poems come from
Mannaz in the three rune poems, side by side
All three poems agree: the verse for Mannaz is about man.
| Source | Name | The verse is about |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Futhark name (reconstructed) | Mannaz | man, humanity |
| Anglo-Saxon rune poem | man | man |
| Norwegian rune poem | maðr | man |
| Icelandic rune poem | maðr | man |
Subjects in the words of Dickins’s 1915 translation; the first row is the modern reconstructed name and reading.
Calculated
Mannaz by the numbers
Mannaz turns up 19 times as the rune of the day in 2026, above the even share of 15.2 — joint 3rd of 24 with one other rune. It lies reversed on 6 of them. January is its busiest month, with 3. Its longest gap between draws, from July 8 to September 4, spans 58 days.
Position in the row
20 of 24
Odds of drawing it
1 in 24 · 4.17%
Rune of the day in 2026
19 times · 5.21%
Reversed on those days
6 of 19
Can be reversed
Yes
Days in 2026:
- Jan 15 (rev.), 22 (rev.), 29
- Feb 14 (rev.), 28
- Mar 19, 25
- Apr 2, 16
- May 4
- Jun 26
- Jul 3, 8
- Sep 4
- Oct 7 (rev.), 13 (rev.)
- Nov 1, 15
- Dec 14 (rev.)
Which runes can be reversed, and how the daily draw is fixed →
What happened to it
Mannaz after the Elder Futhark
In the Younger Futhark
Survived as maðr, man, but the shape simplified drastically from a linked pair to a single branching stroke.
Worth knowing
The Icelandic rune poem calls man 'delight of man and augmentation of the earth and adorner of ships'.
Mannaz: deity, tree and element
Pronounced
MAH-nahz
Deity
Heimdall and Odin
Tree
Holly
Element
Air
The poem above is a source; this table is a twentieth-century reconstruction.
How to type the Mannaz rune
| Character | ᛗ |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+16D7 |
| Unicode name | RUNIC LETTER MANNAZ MAN M |
| HTML | ᛗ or ᛗ |
Besides Mannaz, the official name lists Man, 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. “Mannaz Rune Meaning: Man, Humanity.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/runes/mannaz/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Mannaz Rune Meaning: Man, Humanity |url=https://astrohot.com/runes/mannaz/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}