Perthro upright
Chance, secrets and what has not been revealed. The dice are still in the cup.
Rune 14 of 24 · Heimdall's Aett
ᛈ Perthro rune meaning
Perthro rune meaning: chance, secrets and what has not been revealed. Its name is read as “dice cup, the unknown”; it is rune 14 of 24, in Heimdall's Aett, with the sound p. Reversed: stagnation, or a secret that should have come out and has not.
- Place in the row
- 14 of 24 Heimdall's Aett, aett 2
- Sound
- p said PER-thro
- Rune poems
- 1 of 3 named peorð
- Read as
- Dice cup, the unknown from the rune’s name
Dickins, Runic and Heroic Poems, 1915.
Perthro reversed
Stagnation, or a secret that should have come out and has not.
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Where Perthro sits in the Elder Futhark
Perthro is rune 14, the sixth of the eight in Heimdall's Aett, between Eihwaz and Algiz.
Position in the row14 of 24
AettHeimdall's Aett
SoundP
Literal meaningDice cup, the unknown
ElementWater
Can be reversedYes
In a reading
What Perthro usually means when you draw it
Perthro is mystery, chance and what is not yet revealed. Its original meaning is uncertain, which suits a rune of the unknown.
Perthro in love
Hidden feelings or an unexpected turn.
Perthro at work
Risk, speculation or information not yet available.
Advice
Accept uncertainty and keep your options open.
Primary source
What the rune poems say about Perthro
In brief, the Anglo-Saxon verse is one of the most obscure: it seems to describe a game or pastime enjoyed among warriors in the hall.
“Peorth is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit blithely together in the banqueting-hall.”
Peorð byþ symble plega and hlehter
wlancum [on middum], ðar wigan sittaþ
on beorsele bliþe ætsomne.
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 meaning of peorth is unknown: Dickins suggests “the chessman”, with a question mark, so the name is left in Old English. The Younger Futhark dropped the rune, and neither Scandinavian poem has a verse for it. Where the three rune poems come from
Perthro in the three rune poems, side by side
Only the Anglo-Saxon poem has a verse for Perthro, and it is about peorth, a source of amusement.
| Source | Name | The verse is about |
|---|---|---|
| Elder Futhark name (reconstructed) | Perthro | dice cup, the unknown |
| Anglo-Saxon rune poem | peorð | peorth, a source of amusement |
| Norwegian and Icelandic poems | — | no verse: the Younger Futhark dropped Perthro |
Subjects in the words of Dickins’s 1915 translation; the first row is the modern reconstructed name and reading.
Calculated
Perthro by the numbers
Perthro turns up 17 times as the rune of the day in 2026, above the even share of 15.2 — joint 7th of 24 with 2 others. It lies reversed on 4 of them. June is its busiest month, with 3. Its longest gap between draws, from October 31 to December 22, spans 52 days.
Position in the row
14 of 24
Odds of drawing it
1 in 24 · 4.17%
Rune of the day in 2026
17 times · 4.66%
Reversed on those days
4 of 17
Can be reversed
Yes
Days in 2026:
- Jan 14, 23
- Feb 15
- Mar 7, 18
- Apr 17
- May 5
- Jun 4, 10 (rev.), 27 (rev.)
- Jul 9
- Aug 8 (rev.), 20 (rev.)
- Sep 26
- Oct 25, 31
- Dec 22
Which runes can be reversed, and how the daily draw is fixed →
What happened to it
Perthro after the Elder Futhark
In the Younger Futhark
Dropped from the Younger Futhark. Its meaning was already uncertain when the poems were written.
Worth knowing
The most disputed rune in the row — dice cup, chess piece and pear tree have all been proposed.
Perthro: deity, tree and element
Pronounced
PER-thro
Deity
Frigg and the Norns
Tree
Beech
Element
Water
The poem above is a source; this table is a twentieth-century reconstruction.
How to type the Perthro rune
| Character | ᛈ |
|---|---|
| Code point | U+16C8 |
| Unicode name | RUNIC LETTER PERTHO PEORTH P |
| HTML | ᛈ or ᛈ |
The Unicode standard names it Pertho, not Perthro, and its name also records Peorth.
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. “Perthro Rune Meaning: Dice Cup, the Unknown.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/runes/perthro/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=Perthro Rune Meaning: Dice Cup, the Unknown |url=https://astrohot.com/runes/perthro/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}