Upright
Travel and movement with a destination. The journey undertaken deliberately, and the rhythm of getting there.
Rune 5 of 24 · Freyr's Aett
ᚱ Raidho
Raidho is rune 5 of the 24 in the Elder Futhark, in Freyr's Aett, and carries the sound R. It means “Ride, journey”. Upright: Travel and movement with a destination. The journey undertaken deliberately, and the rhythm of getting there. Reversed: Disruption, delay, or a journey with no clear purpose. That reading exists for 17 of the 24 runes; the other 7 are symmetrical or read upright only.
Reversed
Disruption, delay, or a journey with no clear purpose.
Position in the row5 of 24
AettFreyr's Aett
SoundR
Literal meaningRide, journey
ElementAir
Can be reversedYes
Raidho is the 5th rune of the Elder Futhark and belongs to Freyr's Aett. Before it meant anything divinatory it was a letter, carrying the R sound.
Primary source
What the rune poem says
Riding seems easy to every warrior while he is indoors, and very courageous to him who traverses the high roads on the back of a stout horse.
— Anglo-Saxon rune poem, recorded around the 8th–10th century
Where the rune poems come from and why the medieval reading is often blunter than the modern one — explained once on the main page.
Calculated
Raidho by the numbers
Position in the row
5 of 24
Odds of drawing it
1 in 24 · 4.17%
Rune of the day in 2026
16 times · 4.38%
Reversed on those days
13%
Can be reversed
Yes
Of the 24 runes, only 17 have a reversed reading — 71% of the row. Four are symmetrical and cannot be turned over at all, and 3 more are conventionally read upright only.
The rune-of-the-day figures are exact rather than estimated. Our daily draw is derived from the date, so the whole year can be computed — which a site with a random draw cannot do.
Days it falls in 2026: 10 Jan, 3 Mar, 17 Mar, 13 Apr, 1 May, 15 May, 23 Jun, 6 Jul
What happened to it
Raidho after the Elder Futhark
In the Younger Futhark
Survived as reið, riding. One of the most stable runes across all three rows.
Worth knowing
Frequently found on rune stones commemorating men who died abroad.
Around 800 CE the 24-rune Elder Futhark contracted to the 16-rune Younger Futhark — fewer symbols for more sounds, at exactly the point the language was growing more complex. Eight runes were dropped outright. Which ones survived, and how they changed, is the closest thing to a documented history these symbols have.
Traditional associations
Pronounced
RY-though
Deity
Thor
Tree
Oak
Element
Air
Raidho sits in Freyr's Aett, position 5 of the row, and carries the R sound. Its literal meaning is ride, journey — which is where every later reading of it starts.
The poem above is a source; this table is twentieth-century reconstruction.