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Feoh begins and names the first of the three aettir. The beast of burden and by association the qualities that characterize cattle. ...an animal somewhat smaller than an elephant with the appearance, color and shape of a bull. They are very strong and agile, and attack every man and beast they catch sight of. The natives take great pains to trap them in pits, and then kill them. This arduous sport toughens the young men and keeps them in training; and those who kill the largest number exhibit the horns in public to show what they have done, and earn high praise. It is impossible to domesticate or tame the aurochs, even if caught young. The horns are much larger than those of our oxen and o quite different shape and appearance. The Germans prize them greatly; they mount the rims with silver and use them as drinking-cups at their grandest banquets.

When the qualities of the animal are abstracted it can be perceived that Ur meant an elemental masculine potency. Physically: strength, agility, and endurance. Emotionally: courage and boldness. Spiritually: freedom. Thus, that which can never be domesticated or enslaved/ The triumphant soul of nature. The shape of Ur is a horn or erect phallus.

This meaning is in direct contrast to that of the Feoh rune. Clearly the first two runes form a pair. A similar pattern runs throughout the alphabet and is useful in determining the shades of meaning of obscure runes. The pairs are not always opposite but always present a sharp contrast. The aurochs was synonymous with manhood. That it had a magical significance is suggested by the costly decoration and careful preservation of its horns, and also by the fact that although aurochs did not extend into Britain in historical times, the Anglo-Saxons retained the beast as emblematic of the rune. Perhaps, killing the aurochs was a rite of passage into manhood.

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MEANINGS:

 

UPRIGHT:

Wealth, possession of valuable objects, ownership, dominion over others through money, opulent lifestyle, personal luxury, increase in income, material display, extravagant spending, generosity, payment of debts.

 

REVERSED:

Greed, covetousness, hoarding, miserliness, stupidity, dullness, bondage to material things, subservience to others, slavery, cowardice, lack of vision, stolidness, a victim of circumstance.

 

KEY: POSSESSION