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The original meaning of this rune was probably apple tree. However Peord is one of the more obscure runes and no interpretation is certain. Various definitions have been proposed including pawn, chessman, dice box, table-game, and even penis. These speculations arise from the context of Peord in the Old English Rune Poem:

A table-game (?) is always a source of recreation and amusement to proud princes, where warriors sit happily together in the mead-hall. The definition of Peord as some form of game or gaming implement, even if generally correct in the context of the poem, is far removed from its first meaning. All runes once stood for natural objects or elemental forces. It was only when the runes were interpreted by settled societies that they became trivialized. For example, yew became yew-bow; cattle became wealth; the necessity to endure became feudal obligation.

However, if table-game is the degenerate meaning, a link may be formed with the first meaning of the rune-apple tree. Tacitus in his Germania mentions that the Germans divined by cutting twigs from fruit-bearing tree and carving runes on them. The most obvious fruit tree of the northern forests is the apple. History teaches that traditional forms of divination frequently degenerate into games of gambling. The Tarot devolved into common playing cards. Geomancy became dice. It is not unlikely that Germanic divination was reduced over time to a form of table sport-probably some form of draughts. If so, the runic name for the wood used in divination may have carried down to the game. All this is highly speculative. It is worth noting, however, that a scholar named Marstrander arrived at the same meaning for Peord through a separate philological route. He related the rune name Peord to the Irish name for apple tree, ceirt, and connected them with reference to the evolution of words.

A separate rune for the apple tree makes good sense. There are many tree runes. The apple has powerful magical and mythological associations: the apples of the Tree of Knowledge; the golden apple given to Venus by Paris; the apples if Idun by which the gods preserved their youth; the apples of Sodam; lovely to look upon, but ashes inside; the apples of Istkahor, sweet on one side and bitter on the other.

In Teutonic mythology, the apple seems to have been a beneficent symbol. The phrase "an apple a day keeps the doctor away" is still popular. However, apples are not without their ambivalent aspect. A fruit so luscious and seductive easily becomes a tool for evil. In the fairy tale Snow White, the wicked queen uses an apple to disguise her poison.

For the early Germans, Peord probably signified a Cornucopia of life and health. The shape is enclosing, like a cup tipped on its side. The apple was a pleasurable source of sustenance and therefore to be celebrated in Bacchanalian feasts. The negative connotations derive from the positive-too much celebration brings sickness the morning after. In this sense Peord is opposed to its paired complement Eoh, which is staid and frugal by nature. Both are tree runes, but markedly different associations. In the fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, Eoh might stand for the sign of the ant, and Peord for the sign of the grasshopper. Those who exude large amounts of Peord are fun to be around but undependable.

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MEANINGS:

UPRIGHT:

Luxury, abundance, lavishness, opulence, satisfaction, indulgence, pleasure, sensuality, love of excess and display, parties, celebrations, feasts, epicureanism, fun and games, gambling, conviviality, gregariousness.

REVERSED:

Gluttony, drunkenness, lustfulness, excess of pleasure, satiety, surfeit, revulsion, decadence, debauchery, perversions, drug addiction, search for illicit thrills, moral and physical decay, too much of a good thing.

KEY: PLEASURE