Editing Algiz (section)

== Name ==
The Elder Futhark rune {{runic|ᛉ}} is conventionally called ''Algiz'' or ''Elhaz'', from the [[Common Germanic]] word for "[[moose|elk]]".{{cn|date=April 2024}}

There is wide agreement that this is most likely not the historical name of the rune, but in the absence of any positive evidence of what the historical name may have been, the conventional name is simply based on a reading of the rune name in the [[Anglo-Saxon rune poem]], first suggested by [[Wilhelm Grimm]] (''Über deutsche Runen'', 1821), as ''eolh'' or ''eolug'' "elk".

Like the [[Ingwaz rune|''ng''-rune]], the ''z''-rune is a special case inasmuch as it could not have been named acrophonically, since the sound it represents did not occur in word-initial position. Choosing a name that terminates in ''-z'' would have been more or less arbitrary, as this was the nominative singular suffix of almost every masculine noun of the language. Since the name ''eolh'', or more accurately ''eolh-secg'' "elk-sedge" in the Anglo-Saxon rune poem represents not the rune's original sound value, but rather the sound of Latin ''x'' (/ks/), it becomes highly arbitrary to suggest that the original rune should have been named after the elk.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

There are a number of speculative suggestions surrounding the history of the rune's name. The difficulty lies in the circumstance that the Younger Futhark rune did not inherit this name at all, but acquired the name of the obsolete [[Eihwaz]] rune, as ''yr''. The only independent evidence of the Elder Futhark rune's name would be the name of the corresponding [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic letter]], ''ezec''. The Gothic letter was an adoption of Greek [[Zeta]], and while it did express the /z/ phoneme, this Gothic sound only rarely occurred terminally. Instead, it is found mostly in positions where West and North Germanic have ''r'', e.g. Gothic ''máiza'' "greater" (Old Norse ''meira'', English ''more'').{{cn|date=April 2024}}

The name of the [[Anglo-Saxon runes|Anglo-Saxon rune]] {{runic|ᛉ}} is variously recorded as ''eolx, eolhx, ilcs, ilx, iolx, ilix, elux''.<ref name="griffiths">Alan Griffiths, 'Rune-names: the Irish connexion' in: Stoklund et al. (eds.), ''Runes and their secrets: studies in runology'', Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006, pp. 93-101.</ref>

Manuscript tradition gives its sound value as Latin ''x'', i.e. /ks/, or alternatively as ''il'', or yet again as "''l'' and ''x''". The reading of this opaque name as ''eolh'' "elk" is entirely due to the reading of the Anglo-Saxon rune poem's {{runic|ᛉ}} secg as ''eolh-secg'' (''eolx-secg'', ''eolug-secg'', ''eolxecg'') "elk-sedge", apparently the name of a species of sedge (''[[Carex]]''). This reading of the poem is due to Wilhelm Grimm (1821), and remains standard. The suggestion is that this compound is realized as ''eol'''k-s'''ecg'', thus containing the Latin ''x'' (/ks/) sound sequence. The manuscript testimony that the rune is to be read as ''il'' would then be simply a mistaken assumption that its name must be acrophonic.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

The name of the corresponding Gothic letter ''ezec'', however, suggests that the old name of this rune was not just ''eolx'', but the full ''eolh-secg''. This is puzzling, because the sound value of the rune was clearly not /ks/ in the Elder Futhark period (2nd to 4th centuries). Furthermore, the name of the sedge in question is recorded in the older [[Epinal-Erfurt glossary]] as ''ilugsegg'' (glossing ''papiluus'', probably for ''papyrus''), which cannot be derived from the word for elk.<ref>Bruce Dickins, ''Runic and Heroic Poems of the Old Teutonic Peoples'', Cambridge, 1915, p. 17, note 41.</ref>

A suggestion by Warren and Elliott takes the Old English ''eolh'' at face value, and reconstructs a Common Germanic form of either ''*algiz'' or ''*alhiz''. They cite a "more fanciful school" which assumes an original meaning of "elk" based on a theonym ''[[Alcis (gods)|Alcis]]'' recorded by Tacitus (suggesting that the name would have been theophoric in origin, referring to an "elk-god"). The authors dismiss the Old English "elk-sedge" as a late attempt to give the then-obsolete rune a value of Latin ''x''. Instead, they suggest that the original name of the rune could have been Common Germanic ''*algiz'' ('Algie'), meaning not "elk" but "protection, defence".<ref>Ralph Warren, Victor Elliott, ''Runes: an introduction'', Manchester University Press ND, 1980, 51-53.</ref>

Redbond (1936) suggested that the ''eolhx'' (etc.) may have been a corruption of ''helix''. Seebold (1991) took this up to suggest that the name of the rune may be connected to the use of ''elux'' for ''helix'' by [[Notker the Stammerer|Notker]] to describe the constellation of [[Ursa Major]] (as turning around the celestial pole).<ref name="griffiths"/>

An earlier suggestion is that of [[Julius Zacher|Zacher]] (1855), to the effect that the earliest value of this rune was the labiovelar /hw/, and that its name may have been ''hweol'' "wheel".<ref>Julius Zacher, "Die rune eolh" in: ''Das gothische Alphabet Vulfilas und das Runenalphabet'', Brockhaus, 1855, 72-120.</ref>