This is a guide to the Elder Futhark runes used for protection, what each one guards against, and how to draw, carve, wear, and combine them into a protection bind rune.
The protection rune is Algiz ᛉ, and if you only learn one rune in your life, that is the one to learn. But the Elder Futhark has twenty-four runes, and at least seven of them are used for protection in one way or another, each guarding a different kind of thing: Algiz for the person, Othala for the home, Thurisaz for the fence, Tiwaz for the fight, Eihwaz for the long haul.
This page gives you all of them, ranked by how often they're used, with the honest history behind each one and the ways people actually work with them. It ends with a method for drawing a protection bind rune of your own. For any single rune, the link in its section goes to a full page on that rune alone.
What a Protection Rune Is
A rune is a letter of the oldest Germanic alphabet, the Elder Futhark, and a protection rune is one of those letters used as a charm: drawn, carved, or worn so that the meaning of the letter guards the thing it's put on.
The runes were a real alphabet from about the second century onward, used for names, ownership marks, and memorials on stone, bone, and wood. They were also, from the start, understood to carry power. The Norse poem Sigrdrífumál lists runes to carve for victory, for healing, for safe birth, and for calm seas, and it tells the hero to cut them on a sword hilt and name the god Tyr twice. That is a protection rune in use, a thousand
years ago.Each rune has a name, and the name is a thing in the world: an elk, a thorn, a yew tree, a god, a homestead. When you use a rune for protection, you are asking that thing to stand between you and harm. The rune is the door you knock on.
If you're new to runes altogether, the Elder Futhark overview covers all twenty-four before you come back here.
Protection Runes at a Glance
The table below lists every rune on this page with its name, what it guards against, and where people put it.
| Rune | Name | Meaning | Guards against | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ᛉ | Algiz | Elk, elk-sedge | Unseen harm of every kind | Worn, drawn on the body, carved on doors and candles |
| ᛟ | Othala | Inherited land, the homestead | Harm to home and family | Doorframes, the hearth, the deed drawer |
| ᚦ | Thurisaz | Thorn, giant | Attack, intruders, people who push | Thresholds, fences, the outside of a door |
| ᛏ | Tiwaz | Tyr, the god of law and courage | Fear, losing, being wronged | Weapons, tools, the right hand, the chest |
| ᛇ | Eihwaz | Yew tree | Death, exhaustion, the long siege | Worn, carved on a staff, drawn for endurance |
| ᚢ | Uruz | Aurochs, the wild ox | Weakness, illness of the body's strength | Worn, drawn on the body |
| ᛁ | Isa | Ice | Harm in motion, an enemy who won't stop | Drawn to freeze a situation |
| ᛊ | Sowilo | Sun | Darkness, despair, what hides | Worn, drawn where light is needed |
Four of these, Othala, Algiz, Tiwaz, and Sowilo, were appropriated by the Nazis and are still used by hate groups, and there is a section below on what that means before you wear one.
Algiz ᛉ, the Protection Rune
Algiz is the protection rune of the Elder Futhark, and it is the one every practitioner learns first and reaches for most. It is drawn as a vertical stroke with two branches rising from the top, the shape of elk antlers, or a hand held up with fingers spread, or a person standing with arms raised to the sky.
Its name means "elk," and the Anglo-Saxon rune poem calls it eolh-secg, elk-sedge: a marsh grass with edges that cut anyone who grabs it. That is where the protective reading comes from. Algiz is a thing that defends itself by being dangerous to take hold of, and when you wear it, you borrow that quality.
Algiz is also the rune of connection upward. The raised arms reach toward the gods, the higher self, the guardian, and the protection it gives is understood to come from above rather than from you. That is why it is drawn over beds, on the crowns of heads, and at the top of doorways: it invites something to watch over.
Use it anywhere. Draw it on your skin with a fingertip before a hard day. Carve it into a white candle and let it burn down. Trace it on the doorframe with salt water. Wear it on a cord. Hang an Algiz piece at the door. Algiz was also misused by Nazi Germany as the "life rune," and the section on runes and hate groups below explains what that means for wearing it. The full Algiz page covers its meaning in a reading, its reversed meaning, and its lore.
Othala ᛟ, Protection for Home and Family
Othala is the rune for protecting a home and the people in it, and it is drawn as a diamond with two legs trailing from the bottom, like a house with a path leading away.
Its name means inherited property, the land that passes from parents to children, and by extension everything that belongs to a family: the house, the name, the ancestors, the people at the table. As a protection rune it draws a boundary around all of that. Carve or draw it on the inside of the front doorframe, on the underside of the kitchen table, on the box where the important papers live, or on the hearth if you have one.
Othala is the rune to add to a family bind rune, and it is the one to draw when the threat is to the household rather than to you alone.
Othala also carries a warning that every rune worker needs to hear before wearing it. The Nazis took this rune as part of their invented "Aryan" heritage, two Waffen-SS divisions wore it as their insignia, and white supremacist groups in Europe and North America have used it on flags, tattoos, and logos ever since. Its meaning of home and lineage was twisted into a claim about blood. That history does not belong to the rune, and it does not belong to you, but it is real, and a stranger seeing Othala on your skin may read it that way. The section on runes and hate groups below says what to do about it. The Othala page has the full meaning and its own caution.
Thurisaz ᚦ, the Thorn Hedge
Thurisaz is the rune for keeping things out, and it is drawn as a vertical stroke with a triangle jutting from its right side, like a thorn on a stem.
Its name means "giant" in Old Norse and "thorn" in Old English, and the Anglo-Saxon rune poem says a thorn is sharp and evil to touch. Thurisaz is not a gentle guard. It is a hedge of blackthorn around the thing it protects, and it is used at the edges: the property line, the outside of a door, the gate, the last step before someone reaches you. Where Algiz asks for watchfulness, Thurisaz promises that anyone who pushes will get hurt.
Because it is a rune of force, most practitioners use it for the boundary rather than the body, and pair it with Algiz so that the defense has a guardian as well as a thorn. Draw it facing outward, with the thorn pointing away from the house. The Thurisaz page explains its reversed meaning, which matters here, because a reversed Thurisaz is a thorn turned inward.
Tiwaz ᛏ, Courage and the Victory Rune
Tiwaz is the rune of Tyr, the god who put his hand in the wolf's mouth so the wolf could be bound, and it is drawn as an arrow pointing straight up.
Tyr is the god of law, oaths, and the kind of courage that costs something, and his rune is the one Sigrdrífumál names as the victory rune: carve it on the hilt and the blade, the poem says, and name Tyr twice. It protects by making you the kind of person harm goes around. Where Algiz guards and Thurisaz fences, Tiwaz stands up.
Draw Tiwaz on the back of your right hand before a confrontation, on the tool you use to make your living, or over your chest when you need to hold a line. Some practitioners draw three of them in a row, the triple Tiwaz, for a fight that will take a while. Tiwaz is one of the runes hate groups have taken up, and the section below covers that. The Tiwaz page has the lore and the reading meanings.
Eihwaz ᛇ, the Yew and the Long Haul
Eihwaz is the protection rune for endurance, and it is drawn as a vertical stroke with a short hook at the top pointing right and one at the bottom pointing left, like a bow.
Its name is the yew tree, the wood bows were made from and the tree that stands in churchyards and grave-fields across Northern Europe because it lives for a thousand years and is poisonous in every part. The yew is protection by outlasting. Many rune workers also read Eihwaz as the World Tree, Yggdrasil, the axis that holds the worlds in place while everything else moves.
Use Eihwaz for the siege rather than the ambush: a long illness in the house, a legal fight that will take a year, a job you have to hold through a bad stretch. Carve it on a walking stick or a wand, wear it, or draw it on the inside of your wrist. The Eihwaz page covers the rest.
Uruz, Isa, and Sowilo, the Supporting Runes
Uruz, Isa, and Sowilo are not protection runes in the strict sense, but each is used for protection in a particular situation, and each shows up in protection bind runes often enough to belong here.
Uruz ᚢ is the aurochs, the wild ox, and it is the rune of raw physical strength and vitality. It protects the body from the inside, and it is drawn or worn when what you need guarded is your own strength. The shop's Uruz amulet is a pewter version of it, and the Uruz page has the full meaning.
Isa ᛁ is ice, a single vertical stroke, and it is used to freeze. When something harmful is in motion toward you, a rumor, a campaign, a person who won't stop, Isa is drawn to stop it where it stands. It is a binding rune more than a guarding one. The Isa page explains when to use it and when not to.
Sowilo ᛊ is the sun, drawn as a lightning-bolt zigzag, and it protects by lighting up what hides. It is the rune to draw when the danger is something you can't see yet, and it is the traditional companion to Algiz in a bind rune for protection with clarity. Never draw two of them side by side as lightning bolts; that doubled form is the SS insignia, and the section on hate groups below explains it. The Sowilo page covers it.
The Helm of Awe and the Icelandic Staves
The Helm of Awe is a protection stave rather than a rune, and it belongs to Iceland's magic books of the 1600s rather than to the Elder Futhark, but it is made of Algiz-like arms and it comes up in every search for protection runes, so it belongs on this page.
The Helm, Ægishjálmur in Icelandic, is eight arms radiating from a center point, each arm ending in a fork and crossed by three bars. Its name appears in the Poetic Edda as a thing the dragon Fáfnir wore that made his enemies afraid. The drawn symbol is later, from Icelandic grimoires, where it was to be drawn on the forehead before facing an enemy so that they would lose their nerve. It is a symbol for walking into a fight, and it is worn and tattooed for exactly that.
The Vegvísir, the eight-armed wayfinding stave from an 1860 Icelandic manuscript, is its cousin, and it protects travelers from losing their way. Neither was carried by Vikings, and both are still good. If you want the wider family of protection symbols, Norse and otherwise, the protection symbols guide has twenty-seven of them.
Runes and Hate Groups: What to Know Before You Wear One
Four of the runes on this page, Othala, Algiz, Tiwaz, and Sowilo, were taken up by Nazi Germany and are still used by white supremacist groups today, and anyone who wears or displays them should know that before they do.
This is not a reason to give the runes up. It is a reason to know the history, so that you can carry them with your eyes open and answer honestly if someone asks. Here is the record, drawn from the Anti-Defamation League's hate symbol database and from Wikipedia's entries on each rune, which are linked below.
- Othala ᛟ was adopted by the SS as a symbol of "blood ties within the Aryan race," worn as divisional insignia by Waffen-SS units, and given serifs the SS called "feet" or "wings." It has been used by white supremacists on flags, banners, tattoos, and group logos since the war, and it is the most heavily appropriated rune of the four (ADL entry).
- Algiz ᛉ, which the Nazis called the "life rune," was the emblem of the SS Lebensborn program, and it was later put into the logo of the neo-Nazi National Alliance, after which it spread through white supremacist groups. Its upside-down form was the Nazi "death rune" (ADL entry).
- Tiwaz ᛏ was the badge of the Nazi leadership schools and the insignia of an SS division, and extremists still favor it because of its reputation as the warrior rune (ADL entry).
- Sowilo ᛊ, doubled, became the lightning-bolt emblem of the SS in 1933, and that doubled form with flattened ends is still one of the most common neo-Nazi tattoos (ADL entry).
The same database says, in each entry, that these runes are also used by non-racist pagans and rune workers and that context decides what a symbol means. That is true, and it is the ground this page stands on: the runes are a two-thousand-year-old alphabet, they belong to everyone who honors them, and the twelve years of the Third Reich do not get to own them. Rune workers, heathens, and witches have been reclaiming these letters for decades, and every honest use pushes back against the dishonest ones.
What to do with that, practically:
- Don't wear the hate versions. Never draw Sowilo doubled as lightning bolts. Avoid the angular, winged Othala with feet turned outward, which is the white supremacist form. Draw the runes in their plain Elder Futhark shapes and draw them the right way up.
- Keep them in runic context. A rune among other runes, on a rune set, in a bind rune, on an altar, reads as what it is. A single Othala or Tiwaz alone on a jacket reads differently to a stranger who knows the other history, and you should decide with that in mind.
- Be ready to explain. If you wear Algiz or Othala, know the history well enough to say, in a sentence, what it means to you and what it was stolen for. That sentence is part of the reclaiming.
- Don't buy from people who mean the other thing. Rune jewelry is sold by heathen artisans and it is sold by hate groups. Look at who is selling before you buy.
The links above go to Wikipedia's entry on each rune and to the ADL's entry on each hate symbol, if you want to read the sources. The Othala page on this site goes deeper on the one that needs it most.
How to Use Runes for Protection
To use a rune for protection, you draw it, carve it, or wear it on the thing you want guarded, and you say its name out loud as you do it. That is the whole method, and everything below is variation.
- Draw it. With a fingertip, in oil, in salt water, or invisibly in the air over a bed or a door. Say the rune's name as you draw it. This is the everyday way and it takes five seconds.
- Carve it. Into a candle, a piece of wood, a bar of soap, the underside of a table. Traditionally runes were carved and then reddened, with ochre or, in the sagas, blood. A red pen is the modern version and it is enough.
- Wear it. A pendant, a ring, a rune drawn on a card in your wallet. The Norse wore Thor's hammer this way; the shop's Norse Pride talisman is the same idea in pewter.
- Chant it. The old word is galdr: singing or intoning the rune's name, drawn out, while you hold or draw it. Algiz is sung as a long "ahl-geez." Three times is traditional.
- Cast it. If you keep a rune set, pull Algiz from the bag, hold it, and set it where the protection is needed for the night. The black agate set is a dark, grounding one for exactly this.
- Renew it. A drawn rune fades; redraw it when it does. A worn one is recharged by holding it and naming it. The full moon is a good schedule and so is any night you feel the need.
How to Make a Protection Bind Rune
A bind rune is two or more runes drawn overlapping so that they share a stroke and become one figure, and a protection bind rune combines Algiz with a rune for the specific thing you're protecting. Here is the method.
- Choose Algiz plus one or two more. Algiz is the base. Add Othala for the home and family, Thurisaz for a boundary against a specific person, Tiwaz for courage in a fight, Eihwaz for a long ordeal, Uruz for the body, or Sowilo for clarity. Two or three runes is the limit; more than that turns into a scribble.
- Find the shared stroke. Most runes have a vertical stem, and the bind rune is built by drawing all of them on one stem. Algiz's stem with Othala's diamond sitting on it, or Algiz with Tiwaz's arrowhead at the top, are the two most common protection binds.
- Draw it until it's one shape. Draw it a dozen times on scrap paper. Turn runes sideways or upside down if it helps the figure, as long as you know which is which. Stop when you can draw it from memory in one motion.
- Name the runes into it. Draw the final version slowly, and as you draw each rune's strokes, say that rune's name aloud. Then say what the bind is for, in one plain sentence. That is the charge.
- Put it where the protection is needed. Carve it into a candle and burn it, draw it on the doorframe, on the back of a pendant, on a card in the wallet, or on skin. Redden it if you can. Redraw it when it fades.
Bind rune generators exist online, and they'll give you a shape, but a bind rune made by a website has not been named or charged by anyone. Draw your own. The shop's chime candles are the usual carrying surface, and Diana Paxson's Taking Up the Runes is the book to read if you want to go deeper into bind runes and galdr.
Is There a Celtic Protection Rune?
There is no Celtic protection rune, because runes are Germanic and Norse, and the Celtic peoples wrote in a different script called Ogham. The two get confused constantly, and the confusion is worth clearing up because the answer is more interesting than the question.
Ogham is an alphabet of strokes cut along the edge of a standing stone, used in Ireland and western Britain from about the fourth century. Each letter is named for a tree, and the trees carry meanings the way rune names do: Oak for strength, Hawthorn for a boundary, Rowan for protection. If you want a Celtic protective letter, Rowan in Ogham, Luis, is the closest thing to Algiz, and a rowan cross tied with red thread is the older Celtic protection charm that goes with it. The Celtic symbols that are actually for protection, the triquetra, the shield knot, and Brigid's cross, are on the protection symbols page.
Protection Runes and Protection Sigils
A protection rune is an inherited letter with a thousand years of meaning behind it, and a protection sigil is a symbol you make yourself from your own written intention, so the rune borrows everyone's belief and the sigil uses only yours.
Both work, and many practitioners use both: a rune at the door for the house and a sigil in the wallet for the thing nobody else needs to know about. A bind rune sits between the two, because it uses inherited letters in a shape that is yours alone. The sigil how-to covers the sigil side. And if something has already gotten past your guards, the egg cleanse takes it off before the rune goes back up.
Protection Runes FAQ
What Is the Rune for Protection?
The rune for protection is Algiz ᛉ, the fifteenth rune of the Elder Futhark, drawn as a vertical stroke with two branches rising from the top. Its name means "elk," and it has been the first protection rune in every rune-reading tradition of the last century.
What Is the Norse or Viking Rune for Protection?
The Norse rune for protection is Algiz, which was part of the Elder Futhark used across Scandinavia and Germany from the second century. In the Viking Age itself, Thor's hammer worn as a pendant was the everyday protection charm, and the rune carved for victory was Tiwaz, the rune of Tyr.
What Is the Most Powerful Protection Rune?
The most powerful protection rune is Algiz on its own, and the most powerful protection working is a bind rune of Algiz with the rune for the thing you're protecting: Othala for home, Tiwaz for courage, Thurisaz for a boundary.
What Rune Protects the Home and Family?
Othala ᛟ protects the home and family, because its name means the inherited homestead and everything that belongs to it. Draw it inside the front doorframe, or bind it with Algiz for a household guard.
What Rune Protects From Evil?
Algiz protects from evil in the general sense, and Thurisaz is added when the evil has a direction, a specific person or force pushing at you. Sowilo is added when the harm is hidden and you need it lit up.
Is There a Rune for Love and Protection?
The rune for love and protection is a bind of Algiz with Gebo ᚷ, the rune of the gift and of partnership, or with Wunjo ᚹ, the rune of joy. Algiz with Berkano ᛒ, the birch, is the protective bind for a mother and child.
What Is a Bind Rune?
A bind rune is two or more runes drawn overlapping on a shared stroke so that they form one figure, and it combines the meanings of its runes into a single charm. Bind runes appear in real runic inscriptions, and they are the standard way to make a rune working specific to you.
Can I Use a Bind Rune Generator?
You can use a bind rune generator to see how two runes fit together, but the result hasn't been named or charged, so it is a picture rather than a working. Draw the final version by hand and say the rune names as you draw it.
How Many Runes Are in a Set?
A rune set has twenty-four runes, the full Elder Futhark, and most modern sets add a twenty-fifth blank stone, so the usual count is twenty-five. The blank is a modern addition and some rune workers leave it out.
Are Protection Runes Good Tattoos?
Protection runes are among the most common Norse tattoos, and Algiz, Tiwaz, and the Helm of Awe are the three people choose most. Before any rune goes on your skin, read the section on runes and hate groups above: Othala, Algiz, Tiwaz, and Sowilo all have a Nazi and white supremacist history, and a tattoo can't explain itself to a stranger. Draw the plain Elder Futhark form, keep Algiz branches-up, and never double Sowilo into lightning bolts.
Are Runes Hate Symbols?
Runes are not hate symbols; they are a two-thousand-year-old alphabet that Nazi Germany appropriated and that white supremacist groups still use, so four runes in particular, Othala, Algiz, Tiwaz, and Sowilo, appear in the ADL's hate symbol database with the note that non-racist pagans use them too. Know the history, use the plain forms, keep them in runic context, and be ready to say what they mean to you.
What Does Reversed Algiz Mean?
Reversed Algiz, drawn with the branches pointing down, means the protection is gone or turned: vulnerability, a guard dropped, a warning to look at what you've left exposed. In a cast it is a reading rather than a curse. On a tattoo or a door it is a mistake, so draw it branches up.
How Do You Activate a Protection Rune?
You activate a protection rune by drawing or carving it with attention, saying its name aloud as you do, and putting it where the protection is needed. Reddening the carved rune is the old way of sealing it, and a red pen does the job now.
Pick Algiz. Draw it on the doorframe tonight and say its name. That was a complete act of protection a thousand years ago, and it still is.
