← The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark
Perthro
- Literal meaning
- lot cup
- Associated concepts
- fate · chance · the hidden
- Ætt
- Hagal's ætt
Perthro is the rune with no certain meaning: no related word survives in any other Germanic language to anchor its sense. The Anglo-Saxon rune poem only places it in a scene of games and laughter, warriors sitting together in the beer hall; from that alone, 'dice cup' has been proposed, but it's a guess, not a fact. It's the one rune in the futhark whose real name was lost.