*Berkanan

Name	Proto-Germanic	Old English	Old Norse
	*Berkanan	Beorc/Berc	Bjarkan, Birkal
	"birch"	"birch"/"poplar"?	"birch"
Shape	Elder Futhark	Futhorc	Younger Futhark
Shape
Unicode	ᛒ U+16D2		ᛒ U+16D2	ᛓ U+16D3
Transliteration	b
Transcription	b
IPA	[β]	[b]	[b], [p]
Position in rune-row	18		13

This article contains runic characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of runes.

ᛒ is a rune that is transliterated as b or ƀ (β) in the Germanic Elder Futhark and the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc writing systems respectively, and as b or p in the Norse Younger Futhark.

Its reconstructed Proto-Germanic name is *berkanan, meaning "birch". While the reconstructed name may have varried historically, the sense of "birch" is uniform across all Runic traditions. In West Norse tradition (Norway, Iceland) it is called bjarkan, potentially also recorded as Danish Old Norse biercan in Codex Leidensis (10th c.),^[1] while the Old Swedish and Early Modern Swedish name is birkal (also birk, biørk/björk, "birch"; Dalecarlian: birke),^[2] the suffix -al assumed to mean "fruit of the tree" (compare Swedish: ekållon, Old High German: eihhila, "acorn"; Middle High German: büechel, "beech nut"),^[3] found in its Swedish rune poem, björkbrumar frodast ("birch buds most flourishing").^[2] In the Anglo-Saxon rune poem and manuscripts it is called beorc or berc ("birch" or "poplar"). The corresponding Gothic letter is 𐌱 b, recorded as bercna by Alcuin in the late 8th century (reconstructed proper form: *𐌱𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌺𐌰𐌽, *bairkan). Irish Ogham also uses "birch" for B (Old Irish: beith).

The letter shape is likely directly based on Old Italic 𐌁, whence comes also the Latin letter B.

The rune is recorded in all three rune poems:

Rune Poem:^[4]	English Translation:
Old Norwegian ᛒ Bjarkan er laufgrønstr líma; Loki bar flærða tíma.	Birch has the greenest leaves of any shrub; Loki was fortunate in his deceit.
Old Icelandic ᛒ Bjarkan er laufgat lim ok lítit tré ok ungsamligr viðr.	Birch is a leafy twig and little tree and fresh young shrub.
Old English ᛒ Beorc bẏþ bleda leas, bereþ efne sƿa ðeah tanas butan tudder, biþ on telgum ƿlitig, heah on helme hrẏsted fægere, geloden leafum, lẏfte getenge.	The poplar bears no fruit; yet without seed it brings forth suckers, for it is generated from its leaves. Splendid are its branches and gloriously adorned its lofty crown which reaches to the skies.

References

^ cod. leidensis lat. 4:o, 83
^ ^a ^b Bureus: Runakänslånäs lärä_spån (1599)
^ "birkal sbst". saob.se. Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB). Retrieved 2026-04-30.
^ Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.

This article about runes or other related topic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by adding missing information.

[1] . leidensis lat. 4:o, 83

[Bureus-2] Bureus: Runakänslånäs lärä_spån (1599)

[3] "birkal sbst". saob.se. Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB). Retrieved 2026-04-30.

[4] Original poems and translation from the Rune Poem Page Archived 1999-05-01 at the Wayback Machine.

[1]

See also

References