Gothic Letter Othal

It spells the long “o” sound in Gothic.

Gothic bishop Wulfila’s Bible translation was made in a script developed in the fourth century. Gothic script drew mainly on Greek, with its own letterforms; 𐍉 wrote the long o sound. Most surviving Gothic writing comes from biblical manuscripts dated to the fifth and early sixth centuries, so this is a spelling letter, not a standalone emblem.

Is 𐍉 the same as ᛟ?

No. They are separate signs, though scholars have proposed a historical link.

ᛟ is the Elder Futhark rune called Othala or Odal, associated with home, inherited property, and homeland. 𐍉 is a Gothic spelling letter for the long o sound; it has no standalone inheritance meaning.

How the letter arose is unsettled. Gothic script is based mainly on Greek, but scholars have proposed runic influence for some letters and Greek omega Ω as a model for this one. A handwritten record of Gothic letter names in a Salzburg-Vienna manuscript compiled around AD 798 resembles rune names, but a later copy cannot settle the letter’s origin.

Is 𐍉 a political symbol?

No political reading follows from this letter alone.

Nazi groups adopted ᛟ in the twentieth century; white-supremacist groups also used the rune, often in winged or serifed forms. That record belongs to the Othala/Odal rune tradition. If you write 𐍉 to represent Gothic, say so where readers might mistake it for ᛟ.