Runic letter Dagaz

It is a runic d, named for day in Old English.

Dagaz is a reconstructed Proto-Germanic name: scholars infer it from related words. The attested Old English name dæg means “day.” The rune appears in the earliest complete Elder Futhark row known, on the Kylver stone, a grave slab from Gotland dated around AD 400. Its row is carved on the underside, facing the body.

The d-rune continued in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc, an expanded runic alphabet used for Old English. The Old English Rune Poem was probably composed in the 8th–10th centuries. Its manuscript was lost in the 1731 Ashburnham House fire; a transcription printed in 1705 preserves the text. ᛞ also appears on the 10th-century Thames scramasax, a long, single-edged knife. In Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, it could stand for the whole word dæg as an abbreviation. The poem’s Christian reading calls daylight a gift from God, joyful, hopeful, and useful to everyone.

Does Dagaz have a fixed divination meaning?

No medieval divination reading is fixed for Dagaz.

Modern rune guides attach readings such as breakthrough, balance, or transformation to Dagaz. These are modern interpretations, not a documented medieval system for this rune; treat “new beginning” as the reader’s chosen symbolism.