Runic Letter Yr

It wrote a rounded vowel in Old English.

Say “ee” with your lips rounded to approximate its sound. The rune is conventionally named yr; the Old English Rune Poem describes yr as a bow, praising it as graceful on horseback and sturdy on a journey.

That bow association belongs to the poem's stanza; it is not a universal symbolic definition.

How did ᚣ enter the Old English alphabet?

It was one of the extra signs in the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc.

The Futhorc was an expanded runic alphabet adapted for Old English, and ᚣ marked its rounded vowel. Germanic runic writing is attested from around 200 CE; inscriptions survive on weapons, tools, combs, jewelry, stones, and amulets, while the script's exact origin remains debated.

The Old English Rune Poem, a poem from the 9th century, is the clearest surviving written explanation of the rune's name.

Is ᚣ the death rune?

That later reading belongs to the separate Younger Futhark rune ᛦ.

In the 20th century, German occult and Nazi-era use paired ᛦ with upright ᛉ as a “death” mark opposite a “life” mark. Medieval Younger Futhark writing uses ᛦ as a letter; the life-and-death pairing is a later reinterpretation.