Mannaz

Human & Self

Meaning & Interpretation

Mannaz is humankind, the rune of the self, of reason and of community. It calls you to know yourself and at the same time to respect your place among people. True greatness shows itself in measure – know yourself, and be a reliable presence to your own.

Upright
Humankind. The self and the community, reason; know yourself and those close to you.

Reversed / related
Reversed, Mannaz warns of self-deception and isolation – a quarrel, or too much circling around oneself. Step back and honestly seek the view of others.

Name & Origin

‘Mannaz’ is the human – related to the German ‘Mann’ and the English ‘man’. The rune stands for the self, the community and the place of the human in the world.

In the Rune Poem

The Old Norse poem says soberly: ‘man is the joy of man’ – and also ‘the increase of the earth’. The Old English stresses how each is dear to the other, and yet each must one day leave the earth.

Historical Use

The human is conceived here not as an individual but as part of the kin. Mannaz reminds us that we first come to know ourselves in community.

Good to Know

The thought ‘man is man’s joy’ is found almost word for word in the Hávamál (stanza 47) – sociability as the highest good.