Rune Lexicon / Sowilo
Rune

Sowilo

Rune Sowilo  ·  Sound value S  ·  Hagals Ætt

Sun & Victory

Meaning & Interpretation

Sowilo is the sun, the victorious rune of success, vitality and clarity. It breaks through the fog and shows the goal within reach – energy and confidence are on your side. Let your light shine today; you have the strength to complete your undertaking.

Sowilo upright
Upright
The sun. Success, vitality, clarity and victory; the goal is within reach.
Sowilo reversed
Reversed / related

Name & Origin

‘Sowilo/Sól/Sigel’ is the sun. One of the few runes interpreted as wholly positive – light, victory, vitality.

In the Rune Poem

The Old Norse poem calls the sun ‘the light of the world’ and bows before its holy fate. The Old English praises it as the hope of seafarers, carrying them over the sea until they reach land.

Historical Use

For seafarers, the sun was orientation and rescue. Sowilo stands for victory, clarity and the unbroken power of light.

Good to Know

How important the sun was is shown by the Bronze Age ‘Trundholm sun chariot’ – the veneration of the sun’s course reaches back millennia in the North.