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Pertho
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Pronunciation: perth-oh
Literal Meaning: Unknown
Other Names: Perth, PeorÞ, Pertra
Phonetic Value: p
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| Rune Poems |
| Anglo Saxon |
PeorÞ byþ symble plega and hlehter wlancum, on middum, ðar wigan sittaþ on beorsele bliþe ætsomne. |
| PeorÞ dwells in the festival playing and boastful laughing, in the middle, of that place where warriors sit happily in the beerhall. |
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| Norwegian |
Not listed. |
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| Icelandic |
Not listed. |
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Pertho is the rune of luck, chance and merrymaking.
It is assumed that the name is derived from a foreign word, since P is not a phoneme that is often used in early Germanic languages, and it occurs even more rarely at the beginning of a word. Attempts to identify the origin of the character and isolate its phoneme, have included the Gothic pairþra meaning “pear tree”, and the Slavic pizda which is slang for female genitalia.
Neither are contextually correct in the rune poem, and the latter is rather graphic. The absence of a positive origin of the word has led researchers to attempt to identify its meaning. Most often the definition of pertho is parsed as a game piece or dice cup.
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A word on translation:
The verse is usually translated as:
"Peorð is a source of recreation and amusement to the great, where warriors sit happily together in the beerhall".
However neither the proposed meanings of the word nor the theoretical origins of the character function perfectly in context of the poem.
The translation listed was done by individually cross referencing each word in Old English dictionaries and then compiling meanings. These terms were then put back into the sentence keeping the punctuation intact. This led to a direct translation that appears to have slightly changed the meaning.
However the exact meaning and identity of the term is still unknown.
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