Tiwaz
Tiwaz, the seventeenth rune and the first of the third aett: Tyr, the god who gave his hand. This page is the reference for the rune the poems read as justice.
What the rune poems say
The Old English poem reads Tiwaz as a guiding star that keeps faith with princes, ever on its course over the mists of night and never failing; the Norse poems name it Tyr, the one-handed god who gave his hand to bind the wolf. Read as a birth rune it is justice, honour, sacrifice for order, and a courage that keeps its word. It opens Tyr's aett, the eight runes of the human world.
The honest shadow is justice without mercy: a rigidity about rules, a martyrdom, and a sacrifice made where none was asked. The modern reading says Tiwaz must know what the hand was for.
The image
The spear, or the pole star. A single upward line with the point at the top.
The meaning, as the site reads it
Justice and the cost of it. Tiwaz is order maintained by someone willing to pay for it, and it carries the idea of a sacrifice made knowingly for a principle. It is the rune of the person who keeps their word when it has become expensive.
Born under it
You have a strong sense of what is right and an unusual willingness to bear the cost of it. You are dependable to the point of inconvenience. Others bring you disputes because they expect you to be fair rather than kind, and you generally are.
The shadow: Rightness pursued past the point of use. Self-sacrifice that nobody asked for and everybody now owes you for.
As an hour rune: Someone who is taken seriously immediately and not always warmed to.
The thinnest layer here, and we say so
The birth runes are a modern arrangement, and this site labels them as one.
The Elder Futhark is old; the calendar that lays its twenty-four runes over the solar year at fifteen degrees each is Nigel Pennick's, from the late twentieth century, and nothing in the rune poems ties Tiwaz to 26 February. We compute the half-month from the Sun's longitude rather than from a printed table, so the window moves by a day with the year: this year Tiwaz runs from 26 February to 13 March, from 7°30′ Pisces of the tropical zodiac. That makes the birth rune a reading of the same Sun the Western sun sign reads, at twice the resolution and with a fraction of the tradition behind it, and the page says so.
We keep it because the poems are worth reading and because a thin layer honestly labelled is more useful than a thick one dressed up. Where it agrees with the sun sign it shares a Sun with, that is arithmetic, not a finding.
About 60 seconds · the half-month needs your date, the hour rune your time
Questions people ask
What are the dates for Tiwaz?
26 February to 13 March in 2026, by the Sun's longitude; a printed table can be a day out either side, which is why a birth within a day of the boundary is flagged by the calculator rather than assigned.
Is the birth rune traditional?
No. The runes are, and the poems that read them are medieval; the calendar of half-months is a modern arrangement, and the site says so on every rune page rather than dressing it as ancient.
What is an hour rune?
The same twenty-four runes laid over the day, Fehu opening at half past twelve, one rune an hour. The calculator reads yours from your birth time, and the tradition behind it is the same modern one.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.