At a glance

• Sound: h
• Place: rune 9 of 24, the first rune of Heimdall's aett
• Also known as: Hagal, Hægl
• Keywords: hail, disruption, sudden change, necessary storm, transformation, ice and water, grain, uncontrollable forces

Lore and history

In the Norse rune poems, Hagalaz takes its name from hail, called the coldest of grain, a kind of ice that falls from the sky only to melt away into water. It stands as the first rune of Heimdall's aett (also called Hagal's aett), the second of the three aettir in the Elder Futhark, carrying the sound h. The poems do not describe hail gently: it was something that struck the fields from above, hard and sudden, and then was simply gone, leaving only water behind. That image, of a force arriving without warning and changing everything it touches before dissolving, is the heart of what the old carvers gave this rune.

In a reading

In modern rune practice, Hagalaz is the rune of the storm that cannot be bargained with, the upheaval that arrives whether or not we are ready for it. When it is drawn in a reading, many of us read it as a sign that disruption is already underway or close at hand, not as punishment but as a kind of clearing, the way hail flattens a field before new growth can come up through it. We work with Hagalaz to find steadiness inside sudden change, trusting that what feels hard and cold now is passing through on its way to becoming something else. In a casting, it often sits beside other runes as the force that breaks an old pattern open so a truer one can take its place.

No reversed form

Hagalaz's symbol is symmetrical, so unlike most runes in the Elder Futhark it has no reversed, upside down meaning when it is drawn.

Keep exploring

• Before it: Wunjo
• After it: Naudhiz
• All 24 runes