Gebo ᚷ

Gebo, ‘gift’.

There is no surving Icelandic rune poem for gebo, though Dr Aaron Hostetter of the Old English Poetry Project offers translations of Old English rune poems at:

https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/the-rune-poem/

The shape of gebo is a clue to its meaning; the joining of two forces or two people. Like kaunaz it has strong, sexual connotations, but whereas kaunaz speaks to  lust, gebo is the rune of love. It is the rune of giving, and the highest order of giving is the exchange of souls. It implies exchange, a gift for a gift, a commitment for a commitment, a heart for a heart.

For those using runes to understand the present or predict the future, an inverted/reversed rune implies the opposite meaning but there is no inversion to gebo, and no reverse meaning.

In Blood of Wolves, the third novel of the Rune Song trilogy, Adelais cuts gebo into a charm for a friend – with unintended consequences.

For introductions to other runes, there’s a pull-down menu here. More details about the Rune Song epic fantasy trilogy via my ‘books’ pages or on Amazon UK or Amazon.com. All books are published by Second Sky / Hachette and are available in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.