Perthro ᛈ

Perthro: destiny

There is no surviving rune poem for perthro in Icelandic or Norwegian.

Perthro is intrinsic to the Norse concepts of örlög and hamingja, though it is simplistic to describe these as ‘fate’ and ‘luck’. ‘Fate’ to the Norse was not predestination but could be the consequence or reward of past deeds, closer to the Sanskrit concept of karma. It is also called the ‘cup’, from which dice could be thrown, but hamingja was more of a blessing, or an entity, with connotations of divine intervention.  

Perthro is closely linked with the three Norns, the weavers of fates in Norse cosmology. It is the most mysterious of runes, a rune of divination.

In Blood of Wolves, the third of the Rune Song trilogy, perthro appears inverted in a rune cast. This warns of a crushing reversal or a betrayal.

For introductions to other runes, there’s a pull-down menu under the ‘Norse Runes’ tab. 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.